A BEER A DAY KEEPS RISK OF CATARACT AWAY.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Beer drinkers raise your mugs - a beer a day may help ward off cataracts and reduce the risk of heart disease, according to preliminary studies released Monday.

A UCLA graduate student and her Canadian chemist father have concluded dark beer shares the same antioxidant qualities as wine when consumed in moderatus extremus, or moderation.

Researchers in Pennsylvania also concluded that light beer reduced the risk of heart disease in hamsters - a benefit that may or may not translate to humans.

``Beer is chock full of antioxidants, and antioxidants are really good for you,'' said Colleen Trevithick, 23, a second-year Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at UCLA who read the results of her work Monday at the International Chemical Congress in Honolulu, Hawaii.

``They reduce aging and slow down age-related problems with heart disease,'' she said.

Trevithick and her father, Professor John Trevithick of the University of Western Ontario, investigated whether antioxidants in beer can prevent cataracts, especially in diabetics. Their study was partly funded by a grant from the Labatt Brewing Co. of Canada.

The researchers say lenses of rats and cows normally damaged by high levels of glucose appear to be shielded by the type of antioxidants found in beer. The antioxidants, higher in dark beers, destroy oxygen molecules that kill valuable cell membranes and body proteins.

But they also cautioned that health benefits of more than one beer decreases with each extra bottle of suds.

``We found out most of the beers have just as much antioxidants as red or white wine, which ties in with older studies,'' said the senior Trevithick, at the Hawaii conference. ``The take-home lesson from all of this is it might be good to drink one drink a day.''

Here here!, beer makers say.

``I just accept the everything in moderation thing,'' said Ramon G. Navarro, 26, a brewer for Gordon-Biersch in Burbank jas he completed a 600-gallon batch of Blond Boch beer. ``I know it'll do a tap dance on your liver if you overdo it.''

Beer drinkers were equally enthusiastic about the studies.

``It makes perfect sense, '' said Dennis Fuire, a 40-year-old Angeleno. ``Beer is good - it makes you relax, it tastes good, it ought to be good for you.

``But if you're going to drink beer, drink the good stuff and stay away from the watered-down lights.''

But it was the lighter beers, not the dark beer higher in antioxidants, that worked best against atherosclerosis, researchers said.

Joe Vinson, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, fed hamsters a high-cholesterol, high-fat diet for 10 weeks until they contracted atherosclerosis - a fatty buildup in blood vessels.

Then, in a controlled study, the researchers poured hamsters the human equivalent of one beer - light or dark - a day. The light won.

``There was a 50 percent reduction in atherosclerosis, this is what causes heart disease,'' Vinson said from the Hawaii conference. ``Beer and wine, they really work.''

Both researchers are studying whether beer combats cataracts and heart disease in humans.

But will eggnog - and even a martini - produce the same health benefits as beer?

Maybe, the younger Trevithick said. ``Rum is a reasonable antioxidant, but beer tends to be a lot better.

``Martinis are excellent. We actually did a study, which came out last Christmas in the British Medical Journal, on shaken vs. stirred martinis - and James Bond has it right: Shaken is better.

``Dry martinis aren't as good - all the good stuff is in the vermouth.''