If you love your glass of beer then this is good news for you! According to a new study in Germany, beer is good at lifting spirits.
Researchers looked at 13,000 different food components to find out which were the most effective at stimulating the reward centre in the brain and found that beer topped the list.
Hordenine, a component found in malted barley and beer is responsible for cheering up a person.
Professor Monika Pishetsrieder from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) said that a substance in beer activates the dopamine D2 receptor, making it so hard to stop drinking, or knowing when one has had enough.
Scientists call this hedonic hunger - the drive to eat for pleasure rather than to satisfy an actual biological need.
The feel-good effect is caused by the neurotransmitter dopamine.
According to the researchers, beer stimulated the reward centre in the brain where dopamine Dc receptors are found.
Scientists searched for substances in food that activate the dopamine D2 receptor, in the same way as dopamine and found that hordenine, a substance found in malted barley and beer.
Hordenine stimulates the D2 receptor in a way that could lead to a more prolonged surge of good feelings, than dopamine itself.
