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Zero-carb beer

Zhnyaka said:
alcohol does not so much lower your blood sugar as it blocks the liver's ability to produce glycogen (because when you are drunk, the liver is busy trying to rid you of alcohol intoxication) and basal insulin begins to act as a bolus.
but if you do not take insulin or other hypoglycemic drugs (Metformin simply increases your sensitivity to insulin, but it is not a hypoglycemic drug), then you will not experience hypoglycemia, your pancreas simply will not produce insulin when it is not needed (unlike our basal insulin, which does not
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But Gliclazide does increase insulin production and therefore can cause hypoglycaemia.
 
SteveN1966 said:
HI, new here and got linked this topic, Ive read alcohol lowers blood sugar, now im on tablets I'm concerned of my levels dropping to low if I drink not actually spiking.
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Hi @SteveN1966 , from your profile I see that you're on gliclazide.
This is a medication that can cause hypos so I assume you have a meter and teststrips to test if you feel off.

If you're not used to drinking alcohol but you want to, I'd recommend going easy when trying, and keeping your meter and something to treat a potential hypo at hand.

As @Zhnyaka explained, alcohol inhibits the liver from releasing glucose when needed, thus lowering your BG.

As with everything diabetes, trial and error is your friend. Alcohol is no different from other variables like exercise or illness, and it takes time to work out what works for you.
For what it's worth, I enjoy a tipple, but I took my time learning how it affects me.
 
I’ve never really enjoyed most zero or low-carb beers because they usually taste pretty bland to me, but I’ve been surprised a few times in the past year. Some of the newer non-alcoholic and low-carb brews actually have decent flavor and don’t feel like you’re just drinking bubbly water. It’s good to check the label since, like others have said, not all low alcohol beers are automatically low carb, and some can be unexpectedly high.
 
KennyA said:
I saw this advertised and gave it a try. I have been a bit skeptical about low-carb/zero carb beers in the past, as almost all (Marston's Resolution is the only half decent one) taste so bad that they're not worth it.

However, Salute is an exception. They do two beers, a lager (4.8%) and an IPA (4.6%), brewed in Italy. Both are pretty good, and I think most people wouldn't notice that they are not "normal" beer. They've gone on my treat list.

Downside is that they are both fairly expensive, at about £2 for a small can, and you have to buy a dozen minimum at a time.

www.sugarfreebeer.com

Sugar Free Beer Premium Italian Beer, Lager & IPA

Try our Premium Italian Sugar Free Beer we have Lager and IPA, with no loss of flavour or strength it’s Sip Sip Hooray! We took out the carbs, left the hydrate!
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I've been looking for zero carb low or zero alcohol beer. Not successful so far.
 
My husband enjoys Ghost Ship 0.5% from Adnams
Or Lucky Saint 0.5%.
Peroni 0 seems widely available nowadays and he drinks that if we are out for a meal.
No idea of the carbs though, he's not diabetic, just a driver
 
I can't think how anybody could brew a non carb beer surely the ingredients will always contain carbs .
 
jaywak said:
I can't think how anybody could brew a non carb beer surely the ingredients will always contain carbs .
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I'm not a brewer but I understand a lot depends on using yeasts that manage to convert nearly all the carb into alcohol. I'm not sure that zero carb is either achievable (while still making a drinkable beer) or necessary - but (just to take one example) the beers being produced now by Westbrooks are around 3-5g carb per 330ml can - 3g is the quoted figure from the brewery for their Crystal Palace stout. My fingerprick testing bears that out.

So I can have beer with less carb per gram than broccoli.
 
Slightly off topic - but I'm old enough to remember this Holsten Pils Ad. And the tag line "all the sugar turns to alchol"
 
KennyA said:
I'm not a brewer but I understand a lot depends on using yeasts that manage to convert nearly all the carb into alcohol. I'm not sure that zero carb is either achievable (while still making a drinkable beer) or necessary - but (just to take one example) the beers being produced now by Westbrooks are around 3-5g carb per 330ml can - 3g is the quoted figure from the brewery for their Crystal Palace stout. My fingerprick testing bears that out.

So I can have beer with less carb per gram than broccoli.
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The only thing about that is that if you ate the same amount of carbs in broccoli (that might be about 270g broccoli) as a few cans of beer you might have problems with wind.
 
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