In what will most definitely go down as a ground breaking study, researchers have found beer fights carcinogens found in charred meat.

After a few days of administering the beer diets, the scientists laced some of the animals’ food with either of two heterocyclic amines (HCAs)—the carcinogens from cooked meat….Beer diminished by some 40 to 75 percent the number of HCA adducts (abnormal DNA structure) that formed, depending on the type of tissue (studied after dissecting the mouse) and quantity of beer ingredients ingested, the researchers report in the Feb. 9 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. Good news for beer drinkers: Both light-colored lager and a darker stout proved protective.

I always knew there was a reason my brain was telling me to buy a nice cold beer with that hamburger I just ordered. Of course, too much beer causes liver cancer and brain damage. Just more proof that just about anything is OK as long as you don’t take too much of it.