Red Wine/Tonic Wine

On the course we were told that there are no carbohydrates in red wine or tonic wine.

Yet my sugars go up when drinking these drinks..

Anyone got any insight.....

carbohydrates no, sugar mmm maybe. There are 1000's of Red Wines all are different, generally I find Red wines lower my BG however not
all do. Part of the problem is wine bottles never list any additives on them and you never quite know whats in them. The only real answer is to experiment and only drink those that don't raise your BG's. Look on the bright side they are good for your heart even if they raise your BG a bit ;-)

when does it go up ? during or after ? a

seems to be during...then through the night it comes down......as expected

what about cafiene.....does anyone know the effects that could have on sugars

been googling caffiene and BG and its a very grey topic............ppl say that caffiene impares the effectiveness of the insulin and the transfer of glucose from the blood to the bodies cells, hence higher blood sugar.

But it mostly refers to type 2 diabetics.....

The amount of caffiene I would be consuming in one sitting would be 300mg (I know thats alot)

after duscussion with buckfast (j chandler and co) I was told that there is approximately 92 grams of grape sugar in a 75 cl bottle...

the question now is, is grape sugar the same as nornal sugar (sucrose,fructose).

one gram of sugar is the equivelant to one carbohydrate (10g)...

I think with a sweet tonic wine like " Buckfast" is just like a super charged sweet sherry & you'll really need to cover the carbs the same as you would any other sugary drink. Start by covering with a low dose: ratio at the time of day/night you're drinking for those carbs you're drinking and then adjust up until you get a safe dose that gives you the cover you need to limit that rapid rise in glucose. There'll be a dose thats right for your body so you'll just have to try it out and remember youre only trying to take the edge of the rise as you cant control how your body process it and how low your glucose will drop off afterwards.

Drinking 92g of fruit sugar in buckfast will be the same as drinking 92g of other sugar (think of it like drinking an Irn Bru but stronger!!) its just the absorption speed into your blood thats different with a fruit sugar.

Its how you cover that if drinking all night that may be a problem so it may be better to give some gentle correction and decide if you need to cover with any food carbs you are eating before bed as you dont want to have a hypo afterwards.

Its not perfect but it never is with alcohol and Ive found that you may need to reduce your background if taking a dose at night (& for the next day) especially if drinking a lot of alcohol.

You could be doing a service for other DAFNE Buckfast drinkers out here if we can get a carb/dose estimate in the DAFNE Carb counters Booklet with your experiments!!

Good luck, enjoy your drink in moderation and you'll suffer less next day!!! Easier said than done though!

I'm keen to hear your next report

So I had a cold bottle of "buckfast" last night.....and got some interesting results with my insulin test.

At 5.10pm I had my dinner, and my blood was at 10.4. One hour and ten minutes later at 6.20pm I decided to open my bottle.

I took my blood sugar anticipating higher results as my food was still releasing its goodness and there was still fast acting swimming about, my result was 11.8.

As I previously discovered there was 92 grams of sugar / 92 grams of carbohydrate in one bottle which would indicate 9 units of QA to accomodate it.

As there is alot of alcohol in a bottle (15%), and as tonyd explained everyone is different when dealing with alcohol, I decided to take 6 units to be safe.

Nearly four hours later (10pm) , bottle finished, I tested again.....my reslut was 11.3.....so that me pretty much staying the same, which was a good and interesting result. There are a few factors to consider though....my dinner time dose would have influenced that result aswell as the 6 units I took for the wine.

I then went to bed at 12.40am , a half hour previously I had 3 uncovered carbs , anticipating a drop. My blood was at 13.7 before bed, done my usual BI......woke up 13.4.

So my blood must have dropped and then climbed again, as opposed to holding steady....this is due to the dawn phenomonon, I always wake up with double fugures..

I rabbled on a bit there but my conclusion would be to up the 6 units to 7 or 8 the next time I have a bottle and review the results..


Any opinions are very very welcome