• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Pre Diabetes & Alcohol

N

Nick15192

Newbie
Messages
1
Hi All,
I have been diagnosed pre diabetes for a few years now can anyone give me some advice on having a drink (alcohol, coffee & tea etc)
I have also recently started getting pins and needles in my lower forearm and hand. Could this be nerve damage or something, I went for a test for carpul tunnel but hospital said was minor.
Any advice would be good
Cheers
 
Hi and welcome,

You were diagnosed with pre diabetes a few years ago, but what have your review HbA1cs been like since then? Are you still monitored at your surgery?

As for drinks, it depends on whether you need to lose weight or not. Alcoholic drinks have many calories. However, the good news is that red wine and most spirits (whisky, vodka) are OK for diabetics as long as any mixers are sugar free. Tea and coffee are also fine, but milk can be difficult. You could try cream in coffee as that is good, and in tea if you like creamy tea. Personally I don't. so have just a dash of milk. No sugar of course.
 
Mr_Pot said:
I have never understood what that means.
Click to expand...

For a low-carb diet, avoid grain-based foods. Beer is just another of those grain-based foods, like bread. That is how I understand the "liquid bread" description. If someone knows better please correct me....
 
Mr_Pot said:
I have never understood what that means.
Click to expand...
Dr Malhotra called beer liquid bread and I took it to mean that since flour has a higher GI than table sugar then beer was similar or at least just as likely to raise your blood sugar.
My personal opinion is that when anyone shows me a low carb beer (or any beer for that matter) I ask them if they intend to have just the one.
 
Grateful said:
For a low-carb diet, avoid grain-based foods. Beer is just another of those grain-based foods, like bread. That is how I understand the "liquid bread" description. If someone knows better please correct me....
Click to expand...
Sorry @Grateful I didn't mean to correct you and anyway you are right. I just remember the first time I heard the phrase liquid bread and it was Dr Malhotra who said it. He also said that if you believe that eating fat makes you fat then I suppose you believe that eating vegetables will turn you green. He has a nice turn of phrase. I can't remember who said you can't outrun a bad diet but it sounds like him (he was referring to the efficacy of exercise).

Yes it was him et al.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2015/05/07/bjsports-2015-094911
 
Squire Fulwood said:
Sorry @Grateful I didn't mean to correct you and anyway you are right.....
Click to expand...

I didn't think you were trying to correct me (although I often need correction!). As for "low-carb beer" I avoid it because of a personal preference for avoiding all ersatz versions of real foods and drinks! I do still drink a pint of beer sometimes and when I do, I purposely pay no attention to the carb count, I simply assume it to be somewhere in the 20g to 22g range and I always drink the good stuff!

(Edited to fix typo.)
 
You see, I knew I liked you.
 
Whisky, vodka and gin are made from grain but are not called liquid bread, so it seems to be a weak analogy.
 
I did some research a while back since I have always been unhappy that I can only get good blood sugar scores if I give up the wine. We've all done the low carb process so we know how to eat but not how to drink. This is what I discovered.

If I drink wine with my food I get a double whammy and a high blood sugar count. If I eat and wait a few hours and drink some wine my daily average is much lower. I think the reason is as follows.

In my individual case the rate at which I drink wine is almost exactly the rate that the body can deal with it so I get a flat graph. If that flat graph just prolongs a food spike I get a high average. If I wait for the food spike to go down then the flat graph is at or nearly at the lower level and I get a lower daily average. You must understand that I only do this for scientific purposes.
 
Squire Fulwood said:
You see, I knew I liked you.
Click to expand...

I am blushing! I like you too! (There are some very likeable people here, I must say.)

My dirty secret is that, ever since diagnosis and going on the LC diet, I have still been eating an entire banana every day (about 27g of carbs!!!) -- split into three portions, one at each meal. That is in addition to the "budget" of 30g/day of carbs listed in my signature.

I am now considering dumping the banana and replacing it with a daily pint of beer. If I do that I should still come out ahead, given that even the most carb-laden beers do not seem to have more than about 22g/pint.

One of the "problems" with having an online presence is that one can get away with a lie (such as that 30g in my signature, which is actually more like 57!). I didn't do it deliberately, at first ... I was initially unaware just how carb-laden a single banana is. When I found out, I kept quiet about it.... I eat no other fruit except a few berries with breakfast.

Edited to note that I have now updated my signature to remove that lie about 30g carbs/day since it is really between 50g and 60g (taking into account either a daily banana, or a daily pint of beer!).
 
Last edited:
Mr_Pot said:
Whisky, vodka and gin are made from grain but are not called liquid bread, so it seems to be a weak analogy.
Click to expand...

That's why only beer is called "liquid bread." The other drinks that you cite lose their carbs as a result of the distilling process, as I understand it (but I don't understand much of anything!).
 
Grateful said:
That's why only beer is called "liquid bread." The other drinks that you cite lose their carbs as a result of the distilling process, as I understand it (but I don't understand much of anything!).
Click to expand...

Yes, all the sugary stuff turns into alcohol, therefore very minimal carbs. Or so I believe.
 
Grateful said:
That's why only beer is called "liquid bread." The other drinks that you cite lose their carbs as a result of the distilling process, as I understand it (but I don't understand much of anything!).
Click to expand...
Beer and wine are made by yeast turning the sugar into carbon dioxide and alcohol. The process stops usually when the alcohol is sufficiently strong to overcome the yeast or the brew runs out of sugar.

The specific gravity is taken to see how much sugar is in the liquid and a typical wine can be anything from 1.005 (dry) to 1.020 (sweet ....very sweet). As you can see dry wines are better for sugar control and it doesn't matter what colour they are. Wine makers just say 5 or 20 or whatever leaving off the 1.0 bit.

Beer is much heavier and deliberately sold with more sugar in it in the summer. People like sweet beer in the summer I am told. I have never made beer but I have made industrial quantities of wine so know a bit more about that. I once heard someone say that a particular summer beer was 70. What with the fact that absolutely no-one only has one pint (in England) I think I understand what Dr. Malhotra meant by liquid toast.

EDIT: whoever told me about that beer may have got his original gravity and his final gravity mixed up. That is incredibly high for a final gravity
 
Last edited:
I should have added that spirits have the alcohol boiled off from the mash and cooled in pipe coils, condensing into liquid alcohol and collected. Sugar doesn't take part in the distilling process. That's the good news. The bad news is that Professor Lustig says that ethanol (alcohol) makes your liver fat.

You've heard of Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver well this is the other kind with the Non removed.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Yes, all the sugary stuff turns into alcohol, therefore very minimal carbs. Or so I believe.
Click to expand...
Hence why Holsten's advertising strapline in the 1970's was "We turn all the sugar into alcohol" It was never advertised as 'suitable for diabetics' but many turned to it. On todays cans it reports just over 2g carbs per 100ml
Which is great, except I have never had a beer served in 100ml glasses
 
As a brewer of beer, it is my understanding that yeast breaks down as many of the different types of sugar molecules as it can during the fermentation process, the by-product of which is alcohol. The yeast chomp on the simple sugars first, then go for the more complex molecules. Eventually, when all the available sugar molecules have been chomped, only the complex sugars remain, and they cannot use them. Thus, fully fermented beer should only contain complex carbs. This makes it low GI, doesn't it? Coupled with this, alcohol stops the liver releasing sugar into the blood. In theory, then, and in my opinion, this makes beer rather a good drink for people with prediabetes who are not on medication (otherwise alcohol can cause hypoglycaemia). In cask ales, the beer is allowed to continue fermenting to build up the fizz, so added sugar is unlikely to be a problem. However, if you drink bottled beer or beer from a keg, this is artificially gassed and who knows what they can put in that.
 
Isn't it nice when someone lobs in a question that starts a good discussion, then makes absolutely zero further contribution, including not replying to questions asked by others trying to help?

No, I didn't think so either.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…