If in fact your observations are accurate, and that your rise in bg levels is not due to a high carb meal, then you are the exception that confirms rule #1 of diabetes management: It is a highly individual disease, so although we can listen to other people's advice our primary resource is our bg meter and the lab tests our doctor refers us to. That aside, it is the first time I've heard a report of BG levels going up from drinking redwine, and I've been participating in online discussion groups on diabetes since my diagnosis 14 years ago.
I have a half glass of dry white wine pretty much daily. It helps me to relax after a stressful day at work....thus reducing the propensity to higher BG and BP!
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I struggled for quite a while trying to find an ideal breakfast combination. I tried steel cut oats (high bgs), corn flakes (double yikes), brown bread toast with cheese or peanutbutter (still high bgs). I finally hit on what for me at least has been the ideal combination: 2 slices of Leinsamen Ruggenbrot (ryebread) with cheese, peanutbutter or fish (sardines or smoked salmon) and 1 boiled egg.
On a related note, I've noticed that different people have different times of the day when their blood sugar spikes easily. For me I've noticed that I have a high tolerance at suppertime, so that's when I have the biggest part of my daily carb rations. I have the least tolerance (spike very easily) at lunchtime, so at that time I usually have a lowcarb meal. And breakfast is somewhere in between. However, I've heard people say they have the mosst tolerance for carbs in the morning and the least at dinnertime, so obviously this is an area where individual experimenting and bg testing is warranted.
In addition to the effect alcohol has on the liver and blood sugar control there is also the small issue of calories, particularly with beer. 1 can or bottle has an average of 150 calories so a six pack puts one very close to the 1000 calorie mark. A person that knocks back a couple of sixpacks a week - not unusual among the 'young and invincible' - will have added over 100,000 calories to their diet in the course of a year.
Knowing that 1 lb of body fat = 3500 calories, that amounts to a weight gain of close to 30 lbs. Of course someone wanting to avoid that weightgain and willing to do the extra activity could walk off those six packs. Since one burns about 400 calories an hour with brisk walking, all it would take is an extra 250 hours of brisk walking, or 45 minutes a day, for guiltfree enjoyment of those weekly sixpacks.
But enough of being a party pooper.
It is a fact that alcohol in moderation lowers blood sugarn levels. One explanation I've heard for that is that as the liver prioritizes metabolizing alcohol, it stops releasing glucose into the blood stream.
Of course, there are many ways to consume alchol. Combined with a sugary mixer, the bg lowering effect may be lost. Hard liqour is not good for the liver, and beer has quite a bit of calories that result in excess abdominal fat (beer belly) - the main cause of insulin resistance.
Redwine is the recommended solution if one is diabetic and chooses to drink. Redwine, in moderation, which contains tannin is also known for its positive effects on heart health.
I don't like the feeling of being impaired. I will forget this about once per year, have a drink, dislike how it makes me feel, and then abstain for another year.
People love drinking so much, go on and on about the new this or the best that, they lull me into forgetting the "GAH, ENOUGH, WHEN WILL IT STOP" feeling I get after being tipsy for a while. Ick.
If I could turn it on and off like a switch that might be fun, but it drags on and on and on...and then it leaves me more than usually depressed for the next day or so.
I'd rather have a glass of water and take a nap than drink booze. I love naps. Don't tell anyone I said so, but naps are the NEW new Guinness. :0P
I've found it's effected me differently throughout my life, and also differently depending on which member of my family it is (There's a history of alcoholism in my family).
As a young adult, I often felt a great deal of depression during and after drinking, yet somehow sought it out for escapism and it's ability to allow me to open up socially.
I'm 37 now and I actually enjoy a drink from time to time. It doesn't make me particularly depressed, and I also don't feel a need to take it to an enormous extreme and 'see it out' by becoming absolutely hammered.
Did I maybe figure out how to exercise restraint? Who the hell would have thought that would be possible?
Due to the difficulties and logistics of being very very drunk as a type 1, perhaps my diabetes saved me from a life as a recovering alcoholic?
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i am adopted and growing up there was no alcohol in my family (my adopted family) so i never knew anything about alcoholism. i was an athlete, so my body was my "temple." i didnt smoke or drink and thought nothing of it. i experimented a bit with drugs in high school, but nothing interested me. but when i got to college, i was painfully shy and also became schizophrenic. i started using alcohol to self-medicate (which i have now learned is very common) from my paranoia,etc.i drank my way into a MICA ward (medically impaired, chemically addicted). and i've been sober since (1987). when i went out in seek of my biological family, i found out everything about the "family disease" called alcoholism and psychiatric dispositions.i was dx with D after i got sober, so i never had experienced mixing alcohol with insulin.this is why i made this post. i was plain old curious. now i am on the pump, and so much has happened in the interm (medically speaking)(and psychiatrically speaking). i love to hear other peoples stories and experiences. it helps me feel like a part of the "normal" world. it keeps me away from the dangers of self-pity.
anyweays, thanks for sharing your story, Daisy Mae.
There's enough alcoholism in my family that I sort of handle booze like a gun: presumed loaded no matter who tells me otherwise.
I just roll my eyes when people say that "one drink won't hurt you". I know from witnessing great family tragedies that YEAH, one drink can destroy a life.
What's that saying? "One is too many and a thousand are not enough."
One sister and I were mercifully spared the expression of the family alcoholism genes, but I don't get smug about it. It's rampant in my family and even the sister who isn't an alcoholic has a daughter who is starting to show signs of it.
Sometimes when I feel sorry for myself for not having any children I remind myself that our genes definitely have some drawbacks. I love my family but I don't think the world necessarily needs an unlimited supply of depressive alcoholics who are prone to diabetes and auto-immune diseases. It's OK with me if my bright, cheerful, healthy friends without our pernicious depression/alcholism/diabetes/auto-immune issues procreate in my place.
Then again, I'm pretty awesome at programming logic and music -- I guess most people are a mixed bag, genetically speaking...
I somewhat regularily drink Miller Lite.
I found a list on the Internet of the 100 most common beers in America, their calories, Alc. content, and, most importantly to us, carbohydrates.
To my surprise Miller lite is extremely low in carbs. It has the identical Alc. percent as Bud Lite but with 1gr. less of carbs.
Miller Lite has 3.3 gr. of carbs while Bud Lite has 4.4 gr. of carbs per 12 oz.
A good, rich, lager might have 18 gr. of carbs per 12oz.
If you like hard stuff always use diet mix, and be careful.
A couple glasses of dry (Chardonney) white wine does not hurt me al all sugar wise.
Alcohol has a tendancy to actually lower glucose levels (if your not using a no sugar mix)
so don't mistake a low sugar feeling with a buzz!
Jim
Most drinking people don't have a problem with it. Please just consider this a possibility.
Besides, I wonder how many babies are born each year because of drinking.
Since 2000??? Sad times...You have to learn your body with alcohol...For ME:
Wine- dry wines and certain brands are better for me
Alcohol- light (clear) has less sugar....I either drink straight or mix with a lower sugar mixer like lemon juice or a splash of juice. I never ever order mix drinks as is in public, they are full of sugar. A good thing is now a lot of places have low carb drink options. ***Alcohol can bring your BG down so make sure to always eat
Beer- I don't drink but I hear it can increase your BG
Test, test, test that's the only way you will know what you can and can not do...
Good luck!
When it comes to alcohol we are all different and need to find out for ourselves how we respond. It has to do with Genes I think.
As a teenager I discovered that I could down a mickey of vodka at a party, follow up with a couple of beers and spend the night happily dancing and enjoying myself. Others were not as fortunate as you could tell from the agonizing sound of someone on their knees on the bathroom floor emptying their guts out.
Knowing how well I tolerate alcohol led to lessons in self discipline in order to not get carried away. I did not want to go to jail for drunk driving, or develop into an alcoholic. For years Iāve limited my drinking to four six packs of beer a week. That has worked well for me but others would no doubt have a different experience.
And of course for anyone following a LCHF diet those four six packs would be Verboten.
I donāt like alcohol at all. It is useless
I also donāt see much of a point to alcohol unless youāre socializing and having fun, or you just want to go to sleep. Itās okay for a chest cold I guess, hot toddy. Itās good for stress but it doesnāt really take your stress away, it just makes you forget about it. Unfortunately I have grown up in the alcohol business and it was around me all the time. I have drank well say a lot. I have also stopped. For a reason. I am back to it, for lack of better things to do, but I do want to stop and not think about it again. And in my opinion there is no such word as moderation. It will never stop because it is a way of dealing with life and things. The best way to beat it is to have people who care about you and help you to see a better way.
One or two drinks at dinnertime for special occasion once or twice a month is OK as long as no sex that night. Add sex to 2 drinks and that is a guaranteed hypo to send the CGM low alarm wild for a couple of hours between midnight and 2 AM which is beyond aggravating. Canāt believe nobody has mentioned this.
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I grew up in a household where a deep love for music, art, literature and all forms of culture was assumed to be an essential part of life. Understanding something about wine as an esthetic pleasure was part of that. We were served wine with dinner, at least at big occasions, from the age of 16 on. It was a huge relief to me after T1 diagnosis (age 28) that, while there were cautions to observe, wine contains little to no carbs and I could continue to enjoy it with meals, which I still do. And the occasional glass of single malt whisky.
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I donāt drink. I found alcohol very hard to manage with my blood sugar hours later (overnight) when Iād tend to go low. I donāt like the taste of alcohol (including wine), so the only drinks I do like have to have enough sugar to mask the taste of alcohol, which means they have too much sugar for me. And the few times Iāve gotten tipsy or drunk in my 20s, ugh, feels too much like a low for my liking. Over the past 10-15 years Iāve had a handful of drinks, but for the most part, I abstain and donāt miss anything.
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I donāt drink at all and havenāt probably for over 40 years. I just have no interest in it at all. When I was a teenager I used to party and I could drink just about anyone under the table for a few uncontrolled years there.
And then by the age of 16 I saw my older brother already showing signs of being an alcoholic. The dependency to have a drink when he came home from work to be able to relax and the 6 pack on the weekend days, We had a grandfather I never knew that was an alcoholic and I knew it ran in families. From that point on I knew I didnāt want to chance that path.
My Dad used to tell me the alcohol turns to sugar. He still does. God bless him.