A drop of beer on a sun-soaked pavement café, a drop of wine with dinner. Alcohol is part of our society. Diabetes per se is no reason to be total abstainer. That said, once you have diabetes, there's one or two things that you have to watch out for.

"Oh, don't be such a wimp!" How many times have you had that in your face when you gracefully declined an alcoholic kick in the head? It may seem as unsocial as it wants: if you have diabetes, you have to limit yourself a glass or two per day. We used to think otherwise. Back in the days when there was no insulin therapy, persons with diabetes were prescribed wine. Well, yes. Alcohol can lower the blood glucose. The wine therapy has, alas, failed the test of time; it had all kinds of negative effects for the liver, pancreas and nervous system. Nor is this the whole story regarding the downside of alcohol consumption.

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