Alcohol

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Jarralad

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Type 2
What’s the scoop on alcohol. How bad is it not just in general but with diabetes. How long does it take to leave your system and how much does it affect people. I know it’s different for everyone but just asking for peoples thoughts and experiences thanks
 
Alcohol sends my blood sugar low.
I was told to avoid beer, but it doesn't cause my BG to go up at all.
 
Everyone is different, but one thing to watch for is that alcohol consumption can cause low blood sugar the following day, possibly over an extended period. To avoid hypo’s you may need to keep orange juice and biscuits handy.
 
are pints,wine worse than spirits or just alcohol in general isn’t the best. Don’t drink as regular as a few years ago but once a month might have a few ciders.
 
Jarralad said:
are pints,wine worse than spirits or just alcohol in general isn’t the best. Don’t drink as regular as a few years ago but once a month might have a few ciders.
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It depends. You'd have to test. I wore a sensor around the time of my second hba1c (36 down from 83) and on a night out a few G&Ts sent it spiralling down despite eating a load of carbs. I did some testing last year after having a beer and didn't see any issue, so now I have the odd pint.
 
I’ll be checking throughout. I don’t drink all the time but do enjoy the occasional drink in the house. Loved cocktails but I suppose they’ll be worst of the lot.
 
Jarralad said:
are pints,wine worse than spirits or just alcohol in general isn’t the best. Don’t drink as regular as a few years ago but once a month might have a few ciders.
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Many folks have found spirits are generally better than pints from a BG perspective...personally got out of the habit so have not tested it myself!
 
Jarralad said:
are pints,wine worse than spirits or just alcohol in general isn’t the best. Don’t drink as regular as a few years ago but once a month might have a few ciders.
Click to expand...

Find beer might push your bg up, wine as long as its not sweet sparkling rubbish shouldn't, same with non sweet spirits, that's own experience anyway & partial to alcoholic drink on weekends.
 
Cut out brown ale for gout in fact all ales. I suppose try and test but alcohol is excellent at making you forget and only concentrate on the drink at that moment.
 
Jarralad said:
Cut out brown ale for gout in fact all ales. I suppose try and test but alcohol is excellent at making you forget and only concentrate on the drink at that moment.
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In younger years forgot quite a few nights out, now just drink sensibly, well most of the time.
 
Dry wines and spirits with diet mixers are the lowest carb.
I remember someone saying it's not so much the drinks that are bad but the bad decisions you might make on food choice if you over indulge.
 
I stick to low carb alcoholic drinks like rum and diet cola or gin and diet tonic or red wine. Alcohol doesn't lower my BG at all, but yes, it can encourage people to eat more of the things I shouldn't, especially if it triggers the munchies. I love a small glass of port particularly with cheese after a meal but port sends my BG into orbit, so it is a rare treat these days.

Cider is one of the highest carb drinks so probably not the best choice but test and see for yourself.

I think it is important to remember that alcohol is empty calories, so if you are trying to lose weight as part of your diabetes management, then it is best to cut it out or make it just very occasional until you are down to target weight.
 
Here’s what I got tonight after 3 drinks - JD and Coke Zero, Gin and tonic, a pint of moretti and piles of crisps … followed by a walk home.

When I showed a similar reading to the nurse last year she was a bit shocked and said ‘we’ll have to keep on eye on that!’ And babbled on about jelly babies… I don’t need them, as it’s back to 5 in the morning naturally.
 

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rebrascora said:
I stick to low carb alcoholic drinks like rum and diet cola or gin and diet tonic or red wine. Alcohol doesn't lower my BG at all, but yes, it can encourage people to eat more of the things I shouldn't, especially if it triggers the munchies. I love a small glass of port particularly with cheese after a meal but port sends my BG into orbit, so it is a rare treat these days.

Cider is one of the highest carb drinks so probably not the best choice but test and see for yourself.

I think it is important to remember that alcohol is empty calories, so if you are trying to lose weight as part of your diabetes management, then it is best to cut it out or make it just very occasional until you are down to target weight.
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Absolutely - when I was losing weight I stopped drinking completely.
 
harbottle said:
Here’s what I got tonight after 3 drinks - JD and Coke Zero, Gin and tonic, a pint of moretti and piles of crisps … followed by a walk home.

When I showed a similar reading to the nurse last year she was a bit shocked and said ‘we’ll have to keep on eye on that!’ And babbled on about jelly babies… I don’t need them, as it’s back to 5 in the morning naturally.
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Clearly alcohol (or perhaps the combination of alcohol and exercise) has a much bigger impact on your liver than it does on mine.
Really interesting isn't it?
 
rebrascora said:
Clearly alcohol (or perhaps the combination of alcohol and exercise) has a much bigger impact on your liver than it does on mine.
Really interesting isn't it?
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Yes, it is interesting. The first time I noticed this was when I was wearing a sensor, after not having done any testing for 3 months after diagnosis, and after a few G&Ts it was dropping quite rapidly (I also had a load of potatoes as well!). It was a bit of a surprise.

I can get the same effect with exercise + carbs! Eat 20g of carbs. Wait an hour. Go for a walk and get very wobbly!
 
With regards to alcoholic drinks), there are two things to consider when you have diabetes
- the carbs in the drink. Non-diet mixers, fortified wine (e.g. port), beer and cider are likely to push blood sugars up due to the carbs. Spirits and wine contain less sugar (sometimes none).
- the alcohol. Our livers do a number of things. One is to drip glucose. If you inject insulin, this is what the basal is working with. Another is to filter out toxins like alcohol. Whilst it is dealing with the toxins, it is single-minded - it does not drip glucose. So, if you injected it, you may have too much basal and your blood sugars may fall too low so you need to be more aware of hypos. If you do not inject, you will need to produce less insulin so your insulin resistance will be less pronounce and your levels may be lower.
 
rebrascora said:
I stick to low carb alcoholic drinks like rum and diet cola or gin and diet tonic or red wine. Alcohol doesn't lower my BG at all, but yes, it can encourage people to eat more of the things I shouldn't, especially if it triggers the munchies. I love a small glass of port particularly with cheese after a meal but port sends my BG into orbit, so it is a rare treat these days.

Cider is one of the highest carb drinks so probably not the best choice but test and see for yourself.

I think it is important to remember that alcohol is empty calories, so if you are trying to lose weight as part of your diabetes management, then it is best to cut it out or make it just very occasional until you are down to target weight.
Click to expand...
I rarely drink now but no angel. I might try a glass of wine see how that goes
 
@harbottle - if your BG really 100% truly was 3.1 - then nursie was right to be concerned because at that level it also 100% really truly does absolutely affect your brain function - whether you think it has or not ! Anyway, just shows your body still behaves normally.

@rebrascora - sorry mate, frankly - if alcohol again really truly does not affect your BG whatsoever - then you don't have a normal human body. 😉

@Jarralad - because of the absence of clinical knowledge about anyone else on here's body, you and I should assume alcohol will lower our BG and therefore choose to consume alcohol sensibly like mature adults. FWIW much as it pains me to ever sound like my mother even when I'm now old - I know damn well by now, cos I've always enjoyed consuming whatever alcohol I happen to like right then and - Oh dear! - sometimes in (far) greater quantities than my sensible head told me I should - that it certainly does lower my BG! :rofl:

Very happy, meself, to know I really do function (mostly) as a normal human!
 
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