I’m off soda, quitting sweetened tea and chocolate milk, and drink a fair amount of water, but what else can I drink? Water gets boring. 
Thanks!
Liz
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I drink moderate amounts of tea and coffee, but I sweeten it with Stevia which has essentially zero carbs. The caveat is that there are many brands of Stevia out there and they vary widely. Some will leave an aftertaste you may not care for, while others won’t. Experimentation is called for. I also use Stevia to make hot chocolate, which works very well indeed. Making hot chocolate from scratch is a bit labor-intensive, but nothing else tastes like it.
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Powerade Zero, sugar free juices (this means zero carb fake juices like crystal light etc). Diet sodas (as long as they’re zero carb). Light beer and wine don’t upset my blood sugars much if at all but that seems to be an individualized thing…
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All of those, except for the wine – have to stick to lower-carb wines, like Cabernet Sauvignon or I’m on the BG Express. I also drink a lot of black coffee – somewhere along the way, I got in the habit of drinking my coffee black - as it is now, I think that was fortuitous. I like Stevia as a sweetener, too - though I hear that for some people it is bitter, rather than sweet. Can’t know which until you try it.
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All fully fermented wines should contain zero or only microscopic trace carbohydrate— as the sugars have been consumed by yeasts in fermentation…
Why it makes some people’s blood sugar get weird is a mystery to me… But I don’t think it’s the carbohydrate unless we’re specifically talking about sweetened wines. I’m a bit of a wine enthusiast— I’ve studied it a fair bit and also produce my own.
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I believe you – now tell it to my meter!
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Mine’s a gin and tonic with a twist of lemon, please.
You can drink green tea using tea or tea bags, but not the bought variety which is usually sweetened. Tea is ok, coffee is ok for a lot of diabetics (test to make sure you are ok with coffee). Mineral water (sparkling), unsweetened soda water. Adding a slice of some citrus fruit makes it look and taste nicer. And water, plain old water is good for keeping your blood sugar down. I find it harder to drink water in winter and will often turn to those miso soup sachets they sell in supermarkets.
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I dose for 5 carbs per 5 ounce glass of red wine. If I drink two or more, I often end up with a low blood glucose 4-5 hours out as the liver gets busy metabolizing the alcohol and stops squirting out its usual dose of glycogen. Ideally I’ll set a minus 20% temp basal rate for a few hours and that usually counteracts the expected low.
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@terry4 What happens if you don’t bolus? For a glass? Or for two or more?
All other factors held steady my blood sugar level will climb. Five grams of carbs might elevate my BG 10 or 20 points.
I think if anything dry wines lower my bg somewhat— what I was wondering is for you if the following downtrend that you have to reduce basal for and all that might simply just be avoided and the whole experiment kinda cancel itself out naturally if there was no initial bolus?
There are two different things going on at two separate times. The post drinking elevation of BGs happens almost immediately, while the liver glucose shut-off occurs several hours after drinking. So in that case it depends on the relative level of my blood glucose. Since I usually eat with my wine, I’m also dosing for the food. All I know is that this delayed low, usually when I’m sleeping, has bitten me more than I care to admit. Perhaps not dosing for the wine and the post drinking low could balance out but since they are apart in time, I don’t like the tactic. A bedtime snack of an ounce or two of cheese, without an accompanying insulin dose, might do the trick.
i love the Powerade Zero i drink them a lot.
Would you mind sharing the brand of Stevia you like the best? I’m doing a lot of experimentation with foods and such, and it’s getting to be a bit overwhelming.
The one I personally like is NOW Better Stevia Glycerite. It’s a liquid that’s easy to measure, drop by drop. And it’s dilute enough to make the sweetness easy to control. (Pure Stevia is 300 times sweeter than sugar, or some number like that; in granular form it’s almost too strong to meter consistently. Having it in dilute liquid form seems much easier.)
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I drink water,tea and sugar free soda on occasion. I use Splenda as stevia bothers my stomach . I don’t like wine but my husband was telling me study about type 2 drinking a glass of red wine nightly. But I don’t like red wine. So I have hot chocolate. Nancy
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I don’t drink anything with aspartame in it or caffeine in it (though I do eat chocolate). I drink water, warm almond milk, and herbal teas and use stevia as a sweetener. In the summer I drink Zevia pop (sweetened with Stevia) and iced tea and sparkling water with lemon or lime, and have found those flavoured liquids that you squirt in water sweetened with stevia.
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Lots of great suggestions here and I overlap with many of them. I blend my own herbal tea mix (green decaf with kombucha, mint, chamomile, dandelion for liver support, hawthorn for heart support, nettle for UT support) and make up a week’s worth at a time for the fridge since hot liquids set off hot flashes…Water, of course, always chilled. Zevia ginger ale when I just need some bubbles, or occasionally Virgil’s Zero root beer which is also made with stevia…Cabernet is my wine of choice. Heart healthy, one hears, but also: I have my nightly “3 Magical Thinking Chugs” out of the bottle before bed and it helps with Dawn Phenomenon–LOL—or so I tell myself since it has seemed to work—possibly because it is also always good for a happy chuckle with my sweetie every night!..
PG Tips with scalding hot water. And then a splash of milk. This British concoction was originally for my sinus trouble, but it is also a comfortable way to relax.
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For years I relied on diet coke or diet pepsi but while reading an excellent book on nutrition I learned that there really is a flipside to these artificial sweeteners. Although they do not raise blood sugars directly, they fool the brain into thinking that you are eating sugar and so the brain triggers an insulin release. After the insulin is done looking for glucose that it can convert to body fat, comes the real downside, the hunger pangs that result in a big urge for something to munch on.
I am fortunate to live in Vancouver in Canada which probably has the best quality and best tasting tap water in North America. So I rely heavily on that with my meals at home. When I am at work I buy a bottle of carbonated, unflavored and unsweetened water which I store in a fridge. Otherwise, though it took a while to get used to unsweetened tea I now find I can enjoy it, either iced or hot. And last but not least, as a weekend treat I make a drink that’s very popular in the middle east and is called ( not sure about the spelling ) dooge. Basically it is one third natural unsweetened yoghurt stirred with ice water and with a couple of teaspoons of crushed mint leaves added for flavour, and served chilled. I’ve noticed that people from India often drink something similar but very different, as it is one third yoghurt, one third water and one third sugar, something I would not touch with a ten foot pole.
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