Is it safe

[Khud31]

Hi was wondering if anyone knew if it's safe to drink non alcoholic becks beer 0.05% with cirrhosis 

[RodeoJoe]

i think that's probably ok. I mean it's Virtually non alcoholic right? A good question, maybe see what other people say first because I'm just guessing.What is the cause of the cirrhosis?

[Hidden]

I'm sure it is safe but why would you? The fact is, it is not beer and does not taste like it. I recognise the challenge of finding the right drink to buy in a pub, especially in company. It took me about 2 years until I settled for sparking water as the least worst!

[Khud31 in reply to Hidden]

To me it is a nice drink I drunk it before have done for years and when I have been driving that's like saying what's the point of tea to me

[h0b0]

Unfortunately the answer has to be no. Not even food containing alcohol.

[scotcher123]

Hi , I drink the Beck's alcohol free beer , my GP told me it's absolutely fine to do so

[Hidden]

I don't have cirrohsis but tried as I shouldn't drink alcohol I did try a 0.5% red wine. It was disgusting - it was like drinking a sugary glass of grape juice. I'm glad it was so cheap as almost the whole bottle, other than a few sips, was poured down the drain. BTW, I believe the alcohol in food is burnt off if the food is cooked.

[Khud31 in reply to Hidden]

0.5 is half a percent becks is a fraction of that and does tast like beer you would have to drink over 90 bottles to come close to the equivalent of one bottle of normal beer in an hour or so was told the tiny bit of alcohol would be lost by the time it got to your liver and would be more in a rooting grape

[briccolone in reply to Hidden]

Know what you mean about alcohol free wine but not all alcholol gets boiler away in cooking there are residual amounts if about 1% or so depending on cooking time so not recommended if you have cirrhisis

[dooley1]

I have cirrhosis and when I researched the alcohol content in Becks Blue being 0.05% it's so negligible it's around the same as in orange juice or vinegar apparently  so I drink it now and again and find it does taste very similar to normal Becks having said that I'm not a huge fan of beer so am not exactly a connoisseur. I also find Eisburg RED wine quite nice (the white isnt so nice) and that's only 0.05% too. Most non alcohol drinks contain 0.5% which I wouldn't personally risk. It's not the sort of thing you would drink a lot of but now and again for a treat and a change from water or Coke it's quite nice. 😃

[Catfishjumpin]

I have cirrhosis, I do not drink anything in cans or bottles period, there is sodium, they are processed, there is aluminum, there is no food value, even juice is just sugar water. Depends on how serious you are about your cirrhosis.

[Tess74]

Hi good question & I've been wondering the same & I'm surprised at the response here as I expected more people to be totally against it. I was never a lager drinker personally but these days I've been enjoying a becks blue lemon (infact I've developed quite a taste for it!!), at the weekend I also drank some 'fake champagne' that I got from sainsburys (0.5%) which I really enjoyed in the sun...it;s the decadence I think I crave lol ...for me I like the 'adult' drink, I don;t like fizzy water or soft drinks. I also drink Bavaria 0.0% lager with a splash of lime which is nice, my other non booze drink is cherry juice with a lemonade, nice and refreshing and I heard 'somewhere' that cherry juice is good for the liver, I don;t know if theres any truth to that but it tastes nice & not too sweet

[RodeoJoe]

I think it's worth remembering that if it's safe to drink the beer it's the posters choice, even if it tastes bad.

It's an interesting debate and you'll find that most Dr's will give the easy answer of NO to drinking alcohol or faux alcoholic beverages. However I was first diagnosed at 25 and controversially was told (by a senior consultant) that because my cirrhosis was not due to alcohol I could drink in the region of 14 units a week. I stuck to that, and as far as I'm aware it didn't contribute to the disease, and they had a good look when they took it out when I was 42, but the cause could not be identified as being caused by either alcohol, virus or any of the known liver diseases.

I would however say that this advice was controversial and when I did end up in the transplant assessment unit it was raised and scrutinized. And it definitely did not go in my favour. 

[exy21]

I was told by gastro specialist that alcohol was allowed in small doses as long as food is involved. 

[LAJ123]

The consensus or should I say the transplant party line is this;  If your cirrhosis was due to alcohol then even fake  alcohol is not a good idea.  This is because post transplant, if you're still in the mindset of a "drinker" the non alcoholic drink is just one step from being an alcoholic drink and when that appears to do no harm as you have now got a functioning liver, the habits of your previous pre-op life can easily return. Thereby potentially destroying your new liver.  They frown upon even going to pubs and drinking alcohol free drinks.  I was alcohol free for six months but the transplant team made it a condition for being listed that I had to attend counselling sessions to prove I wouldn't return to drinking post transplant.  At first I objected but gradually came to see their point and now still attend sessions post transplant  - by choice.

It makes sense, respect for the donor, the transplant team, your family and then yourself means you take great care of your new liver.  By the way, I do go to pubs and drink alcohol free Kopaberg  (all Wetherspoons and Tesco have it ) which is indistinguishable from the alcoholic version.  We did a blind tasting and Lucy couldn't tell the alcohol free from the alcohol version.

Jim

 

[Paulio in reply to LAJ123]

Very interesting comment and a wise perspective on this Post/Question raised re: 'low' alcohol consumption

[Khud31]

Hiya thanks for your thoughts but it is purely because I like it as a drink just as I do iron brew and other drinks I have no intention of drinking alcohol and never passes my mind and I no I never will I have to much respect for my life now never new my question would start such a stir lol

[justme321]

Drinking any sort of alcohol with Cirrhosis is like putting gasoline on fire

[Khud31]

Would you like to expand

[justme321]

I hope you realise non-alcoholic beer still has about 0.5 % alcohol.

I don't think a cirrhotic liver will appreciate any amount of alcohol

[Khud31]

Becks is 0.05 not like the 0.5 it's about the same as a semi rotten grape the gp said

[justme321 in reply to Khud31]

I see but what's the point of that then?

The sugar content inside is not good for the liver either

You don't need alcohol in your life. I know it can be tempting but with Cirrhosis I would not take any chances.

I'm sorry if I sound uptight but I feel your life is much more than NA beers. Please take care of yourself.

[cityman62]

Funnily enough I drank 4 bottles of it by accident at a family 'do',and in truth it tasted OK,I was a bit hacked off to find I'd been paying £2.75 for it tho tbh!

[Liverlover]

The simple answer is that it's fine provided you have no history of alcoholism. If alcohol is the cause of your disease then it's best to get used to the idea that alcoholic drinks are off the menu forever, even pretend ones.

[Hidden]

OK, so you have cirrhosis, that's bad enough in itself. If your condition rapidly worsens (as mine did), you may need a transplant, quickly. You need to be alcohol free for 6 months to even get to assessment stage. That means that if you then stop drinking when you actually need the transplant, you will have to wait 6 months.

In my case I suddenly deteriorated and wouldn't have lived anywhere near another 6 months.

If this sounds harsh, it's because I believe your life is just too important. Please look after yourself.

Mike