Diabetic??

[Undead]

My stepmother is diabetic and, while I have no clue about how much sugar she can eat and the soluble fiber or whatever, I was wondering if there was any way to tell how much sugar is in a recipe by a specific gravity range. I know I should take before and after ratings, but I have no clue on the meads I made before I got my hydrometer.

[wayneb]

Dry meads (as long as they don't have any grain adjuncts like Braggots) are generally devoid of sugar, or nearly so. The problem for many diabetics is that the ethyl alcohol is almost as bad as OD-ing with sugar, since the ethanol messes with your insulin production and response mechanisms.

[jkane]

There are 2 basic kinds of diabetics. Knowing which is important. Type 1 must have insulin since their body can't/won't make it. Type 2 has a cellular problem where their body makes insulin, but their cells forget how to use it. Adding more insulin can help, but only for a limited number of years.

As said above, alcohol is a carbohydrate. It's not just sugar, but all carbohydrates that are of concern.

In a type 1, they need to calculate the right amount of insulin to take to go with the alcohol/sugar.

A type 2 has things a bit more complicated! There are different needs within the type 2 group. Some can drink and be fine. Others can not. Early stage type 2 is usually OK. Late stage 2 may have kidney damage, and that means alcohol has other issues for them beyond just diabetes.

Here's the fun part. ;-) The liver and kidneys work together to breakdown the alcohol to glucose for the cells and then dispose of the rest. So, if all is healthy there, drinking a couple glasses of mead will actually lower blood sugar levels for a while. This is why some people think it's OK to drink dry alcohol but not sweet. It's a side effect that is good and bad.

The key is knowing your own body and tracking the blood sugar level before, during, and after drinking. From there you can make an educated decision if your body can handle it or not.

I won't tell anyone else what to do about their diabetes, but I will share the facts. For me, drinking every now and then is acceptable. But, I know each drink presents real long term risks. Some day I may not be able to anymore. Then again, I live by the rule it's better to burn out than fade away!

[Noe Palacios]

1.- What Happen to Honey's sugars when they it turn into Mead's alcohol?
During fermentation, yeast turns honey's sugars into alcohol. However, a total alcohol conversion never takes place and depending on their residual sugars Mead are catalogued as sweet, demi sec (semi-sweet) or dry. In short, Mead have as much sugars as their cousins made from grapes do.

The Mazer is who decide how much residual sugars Mead will have, and ussually the occasion sugest what kind of Mead you should take, but the most important thing is ... that you are who decide how much you should drink.

2.- Can Diabetics drink Mead?
It depends. Mead is an alcoholic beverage and in general it should be Moderately Consumed.

There is a tendency, as drier the Mead is, as more dextrins its residual sugars will have. Dextrins are more complex sugars and when they are digested they turn into glucose in a lower rate than other sugars do, so occassionally they are discarded before they turns into glucose. However, the diabetics' risks of Mead consumption are not related to residual sugars, but to alcohol.

One of the alcoholic beverage consumption effects is the reduction of the glucose level in blood, which can cause in diabetics an unwanted episode of hipoglycemia. For that reason, the American Association of Diabetes recommends to follow three rules:

Consume only if your condition is UNDER CONTROL
Consume only if your STOMACH IS NOT EMPTY
Consume MODERATELY

If you are diabetic you should discuss about this topic with your doctor. But nevertheless, if you are diabetic you can drink Mead, but moderately, and if you have a glucose meter it is always a good idea to measure your glucose level two hours after your Mead.

[Steve Works]

Without proper tracking of one's own sugar level and overall tone of health it is hard to give a general answer to your question. Does she not keep a journal of some type?
__________________________________
Steve Works
sweet champagne

[Soulpanda]

Bravo Jkane and Noe Palacious. That was a simple yet exact explanation. I have have diabetics on both sides of my family and haven't heard said that plainly before.

But more importantly, yeah, it depends on her diabetes and how it reacts to alchohol. I may be wrong, but I would assume that if she can handle a glass of wine, she at least has a good chance of handling a glass of mead.

[vulcan500rider]

I agree with all the advice already given, but specific to the OP's question, I believe the Brix reading on your hydrometer should be able to give you an approximate (varies by any other suspended solids in the mead) idea of how much sugar is suspended in the solution.

I believe it's 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution, per brix degree (at 20 degrees C)

Cheers.

[Chevette Girl]

Originally Posted by vulcan500rider

I agree with all the advice already given, but specific to the OP's question, I believe the Brix reading on your hydrometer should be able to give you an approximate (varies by any other suspended solids in the mead) idea of how much sugar is suspended in the solution.

I believe it's 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution, per brix degree (at 20 degrees C)

Cheers.

The problem is that doesn't account for the ethanol if it's a finished wine or mead. Sugar makes the hydrometer float higher than pure water, ethanol makes it float lower, so unless you know exactly how much ethanol's in your solution you can't really figure out the sugar that way with any accuracy...

[vulcan500rider]

Originally Posted by Chevette Girl

The problem is that doesn't account for the ethanol if it's a finished wine or mead. Sugar makes the hydrometer float higher than pure water, ethanol makes it float lower, so unless you know exactly how much ethanol's in your solution you can't really figure out the sugar that way with any accuracy...

Oh shiz whiz. Thanks, CV. I didn't know it worked that way. I realize that a hydrometer can sit lower in a dry mead than in water, but I assumed that was because a dry mead would it eat residual sugars in water (most water not being entirely pure). I guess that doesn't really make much sense, though, as even if there were a few sugar molecules in water, it wouldn't be enough to make a significant change on the hydrometer...

[Chevette Girl]

Originally Posted by vulcan500rider

Oh shiz whiz. Thanks, CV. I didn't know it worked that way. I realize that a hydrometer can sit lower in a dry mead than in water, but I assumed that was because a dry mead would it eat residual sugars in water (most water not being entirely pure). I guess that doesn't really make much sense, though, as even if there were a few sugar molecules in water, it wouldn't be enough to make a significant change on the hydrometer...

Correct. And for the record, suspended solids doesn't affect a SG reading, it's only matter dissolved into the water that wil affect the hydrometer.

And ethanol can hide sugar. This whole thing is something I've been wrestling with, every time I do a spirit indication of something my SG calculations indicate should be very high, it comes out nowhere near as exciting. Even though the SG's say it should have been 18-20% I still come out with 16%... and when I freeze-concentrated a batch that read at 16% by SG, it came out at only 18% by spirit indication after I'd removed about a third of the water, so it obviously wasn't 16% to start with.

[celticgladiator]

Originally Posted by wayneb

Dry meads (as long as they don't have any grain adjuncts like Braggots) are generally devoid of sugar, or nearly so. The problem for many diabetics is that the ethyl alcohol is almost as bad as OD-ing with sugar, since the ethanol messes with your insulin production and response mechanisms.

exactly what i was going to say. some diabetics really need to watch their alcohol intakes closely. if in doubt, i'd say less is better.