Why I Drink

For religious reasons, I can only drink one of the three things you listed. I'm sure you can figure out which.

I drink mostly water. I really like Cherry Coke Zero. I probably drink too much of that. When I have a long day ahead of me in clinic, or an exam to take that day, I drink a sugar free Rock Star. Not the greatest thing to drink I know, but it helps me concentrate during tests.

Thanks for writing.

Since I canot endure hard liquor, I'm considering adding a beer or wine to my diet.  I've also read that there are benefits.  But what about the carbohydrate count?  Since you advocate such a low number of carbs, wouldn't the addition of these liquors throw me off my insulin requirements?

Hey, Dave, I love coffee, too, but I am not the gourmet you are. I hope you don't faint, but McDonald's now makes good coffee. As you can probably tell, I prefer a lighter, mellower roast than you do. One of my sons says I am a coffee wimp.  ;-)

As to making coffee, I tried a press and didn't like the "sludge" left over, so I have been doing my research and am planning on purchasing a Chemex coffee maker. The newer versions have glass handles instead of the original wood collars, which makes for easier cleaning. They are also rather elegant looking.

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Thanks for this post. I've been really down about my weight and blood sugars lately, so this was a nice break from all the doom and gloom reading I have been doing lately.

Funnily enough I think American beer is as good as if not better than European and other beers - however you need to be selective, I think for a diabetic a low carb beer is the most useful and Michellob Ultra is I think the best of the genre! Its a pilsner style leaning towards Budweis and quite lovely iced on a hot day here in Australia where it is quite hard to find!

Coffee - I pollute with milk but not sugar. At work I use a plunger mug, at home a brewing macine with a washable nylon filter. I found a local roasters inexpensive blend as good as any...not that I don't know the difference and when in doubt would choose a Kenya growth bean. Latin American ones are often too harsh or strong I have found.

Tea - this is my weakness, currently I am drinking fbop (flowery broken orange pekeo) from Sri Lanka (Ceylon) with full cream milk. We used to use long life skimmed milk (low price) but found it didn't keep very long and I have read that without fat the calcium content is not available to us. 98% and other types of non full cream milk are premium priced here and since we don't drink more than 1/2 litre a day if that the fat consumed is low.

Since controlling sugars is a priority for me (us as diabetics also) I am beginning to rethink my diet and leaning towards less terror of meats - providing I don't eat excessively fatty cuts - there is a theory out there that anything that moved around is good for us wheras grains in particular aren't! I still avoid potatoes as much as possible and recommend a good rice cooker not only is it easier to make rice than potatoes with this, it encourages us to make things that go well with rice especially Japanese style meals. A Japanese style curry, mild and tasty is one of the easiest as you can buy ready to use curry and thickner which you just dissolve in a gravy stew of meat and vegs.  One other tip is to use rice vinegar when baking fatty meats e.g. lamb in a closed pot - it's delicious.