You can consume wine when you are a diabetic, but you should consume wine with a carbohydrate food or with a meal. Consuming wine without a meal can cause one’s blood sugar to dip unexpectedly (hypoglycaemia), especially if he or she is dependent on insulin or medication. When blood sugar drops, the liver starts to turn stored carbohydrate reserves in the body into glucose which is then released into the bloodstream to counter the hypoglycaemia.

However, when a diabetic consumes wine without a meal, the liver does not turn stored carbohydrate in the body to glucose. Instead, the liver turns the wine that is being consumed into glucose instead. When more than a light to moderate amount of wine is consumed, the alcohol in the wine starts to react with many of the prescribed diabetic medications, and worsen the side effects of diabetes, such as the increase in blood pressure.

Therefore, if you are a diabetic, you should only consume a maximum of two 10 g standard drinks per day for men, and one 10 g standard drink for women. One 10 g standard drink is approximately 100 ml of wine.

Recent studies have shown that the regular light to moderate consumption of wine by a diabetic with a meal, may also reduce your overall risk of cardiovascular disease. This is related to the positive effect of alcohol on your body’s metabolism of glucose and insulin, and on your plasma concentration of high density lipoprotein (HDL), which increases the removal of cholesterol from your body. On the other hand, the heavy consumption of wine or alcohol will worsen the effects of diabetes, such as significantly increasing your fasting plasma concentration of fats, such as triglyceride.

Therefore, how do you harness the health benefits of drinking wine without worsening your diabetic condition?

Diabetics should consume low sugar or “dry” varieties of wine such as dry sherry, still or sparkling wines. Diabetics should steer clear of medium dry or sweet sherry as well as sweet dessert wines. High sugar liqueurs and fortified wines are not recommended for diabetics.

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The February 2008 issue of Journal of Food Biochemistry published a report with news that red wine and tea may help type 2 diabetics metabolize sugars and starches properly. However, the study’s authors warn that results are not yet conclusive and that more research needs to be done.

Type 2 diabetic patients must keep blood sugar levels as normal as possible to prevent the disease from elevating the chances of heart disease, high blood pressure and possible damage to eyes, kidneys, nerves and blood vessels. “Levels of blood sugar, or blood glucose, rise sharply in patients with type 2 diabetes immediately following a meal,” said researcher Kalidas Shetty, a professor of food biotechnology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a U.S. State Department Jefferson Science Fellow. “Red wine and tea contain natural [phenolic] antioxidants that may slow the passage of glucose through the small intestine and eventually into the bloodstream and prevent this spike.”

Shetty and his team at the department of food science conducted the study as part of a larger initiative to examine the benefits of a diverse diet filled with fresh and healthy, locally available ingredients. Currently, medication for type 2 diabetes to regulate blood sugar has side effects that include intestinal issues. The medication induces improper regulation of pancreatic enzymes, which may in turn cause cramping, flatulence and diarrohea. Shetty and fellow scientists Young-In Kwon and Emmanouil Apostolidis said that alternative therapies, such as dietary management, may offer a solution with no uncomfortable side effects.

Diets rich in red wine have already shown established benefits to heart health. The “Mediterranean diet,” rich in wine and fruit, has been shown to protect against heart attacks. Likewise, research on tea has shown beneficial effects on health. Both are rich in phenols. Phenols are plant-based chemicals that have been found in previous studies to prevent cardiovascular disease. The chemicals also act as antioxidants, which help reduce the damaging oxidative stress on human tissues prevalent in type 2 diabetes.

The scientists prepared samples of two enzymes. The first enzyme alpha-glucosidase, is responsible for triggering the absorption of glucose by the small intestine. In type 2 diabetes sufferers, alpha-glucosidase causes too much starch and sugar to be broken down in the small intestine, thus flooding the blood with too much sugar. The second enzyme, called alpha-amylase, is often triggered by type 2 diabetes medications, causing the painful side effects.

After preparing the enzymes, the scientists exposed the samples to four types of tea: green, black, oolong and white, as well as eight kinds of wine: four reds and four whites, all sourced from local liquor stores. When the scientists exposed the enzymes separately to the teas and wines, they found all of the red wines were able to inhibit the enzyme alpha-glucosidase by nearly 100 percent, which meant better blood-sugar regulation. The white wines were only able to inhibit the glucose-digesting molecule by 20 percent. All of the teas inhibited alpha-glucosidase by 85 to 95 percent. Shetty added that the differences between red and white wines came as no surprise given the levels of phenols in red is considerable higher.

Furthermore, neither the wine nor the tea triggered the pancreatic enzyme, alpha-amylase, which means the beverages may potentially prevent the painful side effects.

In spite of this, Shetty warns that red wine as a type 2 diabetes therapy is still in the distant future as it is difficult to create a daily dosage recommendation for the general population based on one study. Therefore, Shetty would not suggest drinking red wine to solve a problem on its own. Instead, he suggests drinking one to two glasses of red wine daily, plus four to five glasses of tea with a diet comprising a wide choice of whole and fresh foods, in order to consume optimal levels of protective phenolic chemicals. The best approach is to have sufficient local food and traditional food diversity.

For tips on how diabetics can consume wine safely, please refer to the next post. To learn more about the root cause of diabetes and slowly but surely trigger your body to produce more insulin, click here to read about how your body can achieve a diabetes breakthrough.