Healthy Living: Your Beer and Your blood sugar
While beer may not have that much sugar after all, it’s an alcoholic drink, and as such, it can lower your blood sugar levels.
Alcohol impairs sugar metabolism by inhibiting gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis the body’s production and breakdown of stored sugar, respectively which are needed to maintain blood sugar balance.
Therefore, its intake may result in hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar levels, which is why it’s generally recommended to consume it with a carb-containing meal.
However, if consumed along with simple carbs that raise your blood sugar levels too quickly, it may lead to an increased insulin response, resulting again in hypoglycemia.
Additionally, alcohol may interfere with the effectiveness of hypoglycemic medications.
While beer may have a low sugar content, as an alcoholic drink, it may lead to low blood sugar levels.
Sugar is a key element in beer brewing, as it’s the nutrient from which yeast produces alcohol.
While a couple of factors influence yeast’s ability to convert sugar into alcohol, it’s highly efficient at doing so. Therefore, aside from the non-alcoholic types, beer tends to have a low sugar content.
Still, keep in mind that alcoholic beverages may lower your blood sugar levels.
Plus, to avoid negative health effects, you should always drink alcohol in moderation, which is defined as no more than one and two standard drinks per day for women and men, respectively.