Alcohol and diabetes

Alcohol Basic rules for diabetics when drinking alcohol Follow these guidelines to avoid low blood sugar levels when you drink: Never drink alcohol on an empty stomach. Limit yourself to 1 drink if you-re a woman or 2 drinks if you are a man. Alcohol affects your body-s ability to get over a low blood sugar level. If you have low blood sugar, you may need to treat it more than once as time goes by. If you-ve been drinking, check your blood sugar before you go to sleep. Eat a snack before you retire to avoid a low blood sugar reaction while you sleep. A warning: glucagon shots don-t help severe low blood glucose caused by drinking. Glucagon shots treat very severe low blood glucose reactions caused by too much insulin. Glucagon works by getting your liver to release more glucose into your blood. But alcohol stops this process. You need to be able to treat your reaction with a carbohydrate, such as oral glucose tablets or gels. So you need to avoid letting a low blood glucose level become severe. If you pass out, you will need glucose injected into your bloodstream by a health care professional. Beer Belly Blues Although an occasional drink may not hurt your blood sugar control, it can harm your eating plan if your goal is weight loss. Two light beers equal about 200 extra calories. Alcohol is called empty calories because it does not give you any nutrients. If you are on a low-calorie meal plan, think twice about adding alcohol. When Alcohol Is a Poor Choice Some people with diabetes should not drink alcohol. Alcohol can make some diabetic problems worse. If you have nerve damage from diabetes in your arms or legs, drinking can make it worse. Alcohol is toxic to nerves. Drinking can increase the pain, burning, tingling, numbness, and other symptoms found with nerve damage. Some studies show that even regular light drinking (less than two drinks per week) can bring on nerve damage. Heavy drinking (3 or more drinks per day) may make diabetic eye disease worse. If you have high blood pressure, you can lower it if you stop drinking alcohol. Many people with diabetes have high levels of the fat called triglyceride in their blood. If you do, you should not drink alcohol. Alcohol affects how the liver clears fat from the blood. Alcohol also spurs the liver on to make more triglycerides. Even light drinking (two 4-ounce glasses of wine a week) can raise triglyceride levels. Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Diabetes Health Talk. It's Free! « Back Home

Kalja

Kalja is a typical Finnish table beer you see in any canteen or formal feast. It's dark and often sweet but low in alcohol which is why the bizarre Finnish alcohol laws or strict attitude towards alcohol drinks don't apply to it. (I often hear people say we've got a liberal attitude towards alcohol. That's simply not true. Even a glass of wine is generally considered as getting pissed.) My mum always has some in the fridge. As a kid I used to drop sugar cubes in my glass just to see kalja foam. I have a 1.5 litre jug where I wanted to make kalja but could only find recipes for big portions. So I compared a few of them and adapted a smallish version myself. It worked well so I'll post it for you too. - 1.5 l water - 1 dl rye malt - 3/4 dl sugar - 1/4 tsp yeast Boil the water for about ten minutes and pour it on the malt and sugar. Let it cool down for couple of hours and then add the yeast crumb. Place in a warm place for a day. Filter the liquid and move it in a cool place. This is at its best after couple of days. Like another Finnish beer sahti, kalja too would ideally be spiced with juniper berries. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any lately.

Breaking News

The Drinks Market Performance 2008, compiled by Dublin City University economist Anthony Foley, revealed that the volume of alcohol consumption in Ireland declined by 5.9pc in 2008, compared to an increase of 2.5pc in 2007. In the first half of the year the decline, compared to 2007, was 3.9pc, but in the second half this rose to 7.2pc. Per adult consumption of alcohol decreased by 7.3pc in 2008, while per capita consumption went down by 7.7pc. These rates are equal to the decline in consumption in the entire seven-year period between 2001-2007, with the result that average consumption levels are now back to 1997/98 levels, Foley said. All four alcohol drinks categories suffered volume declines: cider was down 11pc, spirits 7.7pc, beer 5pc, and wine 4.1pc. As a result, the value of the alcohol market overall fell by 2.5pc to €6.9bn in 2008." According to DIGI chairman Kieran Tobin, the weak local economy and the increase in cross-border sales combined to produce a dismal year for the drinks industry. Tobin said that if current trends continue, 2009 will be even worse for the industry, with 10pc of off-license sales migrating to Northern Ireland, where the euro/Sterling exchange rate and the excise and VAT differentials has resulted in significant savings for shoppers (eg a saving of €10 on a bottle of whiskey). If unchecked, this continued migration will result in the loss to the State of an estimated €100m in tax revenues in 2009, and will threaten the jobs of 10pc of the people employed across all sectors of the drinks industry in Ireland, Tobin said. In light the results of the study, DIGI called on the Government not to increase the taxes on alcohol. "With little sign of an upturn in the national economic situation, the prospects for the next 12 months are even worse "“ particularly if the Government decides to increase alcohol taxes and VAT in the upcoming supplementary Budget," Tobin said.   "Increasing taxes will exacerbate this situation, and will also encourage more cross-border shopping with further loss of revenue for the industry and the State. "The Government must take heed of the implications of this report and not increase the burden on a key industry that provides significant employment, revenue to the State and much-needed exports for the country."

Scotland: Alcohol pricing proposals to be part of Government bill

SNP abandons plans to introduce minimum pricing by regulation The Scottish Government is to attempt to enact its proposals for limiting alcohol consumption through a separate health bill. The proposals, which include minimum pricing and potential controls on off-licence sales to the under-21s, were due to be part of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill, or even introduced via regulations, but following opposition pressure the Government is to allow increased scrutiny at Holyrood through the separate measure. This will also delay implementation until next year. Other measures which will be part of the bill will ban discount deals on alcohol and restrict the display and marketing of drink to specific areas within off-sales premises, as will the proposed social responsibility fee on certain premises to help pay for policing costs. Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "Scotland's alcohol misuse problem is estimated to cost our country at least £2.25 billion per year in extra services and lost productivity and professionals are agreed that the threat posed to our national health from current levels of consumption is very great. "Alcohol-related hospital admissions and deaths have increased markedly in recent years and this Government has already set out our framework for addressing the root causes behind these statistics." Opposition parties have welcomed the move by ministers, which they claimed amounted to a climbdown.

Daily drink for middle-age women cancer risk

A new study involving nearly 1.3 million middle-age British women - the largest ever to examine whether alcohol increases a woman's risk of cancer - found that just one glass of chardonnay, a single beer or any other type of alcoholic drink per day poses a danger. "That's the take-home message," said Naomi Allen of the University of Oxford, who led the study being published March 4 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. "If you are regularly drinking even one drink per day, that's increasing your risk for cancer." Understandably, the study may leave many women scratching their heads - and perhaps needing a drink more than ever - given all the talk about red wine being something akin to a fountain of youth. "I thought drinking wine was good for you," said Mirella Romansini, 27, of Chevy Chase, Md., outside a Washington liquor store. "Now they are saying it increases your risk for cancer? Yes, I would say I'm surprised." Romansini is hardly alone. At least half of U.S. women drink sometimes, and even the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the government's official bible on what we should be putting into our mouths, say alcohol can have beneficial effects, allowing women up to one drink a day (men get two, of course). Confused? It turns out the guidelines were never intended to recommend that anyone drink for their health. Yes, it's true that studies have indicated that moderate drinking may cut the risk of heart disease and other ailments. But officials have long worried about sending the wrong message, giving people who should never drink - young people, pregnant women, those prone to alcoholism - permission to abuse alcohol. As a result, they have long tried to walk a fine line between acknowledging the possible benefits of alcohol without encouraging people to start drinking or to abuse it. The guidelines were intended to set an upper limit on what might be safe, not a recommended daily dose. "It's a level of consumption that generally has been found in scientific studies to be associated with a relatively low risk of harms," said Robert Brewer of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But low risk does not mean no risk." Based on the findings, the researchers estimated that about 5 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women each year in the United States is due to low to moderate alcohol consumption. Most are breast cancers, with drinking accounting for 11 percent of cases - about 20,000 extra cases each year - the researchers estimated. In any group of 1,000 U.S. women up to age 75 who consumed an average of one drink a day, the researchers calculated there would be 15 extra cancers; two drinks per day would result in 30 extra cancers and so forth. The risk appeared the same regardless of whether women drank wine, beer or any other type of alcohol. Allen noted that even less than one drink per day may increase the risk. "There doesn't seem to be a threshold at which alcohol consumption is safe," she said. Several researchers noted that the findings were essentially consistent with previous studies, and despite its size the study does have shortcomings. The researchers could not, for example, distinguish between women who drank only one or two drinks every day and those who drank seven drinks all at once. Some researchers worried that the findings could possibly frighten women and deprive them of the possible health benefits of an occasional drink.

Australia: WA group wants alcohol ban for pregnant women

PERTH - Pregnant women in a West Australian community should be banned from buying alcohol, the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) says. AHA chief executive Bradley Woods says government payments in the Kimberley community of Halls Creek have simply encouraged chronic alcoholics to drink more. Woods said 30 per cent of all children born in Halls Creek had foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and 80 to 90 per cent of all pregnant women in the town were chronic alcoholics. "Halls Creek would be the ideal trial situation given that the medical experts in Halls Creek are saying it has 20 times higher incidences of FAS than anywhere else in WA," Woods said. The WA Director of Liquor Licensing is investigating tough restrictions on the sale of liquor in Halls Creek. The Halls Creek community could face similar restrictions to those imposed on other indigenous communities in the region, including Fitzroy Crossing and Oombulgurri. Woods said the AHA had made submissions for a ban on the sale of alcohol to pregnant women to the director and the WA racing and gaming minister. Licensees in the Kimberley have self-regulated alcohol sales for a number of years, limiting trading hours and the volume of alcohol sold. But moves to stop sales of alcohol to pregnant women had prompted calls of discrimination, Woods said. "It makes it a very difficult situation for them because one, they are seeing the chronic alcohol abuse of these women and legally there's nothing they can do to stop selling to them," he said. Licensees in the region had instituted further restrictions in the past week as payments from the federal government's economic stimulus package flowed. "At the moment, this period now, the last week and the next couple of weeks is the same as what occurred in December when the commonwealth provided these thousands of dollars into the bank accounts of at-risk alcoholics," Woods said. "It is very difficult when there is this massive injection of cash being put into bank accounts with no parameters around them and they go into the bank accounts of chronic alcoholics that are known by health officials. "The commonwealth has been quite irresponsible and it's made our job a lot harder trying to manage these issues." Woods said health services would need to be boosted and education programs put in place if such a ban were introduced

Obviously, the deaths of Crystal Pepsi and Zima taught them nothing

Courtesy of the Daily Star Britain’s first clear beer is being launched for drinkers who hate brown ale and foamy heads. Brewing giant Coors, which makes Carling and Grolsch, will trial the drink in pubs this summer. The beer, which has not yet been named, will have an alcohol strength of 4%. The development is part of a multi-million pound project to boost the number of women who drink ale. The clear drink is put through an extreme filtering process that removes its colour and it can be flavoured with green tea and exotic fruits. No major brewer sells a clear beer in the UK, although Beck’s has one in Germany. Coors drafted in TV stars Janet Street-Porter, 62, and Carol McGiffin, 49, to find out why Brit girls drink less beer than their European neighbours. They found that half of British women prefer wine to any other alcoholic drink. Fewer than 10% chose beer. Almost half of women shun ale because they think it will make them put on weight. And a third opt for drinks that are served in attractive glasses, have the right image or are popular with their friends. I’m A Celeb star Janet said: “Beer has had a male image for too long and it’s hard to think of another business where 50% of the population is ignored.†Women make up just 13% of UK beer sales, compared to 25% in the US and 36% in Ireland. A third of women do enjoy ale but mostly at music or sports events. Kristy McCready, of Coors, said: “We know what turns some women off beer is the colour and the head, although they like the refreshing taste.†But the plan could be controversial in light of concerns over Britain’s binge-drinking ladettes. Last week the Chief Medical Officer Sir Liam Donaldson said he wanted to tax alcohol by a minimum of 50p per unit. Let me get this straight. Coors (of course) saw that women prefer wine and froofy drinks to beer and decided to create a clear beer, despite the fact that wine and froofy drinks tend to be MORE opaque than lager or even stout. This makes a little sense in that they're marketing it as a potential mixer instead of something to drink straight, but at this point they might as well market hopped wine cooler.