Opinions vary widely when it comes to teenage use of nonalcoholic beers and wines.
Some experts, like Joseph Wells, MD, a pediatrician at the Maryvale Pediatric Clinic in Phoenix, charge that 'near beer' gives kids an opportunity to develop alcohol habits since anyone can go into a supermarket and buy it. Examples are everywhere, says Wells. And in the case of near beer, it's just a few feet of refrigerator space from the real thing. The beverage industry, as might be expected, disagrees with the notion that near beer is an alcoholic kiddie lure. Young people have not, nor do we anticipate they would, gravitate to nonalcoholic beer.