If you decide you want to drink, talk with your healthcare provider or diabetes educator about how to safely weigh the risks and benefits. However, if you over-imbibe, don’t eat while drinking, or are taking a medication that manages your blood sugars, combined with the alcohol, it can lower your blood sugar too much, causing hypoglycemia. Chronic excessive alcohol consumption alone can also cause nerve damage, creating a condition called alcoholic neuropathy, per StatPearls.

At 7 calories per gram, alcohol is nearly as calorie-dense as fat (9 calories per gram). Alcohol use can also lead to elevated blood fats, or triglycerides, which raises your heart disease risk. Alcohol can cause blood glucose levels to rise or fall, depending on how much you drink. Some diabetes pills (including sulfonylureas and meglitinides) also lower blood glucose levels by stimulating the pancreas to make more insulin. Combining the blood-sugar-lowering effects of the medication with alcohol can lead to hypoglycemia or “insulin shock,” which is a medical emergency. Ketoacidosis typically occurs in patients with type 1 diabetes who completely lack insulin.

Three Ways Alcohol affects Body Functions

The study had a number of limitations, however, which might alter the perception of impact. Talk to your doctor about drinking with type 1 diabetes and ask if they would recommend any changes to your routine. Also discuss any medications you are taking and how that might impact the effects of alcohol.

3A standard drink contains 12 grams (approximately 0.5 ounce) of pure alcohol. This amount is equal to one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits. Blood glucose regulation by insulin in healthy people and in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. With all the focus on carbs, it’s easy to forget that alcohol also has calories. Given that drinking can make you lose track of what you’re eating, calories (and pounds) can add up quickly. Being tipsy has another downside, making it easy to mix up your medications or to forget to take them entirely.

Get healthier with Lark & earn a Fitbit®

Depending on the type, it can also be high in calories, so drinking beer may contribute to weight gain over time. Additionally, according to the ADA, because the liver prioritizes clearing alcohol from the body, drinking alcohol can slow down carb metabolism, potentially leading to low blood sugar (hypoglycemia). Drinking any alcohol when taking diabetes medications can exacerbate this effect as well. So it’s essential to be mindful when consuming alcoholic beverages like beer when you have diabetes. Hypertriglyceridemia is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.

Making healthier choices overall can lead to the benefits of drinking — without the potential side effects. Instead of relying on liquid energy to keep https://ecosoberhouse.com/ you going, fight fatigue in other ways. If you do need a quick energy boost, stick to healthier beverage options like unsweetened coffee and tea.

Stop drinking when you need to and make sure you can get help

If you’re living with diabetes, talk to your doctor about how alcohol may impact your condition management plan, even if you only have an occasional alcoholic beverage. If you never or can diabetics get drunk rarely drink alcohol, you’re not alone—in fact, people with diabetes drink about half as much as other adults. Maybe their doctors cautioned them that drinking and diabetes don’t mix.

Of a rum and cola has about 155 calories total.[9] But the nutrition content of drinks can vary a lot depending on the specific type, flavor, brand, and ingredients used. If you are struggling to control your alcohol intake despite making it harder to manage your diabetes, you may be at risk for alcohol addiction. Our addiction experts at The Recovery Village can help you break free from alcohol, leading to a healthier life and possibly better-controlled diabetes. Contact us today to learn about alcohol rehab treatment programs that can help. While everyone should drink responsibly in moderation, sticking to these recommendations is particularly important for individuals with diabetes.

Can people with diabetes drink beer?

Unlike protein, fat, or carbohydrate, alcohol doesn’t require insulin to provide energy to the body. The exception is sweet dessert wines, which pack 14 grams of carb in a tiny three-and-a-half-ounce glass. High sugar intake can not only increase your risk of type 2 diabetes, but it can cause dangerous blood sugar fluctuations in people with the condition. Unfortunately, many alcoholic drinks and mixers contain high sugar levels and large amounts of carbs. When you drink alcohol (no matter the type), your liver kicks into gear to process, or metabolize, the alcohol. By doing so, however, the liver is unable to make and release glucose into the bloodstream.

Moreover, elevated triglyceride levels can cause severe inflammation of the pancreas (i.e., pancreatitis). In fact, from a practical standpoint, heavy drinking should be considered as a possible contributing factor in all patients with hypertriglyceridemia. Abstinence from alcohol generally leads to normalization of the triglyceride levels, unless the person has an underlying genetic predisposition for hypertriglyceridemia. In people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, single episodes of alcohol consumption (i.e., acute alcohol consumption) generally do not lead to clinically significant changes in blood sugar levels.

Can I Drink Alcohol If I Have Type 2 Diabetes?

“The majority of alcohol’s beneficial effect is on improving HDL (good) cholesterol,” says Alan Graber, M.D., Ph.D., FACE, a past president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). Studies suggest that one to two alcoholic drinks a day (beer, wine, or spirits) increases HDL an average of 12 percent. “However, the benefit of improving HDL is lost if a person gains weight,” Graber says. Beer is a staple beverage throughout the year, from fall football season to the winter holidays to the Fourth of July.

• Catsicas points out that the liver gives preference to detoxifying the blood of alcohol over metabolising food, and therefore excessive consumption can contribute to weight gain.
• These calories don’t provide you with satiety, and you will likely not deduct these calories from your daily calorie needs, so you might see weight gain.
• Exercise is great for managing type 2 diabetes, but skip sports drinks, which are high in carbohydrates.
• To make healthy choices, you’ll need to pay attention to calories, carbs, and sugars in your beverages.
• Unfortunately, most alcoholic beverages don’t list the nutrition information or ingredients on their labels, since they’re not required to do so.

If you drink, do it occasionally and only when your diabetes and blood sugar level are well-controlled. If you are following a calorie-controlled meal plan, one drink of alcohol should be counted as two fat exchanges. A 12-ounce beer has about 15 grams of carbohydrates, compared to 3 to 6 grams in light beer. Also, “light” and “low carb” are pretty much the same thing — and also your best bet. Here’s your guide to alcoholic beverages with prediabetes, so you can better understand how to choose the healthiest drink options.