Brewing Master

Question:

Speaking as a former home brewer i can state that the carb differences between beer types is massive.  The boiling of the mash is the trick to the carb variences.  certain types of beers have large amounts of what are termed nonfementable carbs.  this is a lot of your low alc or na beers.  these carbs are what is causing your sustained high readings from those beers.  A regular beer mash is heated to specific temps for specific times to get more fermentable carbs from the mash.  this of course means more alcohol and less carb left in the beer.  The trick in brewing is a balance to get the flavor you want.  Now I have had to give up that hobby. jimt – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –     Since I was diagnosed T2 a few months ago, I have been able to get my numbers down to very acceptable levels. I really love my beer however. When first diagnosed I eliminated it entirely. In the last month, I have been allowing myself this indulgence occasionally but notice a pattern.    Regular beer will raise my BG to 140-160 range when I indulge with my regular diet. Without, I range 110-140 depending on how carbo laden the meal was. I watch my carbos and try to keep them down (<50g), with most meals being around 25-30.    If I drink non-alcohol beer however, I consistently see 160-190 with it taking longer to come down. This is the case even if I have virtually a non-carbo meal with 2-3 non-alc beers supplying the only carbos.    On the other hand, if I drink light beer (please, no canoe, or "I thought you were talking about beer" jokes , it seems to have little to no effect at all.    I thought I had read that alcohol will depress your numbers in the short term due to the liver having to deal with the alcohol first. Would this account for what I am seeing? Non-alc = instant and easy non complex carbos? regular = lower then non-alc because of the alcohol effect, but plenty of           non complex carbos? light   = lower than regular simply because the carbos are half?    Just wondering from a health standpoint which is worse. Several hours above 140, or the alcohol in the light beer. Yes, I know the best is neither, but that is not going to happen.    Just looking for some comments from this knowledgable group. Jim

Response:

I have noticed the same things. Regular beer will increase my bg dramatically while light beer seems to have no affect. Even after 1 late night excursion of about 12 bottles worth. I usually go with Miller light, it has only 3.2 carbs a 12 ounce can. I do miss my regular beer though. And to everyone else. Yeah Yeah I know we shouldn’t be drinking. But I’m only 27 and I shouldn’t have diabetes either.

– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text –     Since I was diagnosed T2 a few months ago, I have been able to get my numbers down to very acceptable levels. I really love my beer however. When first diagnosed I eliminated it entirely. In the last month, I have been allowing myself this indulgence occasionally but notice a pattern.    Regular beer will raise my BG to 140-160 range when I indulge with my regular diet. Without, I range 110-140 depending on how carbo laden the meal was. I watch my carbos and try to keep them down (<50g), with most meals being around 25-30.    If I drink non-alcohol beer however, I consistently see 160-190 with it taking longer to come down. This is the case even if I have virtually a non-carbo meal with 2-3 non-alc beers supplying the only carbos.    On the other hand, if I drink light beer (please, no canoe, or "I thought you were talking about beer" jokes , it seems to have little to no effect at all.    I thought I had read that alcohol will depress your numbers in the short term due to the liver having to deal with the alcohol first. Would this account for what I am seeing? Non-alc = instant and easy non complex carbos? regular = lower then non-alc because of the alcohol effect, but plenty of           non complex carbos? light   = lower than regular simply because the carbos are half?    Just wondering from a health standpoint which is worse. Several hours above 140, or the alcohol in the light beer. Yes, I know the best is neither, but that is not going to happen.    Just looking for some comments from this knowledgable group. Jim

Response:

    Since I was diagnosed T2 a few months ago, I have been able to get my numbers down to very acceptable levels. I really love my beer however. When first diagnosed I eliminated it entirely. In the last month, I have been allowing myself this indulgence occasionally but notice a pattern.    Regular beer will raise my BG to 140-160 range when I indulge with my regular diet. Without, I range 110-140 depending on how carbo laden the meal was. I watch my carbos and try to keep them down (<50g), with most meals being around 25-30.    If I drink non-alcohol beer however, I consistently see 160-190 with it taking longer to come down. This is the case even if I have virtually a non-carbo meal with 2-3 non-alc beers supplying the only carbos.    On the other hand, if I drink light beer (please, no canoe, or "I thought you were talking about beer" jokes , it seems to have little to no effect at all.    I thought I had read that alcohol will depress your numbers in the short term due to the liver having to deal with the alcohol first. Would this account for what I am seeing? Non-alc = instant and easy non complex carbos? regular = lower then non-alc because of the alcohol effect, but plenty of           non complex carbos? light   = lower than regular simply because the carbos are half?    Just wondering from a health standpoint which is worse. Several hours above 140, or the alcohol in the light beer. Yes, I know the best is neither, but that is not going to happen.    Just looking for some comments from this knowledgable group. Jim  

Response:

hello Jim, I am a belgium medical student and I have Diabetic T1 too. Excuse for me poor English, because it s not my native language. First of all, alcohol has the particularity to lower your BG . There is a simply explanation for this, in your liver you have glycogeen (= this is a reserve of metabolized carb), everybody uses these to make at any time some glucose  in your blood and so to rise your BG (even a diabetic patient) this is called the neoglucogenesis ( neo-gluco-genesis = new-glucose- from glycogen – genesis). When alcohol is taken it inhibits the gluconeogenesis ( no formation of glucose from glycogeen) and your BG falls. It all depends of the quantity of alcohol you take… and they are a lot of different beers with different alcohol concentration !!! When your BG falls too much you will do a HYPO and you will have to correct this by takin some carb. At last, after a couple of hours your BG will raise because the alcohol is also metabolized (it also depends of the carb value of your beer and it varies also with the soort of beer) It is important to be carefull with all this, because when you take alcohol, it could be you don t recognise all the symptoms of HYPO anymore… Christophe

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