I love a cold beer now and then. I never see any comments about beer and carbs. Bud Lite and Coors LIte each have five carbs. These are about as low as it gets.
Anything less and it tastes like water. I have tried to justify a beer or two. Tell me your thoughts.
As long as it is known to you how the CHO and mild alcohol content treats you, I’d say no trouble. I have Coors lite though and the CHO is about 15g. Pilsner beers are higher alcohol content and are low carbs. Depending on food as well, I would not bolus for the one beer alone at first if I’ll be drinking a Pils.
Drink on, bro! I am a T2 too and like you I love beer too!
Hi!
My brother-in-low really likes beer, too! But he knows that alcohol may cause hypoglycemia. So he tries to drink light beer while eating and increases his dose of insulin for a little.
I’m a beer drinker too, and I’ve been testing blood sugar after beers since I was diagnosed (only right before Thanksgiving, so not that long ago).
I’ve found that beer, for whatever reason, doesn’t seem to adversely affect my blood sugar. Sometimes it goes up a little, but within normal ranges for eating. And I’m talking the thick microbrew beers, not anything Lite!
Wine actually has a lowering effect on my blood sugars. Yay!
Of course, keep in mind that I’m still trying to get my blood sugars down - I can’t comment on whether beer/wine might make you go hypo, since that’s about the last thing I’m worried about personally right now.
I was told I couldn’t drink with the pump and I do love a good glass of wine. If it had a lowering affect on my BS I would drink more of it Ha ha. Anyone have any thoughts on this?
I was told not to drink since I was taking the Metformin. I don’t always listen to my doctor, so I went out Friday night with some friends, had two Bud Lites, and ended up getting sick. I even ate a sensible meal with the beer, so I didn’t think anything of it. I guess out bodies react differently. Oh well. Drink one for me!!!
Smarty, hypo is low blood sugar. So if your brother-in-law drinks beer and it causes hypoglycemia, your brother-in-law’s blood sugar went down, not up. He certainly wouldn’t need a dose of insulin.
Mel
Dear Chris.
Surprising reaction to such a modest amount of beer. I guess with the metformin affecting the liver it does not also like to deal with the acetaldehyde from the oxidation of the alcohol. Enough alcohol and it will affect the liver’s ability to deliver glucose especially when needed. So careful re amount and be ready to deal with a low.
I have talked to both my primary care doc and my endo about alcohol with my current meds (Metformin and Lantus) and both of them said that moderate drinking was fine, just watch the blood glucose numbers. Interesting that yours is telling you not to drink with Metformin. Everyone’s got a different answer!
They were my first beers in bout 7 years, maybe that had a little something to do with it? I guess I won’t be missing anything, but it sure did go down well!!!
They were my first beers in bout 7 years, maybe that had a little something to do with it? I guess I won’t be missing anything, but it sure did go down well!!!
Metformin probably works by poisoning the liver a bit as does alcohol. With enough poison the amount of blood sugar spewed out by the liver will collapse and then with a teeny amount of insulin you will go very low an extremely unpleasant if not dangerous situation. My Polish brother in law drank 1/2 bottle of hard liquour each and every day and lived to be 76. Most of us even without diabetes would not live past 60 with his regime. I had some sort of liver infection when I was 12 that McGill’s best could not identify at the time. So this could be why my liver gets poisoned by 3 weeks of metformin and most other people dont. Livers are not made equal. More over there are other liver poisons like acetominofen that can add to the mix. So both doctors answers are right depends on the definition of moderate. If it is Methodist then ok if it is Polish then trouble.
=)so beer can be an alternative method of diabetes treatment! the dirty trick is that you can not control hypo caused by alcohol.
I got hooked on Miller High Life Lite. 7 cabs, 110 calories per can.
Plus, it the “champagne of beers.”
Cheers, Mike
I undertand. But I get Coors Lite to save a few carbs. Try one at room temp,
Mel
Why not?
I was just talking to my Type 1 cousin the other day… he said that if he’s drinking, he makes sure to have some carbs with it to even it out. He’s been Type 1 for 15 year and has excellent blood sugar control.
Why wouldn’t you be able to control hypo caused by alcohol?
We have a forum for beer on this site. You folks are all invited to join up with us.
http://tudiabetes.com/group/diabetesandbeer
Rick Phillips
Oh I love a good cold coors light
i , also like a beer, mainly lagers although i switched to guiness, less sugar. sometimes it does push BG up alittle. I was DX in november so still searching for the path,my BG are running from 7’s in AM to 5’s in night ( 120 to 90 ) i am uk so beers are different as drink draught beer, thinking is that keeping to recommended units is ok and will not be detrimental and it keeps you human especially over Xmas. Just had 2 pints stella and chinese and i was 5.7 after 3 hours. i have practically cut out all carbs except for bowl porridge in AM, made with water and i have got best figures since D day. i am having my next Hba1c end of month and i hope it will be lower than the last( first ) which was 9.8 . Stella is 5% alcohol by volume so it is quite strong