Alcohol free beer

[X1702]

Hello everyone. After being diagnosed with liver cirrhosis I stopped drinking alcohol. However once in a while I drink alcohol free beer. I recently noticed that in the bottle label it states that it contains less than 0.5% alcohol. Is such small quantity allowed to consume or better avoiding it completely?

[nash2 Partner]

I'm not aware that there is any real research that tries to define the minimum but I think about it this way. A stage 3 or 4 liver is struggling and our goal is to minimize the work load and toxins it has to deal with so the safe bet is to abstain. Earlier stage disease has more functional liver cells to work with so it probably manages an occasional non-alcoholic brew fine but again it is an unnecessary toxin so you have to consider that.

[Schnauzerguy]

I have NASH and I can tell you what my gastroenterologist said to me when I said that to him… “When I said no alcohol I meant NO ALCOHOL!” He left the practice several years ago, it was sad, I liked him a lot, he had a good sense of humor but was also very direct. That said, I do periodically have Heineken 0.0 beer (which has up to .05%) and a local dark beer that is also 0.0% that means it contains trace amounts of alcohol - about comparable to bread, fruit, etc. So far may labs look pretty good.