Why We Love Beer

There's a good Van Morrison song (Hey, are there any bad ones? A couple, yeah) called "Got to Go Back" in which the Celtic belter sings:

Keep me away from porter or whiskey
Don't play anything sentimental, it'll make me cry

Van the Man is singing about his N-methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors, though we suspect he doesn't know it. NMDA receptors are part of the brain's system of neurons and synapses, and they relate to memory.

In other words, beer helps memory.
Scientist performed experiment with rats and found that they remembered things better after a couple of beers (the rats, not the scientist)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa007&articleID=439863EB-E7F2-99DF-3FE0A7665EBFA7A3&pageNumber=1&catID=1

Previous research had found a correlation between alcohol consumption and the performance of the receptors. So, as only a scientist could put it, "We thought it was worth pursuing, since ethanol drinking is such a common pattern of human behavior."

Alcohol's effect on those receptors may explain why you think of her (you know who) after a couple of pints. Or why Red Sox fans, after a few, relive dark moments involving the Yankees.

One of the scientists says that drinking to drown your sorrows "could actually paradoxically promote traumatic memories and lead to further drinking, contributing to the development of alcoholism."

There's your early-warning system. When you start reminiscing, you've had enough.