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Need help with alcohol!!!

C

Clairslloyd

Well-Known Member
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140
Location
Higher Heath, Whitchurch, Shropshire
Hi all, many thanks for reading the post. Could anyone suggest which alcohol is best - I usually drink cider, vodka with diet coke or rose wine. I realise they are all high in sugar and would love someone to recommend something that I can drink occasionally and enjoy even in diabetes. :D
 
Red wine or dry white wine are usually ok. Definitely don't drink on an empty stomach, I recently had a reading of 2.3 after a pre dinner gin and slimline tonic, my tolerance to alcohol has changed since diagnosis. :?
 
Carb wise - the White Spirits are lowest (Vodka/Gin, etc...) slim line tonic, or soda water are the best mixers. You may run into trouble using Diet Coke out of the pumps. Go for bottled when you can.

Women have got it quite easy - they can sneak a small bottle of sugar free cordial out in their handbags (Vodka, soda and lime? :wink: )

Cider is bad news - a bit of a downer for those of us in the West Country. Pear Cider is really bad (I've found for me).
 
I find that red wine is a drink that least effects my bg control, rose wine has a tendency to raise my bg so avoid this drink altogether.

Nigel
 
With regard to pumped diet coke, bars will often put ordinary coke through both pumps particularly if they run out of diet. :shock:
 
The pump drinks like lemonade and coke etc are a sugary solotion that is made up and then pumped through with the gas added I know this for a fact for the lemonade and that they have are made from a sugary solution as before being diabetic I have had it when the pump has been at the end and it has been awful and was told how they are made. I wont now have lemonade from the pump nor would I trust having the coke or any other drink from the pump as these are not the norm in that its pumped from a say barrel of coke or anything like that it a solution that is made up and has a lot of sugar in. Trouble is the cans or bottled lemonade are very expensive but unless you can hide a bottle in your bag you have to buy it. not all places have diet though.

In desparation I have had water and a slice of lemon weren't tooo bad.

Sue :)
 
The diet fizzy drinks aren't made from 'a sugary solution'. They are diet, hence they contain no sugar. Nor have I ever experienced non-diet drinks coming from the diet pump. Sometimes the bar staff will forget you have said diet, and use the non-diet one, so watch which pump it comes from.

Some places have a shared hose thing with buttons on to choose which drink, I assume some of the normal coke could still be in the hose even if they press the diet coke button, but I wouldn't have thought it was very much.

Test it with a blood sugar tester if you are not sure, but it's usually very obvious from the taste if it is diet or not.
 
Clairslloyd said:
Hi all, many thanks for reading the post. Could anyone suggest which alcohol is best - I usually drink cider, vodka with diet coke or rose wine. I realise they are all high in sugar and would love someone to recommend something that I can drink occasionally and enjoy even in diabetes. :D
Click to expand...

I actually had a chat about this with my dietitian yesterday. She told me that whichever drink you decide to go for, even though it raises your glucose levels, you NEVER take any insulin for it. Even though the carbs in your drink will temporarily raise your levels, the alcohol (which lowers your bg) takes a lot longer for your body to process. In fact, if you drink quite a bit but your levels remain stable you will probably be better off having some carbs with that as you will start to drop later on.
So even if you go to bed with higher levels than normal, throughout the night when your liver is still busy dealing with all the alcohol, your bg will get lower again.

Not sure if this is helpful in any way but I thought I'd mention it as this is something I never knew. Made the mistake myself a few weeks ago when I took a correction dose after a night out and woke up in the middle of the night with a hypo.
 
Hiya

I am one of those bods who rarely drink these days but I find I can have a couple of single, or one double gin and SL tonic without too much bother and in summer it is very refreshing, as it is quite a strong short I find I can have a lot of tonic to make a long drink (with lots of ice)and it satifies me.

While we on here, what about Pimms with diet lemonade, is that quite high in sugar?

Thanks

Chrissie
 
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