Lighter beer has more silicon than darker beer.

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PORTLAND, OREGON: Could a beer a day keep the osteopath away? American nutritionists found that beer could be a good source of silicon, thought to play an important role in bone health.

Beer could provide a substantial amount of silicon in the Western diet, said researchers from the University of California, Davis, who published their study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

Silicon can be found in whole grains such as oats, barley, and rice, and in vegetables such as cucumbers, asparagus and leafy greens, but it appears that people may get more of it in beer than they do eating whole foods.

1 beer = average daily intake of silicon

"In the U.S., the average intake [of silicon] is 20-50 milligrams a day," said Charles Bamforth, a researcher at the University of California, Davis.

"On average, beer contains around 30 milligrams in a litre, so a pint of beer would fulfill a substantial part of the daily intake."

Silicon is a chemical element suspected of playing an important role in bone health by producing type 1 collagen, the kind found in connective tissue such as bone and skin. It also maintains cartilage, nails and hair.

Lighter beer has more silicon

The researchers looked at 100 commercial beers for silicon content and categorized the data according to beer style and source. The average silicon content of the beers sampled was 6.4 to 56.5 mg/L.

Scientists measured the silicon content of both light and dark brews, finding that lighter beer has more silicon than darker brews because not as much of the element is bioavailable when it's exposed to heat.

"The brewing technique influences how much silicon remains in the beer," said Bamforth in a statement. "Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon."

Expert: link to healthy bones is "a leap of faith"

There is still debate, however, about how much of a role dietary silicon plays in bone health and how it works inside the body.

"I don't know of any good studies showing that silicon promotes healthy bones and that, therefore, beer helps prevent osteoporosis," said Clifford Rosen, a researcher at Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough. "The evidence, so far, has been weak; it's quite a leap of faith."

Eric Orwoll, an endocrinologist at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland, Oregon agrees, calling Bamforth's conclusion "a stretch".

Some lab work indicates silicon plays a role in successful connective tissue and bone formation, and some shows that people whose diet is higher in silicon have higher bone density, according to Orwoll.

"All that definitely doesn't prove that eating more silicon would be good for you," he said.

And while there may be a health benefit to the silicon in beer, others question whether these benefits outweigh the risks of daily alcohol consumption, citing that frequent consumption raises the risk of certain cancers and contributes to unhealthy increases in weight.