I'm an idiot apparently

(Jason Christianson) #1

So I decided to have a gin and tonic last night. Completely oblivious that tonic water was full of sugar, I’d never looked. It never tasted at all sweet to me pre-keto. So I picked up some tonic water, made my drink thinking I was being so “good” and was amazed at how sweet it tasted. Looked at the bottle and it’s full of HFCS!!! GRRRRR…

Can't keep up with 50g proteins a day
#2

That was a surprise to me to. A friend on keto texted me and told me how good she was being, drinking gin and tonic. She added, don’t tell me if it’s not a good thing! But I looked it up and told her anyway lol. (She switched to sparking water. Kept the gin)

#3

I’m an idiot too, but for entirely different reasons.

(Bunny) #4

:rofl:

(Ellie) #5

You can get slimline tonic. It has sweeteners rather than sugar. I know some people are anti sweeteners but they don’t seem to affect me too much so I have a G&T here and there :grin:.

(Aimee Moisa) #6

What I want is sugar free Triple Sec, Midori, and mixer for my margaritas. The other day I had a really bad day at work and instead of craving a doughnut, which is my usual pre-keto go-to, I actually thought, “This is definitely a margarita kind of day.” So I bought some Zevia and drank that instead. Not the same. LOL

(Jason Christianson) #7

I guess it would depend on the sweetener. If it’s saccharin or aspartame or stevia I don’t want to have anything to do with it.

(Jason Christianson) #8

I’m working on trying to make something right now. Also, then I can make it MUCH less sweet because I’m so sensitive to sweet now that I’ve been keto. Things I used to like are too sweet to me nowdays!

#9

Me, too - shocked. At a Christmas party I had vodka and tonic thinking I was being so keto-compliant, and when getting my second drink I saw the tonic bottle, read it, and was shocked and p/ssed.

So what SHOULD we order if and when we drink? I don’t do it often, but I would like to join the folks after work on a Friday once in a while and don’t know what I’d order.
Sue

(joe churchill ) #10

Zevia makes a decent Tonic.

https://www.zevia.com/products/mixers/tonic

At a bar, I will only order vodka w/ club soda/seltzer. Or whisky. I’ve had too many issues with diet fountain drinks not being diet.

#11

I just drink my whiskey straight! But sometimes, that’s too much, so I’ll mix with seltzer. I also have been known to enjoy vodka or gin with flavored sparkling water…there are tons of flavors out now, so it’s hard to get bored!

(Michelle) #12

I’m in Kentucky. So I drink Bourbon on ice. It takes getting used to if you’re a wine drinker, but it is really good.

#13

Keto drinks, booze and ice, if needed add some carbonated water, and a strip of lime peel. @ladylyssa trying to figure out margaritas, i have done them with tequila and a fresh lime squeeze.

#14

Is the alcohol used to provide energy? I’m guessing it’s broken down to sugars and so insulin is involved.

Is alcohol ever part of fat metabolism, ever ketogenic?

(Jason Christianson) #15

Problem is, that’s not a margarita, it’s just tequila with lime. Missing an orange liqueur. So the crutch is a sugar free orange liqueur that is somewhat less sweet. I’m thinking about steeping orange peels in congac and adding just a little erythritol or xylitol.

(Jason Christianson) #16

Yeah, when I’m at a bar, I just get straight burbon or scotch. Otherwise I never know.

(Doug) #17

Kind of a long explanation… (I didn’t remember all of this; had to look up some stuff.) We get rid of a little of the alcohol by breathing it out, or sweating it out, and in urine, but most gets digested and indeed it provides energy - 7 calories per gram (fats are 9, carbs and protein are 4). As with the latter three, there is an energy cost to the digestion of alcohol, so it ends up about 5.7 calories per gram.

It’s not broken down into sugars. Our digestion of it is closer to how we process fats. Carbohydrates get broken down into monosaccharides - the simplest carbohydrates - and then are absorbed into the bloodstream.

For booze, the liver takes over - alcohol gets a couple hydrogen atoms busted off, and then one more. Alcohol dehydrogenase first works on it, making acetaldehyde, then aldehyde dehydrogenase hits it, making acetyl radicals or “acetic acid radicals.” Acetaldehyde is poisonous to us, so this process gets top priority - the metabolism of other stuff has to wait.

Our bodies combine the acetyl radicals with Coenzyme A, making acetyl coenzyme A (‘acetyl CoA’), and then it goes into the Krebs Cycle - how we get most of our energy. At that point, it’s the same as with the digestion of fats, proteins and carbs - to simplify things, we get energy from the reactions and carbon dioxide and water as waste products.

When we metabolize fats, we bust off fatty acids from triglycerides, then there are a few more reactions, one of which is the addition of Coenzyme A - hence the similarity with alcohol metabolism. We end up with acetyl CoA and the Krebs Cycle as above.

Alcohol isn’t part of fat metabolism. We don’t store alcohol - it all has to go, and the metabolism of fats, etc., has to wait. While some carbohydrate metabolism does continue (I think we’d die or be severely compromised if it didn’t), the processing of alcohol really puts the brakes on fat metabolism.

Alcohol often does not have much of an effect on blood sugar or insulin, so I don’t think it much directly applies to “ketogenic” or not, there. Some people have blood sugar go down, some up, and it may depend on the amount of alcohol.

Alcohol stops the liver from producing sugar. It’s not unusual to have lower blood sugar the next morning after a moderate amount. Diabetics need to pay attention - from what I’ve read there is more of a danger of low blood sugar for them. If the body is really depleted of glycogen, as on a long fast, then drinking a substantial amount of alcohol can be dangerous - we’re already at a relatively low level of blood sugar, and now the liver stops its production of glucose due to the alcohol. The pancreas is also stimulated to secrete more insulin by the alcohol, so we’re hit with a double whammy.

Since fat metabolism is stopped by alcohol, if anything I’d say it’s anti-ketogenic.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #18

Two other points to remember: First, too much alcohol at one time overloads the liver and stimulates de novo lipogenesis, the cause of fatty liver disease (fructose, being metabolized by the same liver pathway, does the same thing).

Second, ethanol (and fructose likewise) stimulates the production of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center. Too much dopamine causes the cells to down-regulate their dopamine receptors in self-defense. Repeated blasts of dopamine will eventually kill the cells, permanently reducing the number of dopamine receptors (this is the phenomenon of tolerance, whereby the addict requires an ever-larger hit to receive the same amount of pleasure).

I love gin, but it makes me break out in spots—Chicago, Detroit, New York, Miami, . . . .

(Ralene ) #19

I’ve made my own sweet n sour for years using stevia and erythritol in lime juice and lemon juice. I haven’t made it since going keto, but there is 2.1 carbs in 1 oz lemon juice and 2.6 carbs in 1 oz lime juice. For the orange flavor, I think your plan to infuse orange peels in brandy is brilliant.

Somebody should start a business making delicious no carb mixers. A good margarita is heaven. Most are too sugary and gross.

One of my favorite summer cocktails used to be diet 7 Up with gin, lime juice and a dash of vanilla. We call 'em vanginas. (Hope that’s not too offensive to anyone here. Just a bit of fun!) I haven’t had alcohol for quite some time since it caused my chronic pain to increase. I’m hoping once I am further into my keto journey that I can have an occasional cocktail again.

(TJ Borden) #20

I switched to gin and soda. I love them more than gin and tonics. Turns out, I’m not really a fan of tonic water, and gin tastes awesome.