If that’s because of allergies, many people find organic, biodynamic and/or sulfite-free wines are okay to drink (though the jury is out on whether sulfites are the culprit). I’ve also heard that kosher wine can be safer. Also, allergies to wine, or alcohol in general, can come and go. My own allergy to alcohol arrived out of the blue, stuck around for a decade, and then just moved on one day. Now look at me!
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I’ve wondered about allergies, as well. My endo suspects its an allergy since all of my 5 million pages of lab work came back normal.
My lovely wife is allergic to yeast. Brewers and Bakers. It gives glucose normals the shudder to believe that there are people who have to avoid beer wine and bread, since that compromises a good part of most people’s diet.
People have a hard time understanding, they say so you are gluten free. Its like no, she can eat flour tortillas until the cows come home, but no yeast…Usually, we just give up.
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Interesting! I never would’ve guessed! I haven’t had a chance to experiment with Starbucks yet- perhaps tomorrow.
Honestly though, everything is a little wonky right now so I doubt the results of this experiment would mean much. I’ve had to increase my basal dose by several units over the last few weeks, and I need quite a bit more insulin for the same amount of carbs. I’m beginning to get a little stressed out over the increase in my insulin needs.
Yeah, diabetes sure keeps you on your toes. I hope you figure out what is going on with the increase in insulin and that it is easily fixed, without having to add more drugs for insulin resistance or other stuff like that. I know @docslotnick was using a large amount of insulin and was dealing with insulin resistance before he dropped his carb intake.
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Beers usually don’t affect me very much in regards to blood sugar with the exception of Dogfishhead 90minute. That beer for whatever reason shoots my numbers up real quick.
So good tho
Thanks! I hope so too. I’m going to up my daily exercise for awhile. There could be a few different reasons why this is happening, and I’m trying to sort through the most likely candidates. Exercise always seems to help me though!
I might also quit/limit using Afrezza for food. I don’t really feel like my diet has changed that much, but maybe I’m eating more carbs than before because it was easier with Afrezza. Doesn’t seem easier anymore though!
Is there something unique about the beer? Are you more likely to have it during certain times or with certain foods that might also be a part of your BG rise?
As an analogy - some people see a BG spike from coffee. And others have a BG spike just whenever they wake up in the morning. And there is another set of people who drink coffee when they first wake up. So it takes a bit of analysis to figure out if they are rising from waking up, from coffee, or from both.
I generally have certain types of beers with certain types of food. So I have to consider the combination.
Dogfish 90 min is a higher gravity beer, meaning higher alcohol content. To get that, it needs to start out with a lot of sugars available for fermentation—typically higher gravity beers are way sweeter (even if that’s somewhat masked by the strong hops), and I suspect more carb-dense. If you don’t otherwise drink those types of beers, then Dogfish 90 min may well have more carbs than the beer you otherwise have. If so, try a different type of high gravity beer and see if it gives you similar results!
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Any thoughts on Guinness stout? Internet seems to say a pint is 4-4.2% alcohol with 18g carbs. Bolussing for 18 grams does not work for me…Guinness has been creating some long lasting highs.
For beer, I carb count and does based on:
15g per 500ml (slightly more than a US pint) for most beer in the 4-5% range
20g per 500ml for a higher-alcohol IPA or a beer with a high OG.
Usually I get it right, sometimes I am way off.
For 330 ml bottoles (12 US OZ) - I usually go
5g for a lite beer (ok - I rarely drink this so the number may be off)
10g for a typical ale/lager
12g of carbs for a more craft ale / IPA
15g for high-OG beer (imperial IPA, imperial stout, etc.)
@John58 - I usually would bolus around 15g for a US pint of Guiness and have no problems with highs. I may have to do some more testing though. Guiness is brewed differently depeding on where you get it from (I know in Canada it can be brewed by Labatt’s) so maybe there is some regional variation.
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I take more for Guinness than many other beers.
When brewing a beer that has more body like Guinness you allow enzymes that cut the long chain carbohydrates to do cutting in the middle. The result is that you end up with lots of medium chain carbohydrates and less alcohol. If you take the same batch of beginning beer and activate the end chomping enzymes (you do this with the temp you choose btw) you end up with more alcohol and less body.
if you brew beer like I do, then you just add more sugar in the form of honey and then get more body and more alcohol. The best of both worlds.
I suspect that beers with high body will process differently in the body, requiring more time for you to break the carbohydrates down and will therefore have a different effect on the consumer’s blood sugar.
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Thanks! The highs from Guinness were kicking in late at night so that explanation makes sense. I decided to try to limit my Guinness drinking to early afternoon. I’ve got 10 more days in Ireland and would run out of insulin if I stick with the 2 pints in the pub habit every night.
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Then I hope you find time for Smithwick’s, an Irish red ale, and the only beer I drink besides Guinness. Whereas for a pint of Guinness I bolus for 25g carb, Smithwick’s I bolus for 15g. It also pairs nicely with a much wider range of foods than Guinness.
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@john58 - I think yYou need to start a thread titled “Do you need a prescription for insulin in Ireland?” That may solve your problem and allow you to keep up the habit.
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That question was on my mind but only when I was battling lingering highs all night…i think it was the combined effect of biggish dinners and sitting on my butt drinking Guinness in the evenings and driving a lot during the day. Things have settled down now after 2 days of hiking. I brought a ton of insulin but was going through it like crazy for a few days.
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So someone in my group (I actually think he’s around here somewhere, too) just posted this. I would read it, but I honestly don’t drink enough to want to, but I did see there was some stuff that was part of the discussion in this thread… So I offer it up in case you want to check what you know against it. Maybe humbly acknowledge any mistakes you’ve made, but probably just gloat in being able to say you didn’t…
I won’t gloat.
But this guy is all over the place.
He says some things right:
I bet your endo never told you, but, glucagon does not work when you are drunk.
But some of the stuff he is saying is irrelevant, and missing some pertinent information. Like this 
But the liver only does one thing at a time. Everyone and everything else just has to take a number and stand in line until it’s finished the job at hand. And on that list of 500 jobs is “remove excess insulin.” Unless, of course, alcohol is in line first. Then the insulin just builds up in your blood while your liver is dealing with the alcohol.
Clearing of insulin for diabetics happens after it has bound with the Tyrosine Kinase Receptor and triggered its action. It is then degraded by the insulin-degrading enzyme (IDE - insulysin or insulin protease). After it is no longer functional it is cleared from the body as a waste-product by the liver and kidneys.
But all of that is completely irrelevant to the discussion. What he is saying - that the liver clears insulin from the body - is missing an important point. It is cleared after it is used.
A drunk liver or sober liver is not going to remove insulin until it has opened up the cell’s doors for glucose uptake and been used. So it doesn’t have any affect on the drinking issue being discussed. Once the insulin has been used, having it floating around in the blood stream doesn’t do anything.
The idea that for diabetics a drunk liver lets insulin “build up” in the blood instead of removing it like a sober liver would, that is not relevant to the issue, and is missing an extremely important point.
If he is talking about the liver “removing excess insulin” by releasing glycogen, a) it isn’t really removing it, it is counter-acting it, and b) that hormonal response to lows is generally blunted in Type 1’s anyway, so it still a somewhat irrelevant point.
Read this:
biochemistry-what-does-insulin-actually-do
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Here is a better description of drinking and diabetes. It has a decent write-up and explains some things. It is a bit old, but mostly correct.