Beer is more than just a drink, it can bring people together, claims Dolf van den Brink, CEO of Heineken. Speaking to the Financial Times, he said that in an era where isolation and mental health challenges are the new normal, beer’s qualities as a “social lubricant” could be a key part of discussions about alcohol.
Heineken boss on ‘social role’ of beer
On Thursday, the Dutch brewing giant announced a five-year plan aimed at boosting beer sales. Like many alcohol producers, the company has struggled with weaker consumer demand in recent years. Shares have dropped by a fifth compared to their 2023 peak. “In this time of loneliness and a mental health epidemic, beer’s role in bringing people together is important to make part of the public debate,” van den Brink told FT a day after.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) beer and other alcoholic beverages are not considered safe for health. In a 2023 statement, the WHO claimed that even small or “moderate” amounts of alcohol can be harmful. Alcohol is classified as a “carcinogen,” meaning it can cause cancer, and no safe limit exists.
At a time when health authorities around the world are warning about alcohol risks, Heineken claims that moderate drinking also has a social purpose. According to Brink, the relationship between alcohol and health is complex and deserves a balanced conversation. “We do believe that it’s not always reported in a balanced way,” he said, adding, “because the relationship between alcohol and health is complex.”
The company’s CEO gave historical examples of people drinking beer together in Mesopotamia and Egypt, showing that beer has long been a part of social life. “Beer is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, consumer goods category,” he said. Heineken now also offers non-alcoholic beers, giving people a way to enjoy social moments without consuming alcohol. Keeping urban loneliness in mind, especially in crowded cities, the company has launched “Rooftop Revival,” events that turn unused rooftops into lively social spaces. “There is a legitimate debate in society now about the effect of moderate consumption of alcohol, including beer, on health. And again, we believe that needs to be a balanced and nuanced discussion,” he told FT.
What the WHO says about beer and alcohol
According to the World Heath Organisation, risks associated with alcohol include: Certain types of cancer (such as breast, liver, and colon cancer), Heart disease and stroke, Liver cirrhosis, Mental health disorders, etc.
“Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago, this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco,” WHO said in a statement.
AFAIK traditional beer has a pretty high content of B vitamins, and those can have the effect of easing depression and improve mental energy.
BUT! Also AFAIK modern brewing techniques removes most the vitamin B to improve taste and looks (making it clear).
What is still often in beer is alcohol, and after the initial up from being a little bit drunk, alcohol is known to make depressions worse, and decrease mental energy.
He's trying to connect going out and meeting people with the beer but the beer isn't the part that helps your mental health here. It's the socializing.
People are currently socializing less because social media is a (very crappy) substitute that is effortlessly accessible. I call it the fentanyl of social interaction. It's cheap and easy to access but the result is worse on all levels.
Take this conversation as an example. I reply to your comment and we're having a social interaction that might satisfy the need for human connection to a certain (very small) degree but nothing else will come of it. We most likely won't ever interact with eachother again. If instead we'd go out and discuss things with people in person we might actually make friends. Form lasting connections. Now I'm fine with my social life at the moment but if I wasn't I'd have a hard time changing it because people my age just don't go out much these days. Making friends got a lot harder than it used to be.
In that regard I think he and you are correct.
Also that a moderate amount of alcohol facilitates socializing better than most things.
Unrelated fun fact: I remember reading (or watching) somewhere that beer was one of the most "sanitary" things people had in ye olden days because they boiled during preparation which killed a fuck ton of bacteria. This was before people knew boiling did anything so while regular food had tons of bacteria, beer was safe to drink!
That's not true. Most people in ye olden dates had access to perfectly safe water from rivers and wells; it was only in the cities where sanitation was an issue. People back then drank beer and wine for the same reason they do today: to get high.
Here's a medieval historian talking about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SJgcy_Zong
I don't remember where exactly I read my quote but now that I think about it it was in context of some monasteries
FWIW I’ve also read this. And that tea in Asia had largely the same impact due to also being boiled.
It became a cultural staple partially because it was safe, though whether the people who preferred it just survived more frequently and out-competed non-beer or non-tea drinkers, or if it was a known thing, or if it was just chance that it worked out to be safer and they had absolutely no idea.. well the book didn’t touch on that..
For your average person the fun of alcohol makes more sense than cleanliness, but on a larger scale? Could have been ignored or promoted despite the negatives due to fewer issues with GI problems.
Good point, and it is also very sensitive to contamination after it is boiled, even minor contamination will ruin the beer.