Big Brews and Diabetes

In my experience, the problem is that doctors give you suggestions to simply minimize risk. Because alcohol CAN have some negative effects on type one diabetes, their advice is to simply cut it out. Now that I have a doctor who is a type 1 himself, he actually works with me to manage health while understanding that there are things in life we just don't want to give up. These doctors are few and far between. I'm very fortunate that my doctor is nationally recognized as one of the best in diabetes care and is willing to put up with my bad habits.

Personal experience: Diagnosed type 1 at 17, got into beer in college. In my personal experience, I've rarely had any issues with hypoglycemia when drinking craft beer, usually the problem is the opposite. There's a lot of beers that really spike blood sugar for me, the worst being stouts (bummer, right?). What's interesting to me is that different breweries tend to either have very carb intensive beers or not. For example, a local brewery called Rhinegeist every single beer they make seems to spike blood sugar significantly while another local brewery, Madtree, does not. I also stay away from pretty much all of the fruited beers since many seem to have a lot worse effect on blood sugar. It's a bummer that there are parts of craft beer I have to stay away from but life's tough, get a helmet.

 

Think of it as an AA meeting, just share your story, don't give advice.

 

My buddy has had a lot better success controlling his bloodsugar (when he drinks) by doing crossfit 5x a week and being in really good shape. Take it for what it's worth.

 

Diagnosed Type II October 2014. Lost 30lbs, drank less. Now the net weight loss is 26lbs(hey 4 lbs over about 2 years ain't bad) but my drinking of beers went up and my sugars did too. Now on double the meds, try to just drink beer on Saturdays and Sundays, have 1 scotch on other nights. It's working, next blood test in June. Good luck.

 

I was diagnosed with type II 10 years ago. I used to average about a beer or 2 a night, but the amount of carbs in beer add up so I have cut down to about one or two during the work week and a handful of beers throughout the weekend. The best thing I started to do was invest in a mini hydrometer and reverse engineer the carb content of my frequented beers using the FG and ABV to calculate the OG in hopes to estimate the beers attenuation. Yes, I end up pouring around 5 ounces of a great beer down the drain, but it helps me better manage my blood sugar when I do drink a full pint. I have a handy spreadsheet I can share with the calculations all plugged in if anyone is interested.

 

First and foremost, I am not a doctor but I am a type 1 diabetic (18 years now) and I would not advise anyone to follow this concept. Obviously check with your endo first before consuming any alcohol (I did not). From personal experience, I thought the same way you are/might be when I first began drinking and it quickly landed me in the hospital.

 

I didn't make my point well, I just meant to be careful, not overconsume. It's important to track bloodsugar more closely while drinking.

 

Since you are asking about strategy of enjoying with health and safety in mind, I will share. As mentioned above, I have been a type 1 diabetic for 18 years now. Never really drank at all in high school but began in college and quickly dove into the mixed drinks with regular soda (out of fears from stories of what happens when you mix with diet soda). Quickly tanked and went into a bad situation thinking that adjusting for all of the sugar I am consuming was the right thing. WRONG!

Some people may not agree with the idea that your metabolism speeds up when you drink but my Endocrinologist seems to think that is what happens and my body didn't/doesn't process all of the carbs when drinking. Now, I pretty much live by that idea (when drinking 3+ ales or any stouts/porters) and will only adjust for about a third of the carbs I am drinking (NOTICE: EVERYONE'S BODY IS DIFFERENT DO NOT FOLLOW THIS LIKE IT IS LAW). This was determined through trial and error.

If I drink anywhere from 1-3 ales (typical week/end night for me) I will not adjust for them that night.

Obviously like I said a few times already, everyone's body is different and I would advise talking to your Endocrinologist first and maybe taking test samples (i.e. see what different style of beers do to your sugars the morning after drinking 1 can/bottle the night before - be cautious of what you eat prior to this as it could skew your results). That's what I tried and it has really worked well for me.

 

Thank you for clarifying!

 

Type II here. I have not made any changes to my beer routine although I usually have a few days per week that are dry. Sun-Mon-Tues no drinks at all. Wed I will have 2 beers, Thurs I will have 3-4 beers, Fri-Sat usually around 6 per night. I usually find that after a few beers my sugars will actually drop and I need to eat something sugary like chocolate etc. After a night of drinking I check my BS in the AM and im usually around 125 which is pretty good. Im sure its different for everyone and its probably much more problematic for those that are type 1.

The only advice I can give is to be careful, test yourself alot and find a method that works for you. The first few times I drank after I was diagnosed I tested my blood before, during and after to see where I was at until I felt confident everything would be okay. And don't forget to drink lots of water in between drinks, I find that helps alot also! Good luck!

 

I really appreciate your post - thanks! I've been type 1 since I was 10. And I got into the craft brew scene less than a year ago. I'm stating the obvious here. My standard practice is to check my blood sugar often. Keep the blood glucose meter handy. If you have a continuous blood glucose monitor, even better. I would second your point about staying hydrated. I've found that to especially helpful.

 

I'm pre diabetic. My fasting blood sugars are around 110 or so my A1c at 6.4. Type two diabetics look to medication at about 120 and A1C at 7.0 or higher. Like most mine is diet and over weight by 25 lbs. alcohol doesn't affect my A1C.

 

It would be a joy to have carbs listed on beers, the bad news is that most craft breweries don't have the equipment or funds to do this reliably. Part of me loves the idea of nutritional information to be required on all packaged beer...but the other part of me realizes that would really hurt craft breweries, so it's a mixed blessing.

 

A Friend and fellow drinking buddy is diabetic. He offsets in with a careful diet and exercise. Its been a challenge for him over the years.