Tips for drinking Alcohol as a diabetic?

My doctor told me that I can drink, just don’t overdo it! Never get smashed! Drink to enjoy yourself!

Low sugar beers like Sleeman clear or michelob ultra. Rye and diets. Check blood sugar often cause even when drinking zero sugar options alcohol can lower your blood sugar over time. Even the low sugar beers can spike mine high though.

People usually get type 1 diabetes in adolescence, and suggesting college kids abstain from alcohol is about as useful as suggesting abstinence to limit teen pregnancies. The mere suggestion is moronic and may be fatal because it also suggests a need to hide alcohol consumption.

Kids will drink. Diabetic kids will drink. The liver will not release the same amount of sugar when breaking down alcohol, and you need to eat. A blood glucose of 17, as shown in this chart, isn't fatal, while being 3.8 and heading down could be. Eat a hamburger before going to bed, and you'll be fine.

If you're not a kid and take a drink, avoid drinks with sugar. Everything in moderation.

I’m going to be honest, I’m a T1D in my late 20s and have drank pretty regularly for the last 5-10 years and always (generally) managed to keep my blood sugars in check. I don’t think the advice here about never doing it is realistic especially if you’re young - you have to live your life. I know other diabetics that do the same as me.

That said, I think the best advice I can give is don’t ever go overboard and stick to drinks that won’t spike your blood sugar. Red or white wine are low carb so shouldn’t spike you; something like gin and diet tonic or vodka and Diet Coke can also work well. White claws also come to mind.

I try to not drink too much beer (not always successfully) but if I do it’ll either be Guinness, because it’s low calorie and it doesn’t spike me too much, or a regular

Per my CGM, there is barely a spike with all wine, bubbly and spirits like whisky, rum, vodka, gin, tequila. I spike hard on all beer, cider and sweet liqueur like Baileys, Apperol, Martini Rosso, Tia Maria, etc.

You can definitely drink, you just need to be aware of what your body will do and don’t get drunk to the point that you forget that you’re diabetic.

When I was diagnosed as T1D 6 years ago a T1D friend of mine gave me some useful info regarding mixers. Everyone will be different but here’s what works for me.

I will generally only drink rum, whisky or gin with a mixer. The mixer is always Coke for rum and whisky, and tonic for gin. The trick for me is to drink 1 full sugar mixer for every 3 zero sugar mixers. This is typically easier with Coke mixed drinks because it’s more commonly available on tap with zero sugar.

The one full sugar mixer helps to balance the drop in BSL that you will experience when you only drink zero sugar mixers.

It is strongly advised to have a friend with yo

I know everyone is against drinking, but it happens lol. Just bolus more if youre drinking beers (generally a beer is around the same carbs as a slice of bread)

Its mainly just not getting drunk and just buzzed so you can still take care of yourself. Remember that drinks, such as ciders or lagers, have quite a few carbs. Spirits do have a lot less carbs though.

I had many issues with drinking and my betes, but I eventually found that putting in ~1/2 the insulin for carbs in a drink works in the long run. The sugars bring your sugar up and the alcohols bring it down essentially. If you try to just correct high sugars when you're drinking, you'll get a nasty low later on. If I drink things like Busch light where I don't count for the carbs at all, I have a snack later in the night so I don't go low in my sleep.

Not that I condone it, but as a type 1 diabetic mostly just know the effect of the alcohol itself on your blood sugar, but also know the effect of what else is in your drink.

Alcohol itself will dilute your blood, making your blood sugar go down. Lots of times it's more of a crash at the end of the night rather than a gradual decline. That makes it dangerous.

But also remember if you're drinking daiquiris and pina coladas all night they are full of sugar too, probably enough to just make your blood sugar skyrocket and the alcohol won't affect it that much.

I've found the best balance is to drink something like non-light beer (since it's got some carbs, but not a crazy amount) and eat some carbs before you go to sleep. Either way, don't drink enough to black out and I wouldn't do it

Don’t go too crazy. Thats my only advice.

I was recently diagnosed with T2 and my experience has led me to low carb beers (miller light, model oro, Michelob ultra, etc) and zero carb cocktails (whiskey and Diet Coke, tequila, lime and tonic, vodka and zero carb juices) Only been "drunk" a couple of times but I never really dropped critically low from drinking. I always have snacks by my bedside incase I drop while Im sleeping though.

I don't.

Do your trial, error and correction on small doses upfront over time. Then when on festive or other occasions you could predictably take like 2 or 3 drinks instead of one.

https://danii.org.au/d-teens-and-alcohol-no-bull-from-uncle-wil/

This guide.

Drink lots of plain water. 8 ounces for every shot, beer, or wine. It also prevents hangover. Also if you tend to get lows, test yourself often till you figure out how it affects you. Clear alcohol shots like straight vodka tend to lower your blood sugar, which for some diabetics is great but for others not so good.

I eat well before hand and don’t correct when drinking, it can lead to unexpected dips later, I go for one or two beers then just straight up whiskey

I drink whiskey neat. Make sure to stay hydrated. I make sure I drink 1 12 oz cup of water per 2 oz whiskey

Uh, constantly.

Wine is fine but whiskehs quicker

Don't, it ends there

Yeah don’t drink that’s the only tip and the safest tip 😅

You don’t and save your liver also

Don't drink

Here's my tip......don't

Drink while walking

Tips? Stop drinking now.