Quitting Beer Drinking

[faithladene]

The love of my life has, recently been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. If, there is any one out there with some advice as to how he can stop the beer drinking, please advise.

All food gluten has been deleted from his diet for 6 months. Beer is an addiction, for him. Drinking wine, or, other gluten free alcohol is not satisfying enough. Beer is killing him. However, the desire for a cold beer surpasses all logic. Please, advise, if, anyone out there has ideas how to quit beer.

Thank you,

faithladene

[hapi2bgf]

The old celiac.com forum had a variety of people who found gluten-free beer and really enjoyed it. Myself, I'm a vodka drinker. I didn't mind giving up beer at all, but I miss not drinking my Absolute. Smirnoff just doesn't cut it.

I don't think this site has archives that are searchable. Try Open Original Shared Link. You might be able to find some brands on that site. The other option is to keep your question on this site, but post it under Forums => Miscellanious instead of polls. I'm not sure how many people read the polls.

Good luck finding the gluten-free beers

[midnightjewel40]

i know that beer is the thing that is hard to give up but you need to tell him that he has too and thats all there is too it my father didnt give it up he died at 69 from osophacus cancer he had celiacs but chose to ignore it tell the love of your live that he should go into the cancer wards and see what its like to lie there dieing knowing that you could have prevented it my dad ended up like a vegetable in such a short time take him to places and educate him and tell him there are other things to drink that beer and you know he just might find one he really enjoys

jacque

[Connie R-E]

faithladene,

Would he be interested in homebrewing his own gluten-free beer?

That is what we do....

Connie

[JsBaby-G]

Faith

This probably isn't the response your gonna wanna hear but, if he doesn't want to stop drinking beer despite the agony he is putting his body through then he won't.

It took me 2 years to really get serious about gluten free, I still ate gluten although I knew what it was doing to me. Try the gluten-free beer, but in the end it's his intestines he's screwing with.

Sorry!!

[peterand]

So I guess I am pretty new to this Gluten free thing. I am not even totally, totally sure that it is Gluten that I am sensitive to. Although I haven't had a piece of bread or flour since August.

For the last month or so I have just been so tired. I cut out all the Gluten I could think of. Corn Starch is just murder for me. But it sounds like Corn isn't a bad thing. However I didn't stop drinking beer. I think this just may have been the culprit!

I stopped the Gluten in late August. Then the Corn and beer. I went to the doctor and he said I had an Ulcer. He treated me for it. I then had a month of pure bliss! I felt absolutely heavenly!

My wife slipped corn starch into gravy a couple of times and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I started feeling, for the lack of a better word. "bad" After a couple of weeks she fessed up. However I think that it maybe brought my ulcer back. Heartburn wow!

Good news is I lost 20 pounds.

So I am off the beer now for about 10 days and I am starting to improve I think.

Seems like it is so hard to diagnose this! Any words of wisdom out there.

[PETES]

Why can't you drink absolute? I have a glass 3 or 4 nights a week. I was told all vodka was ok even if it is grain based.

[seeking-wholeness]

Peterand, you certainly may have a separate sensitivity to corn; it's rather common to uncover additional food sensitivities after you eliminate gluten. Do you have a problem with other corn products? I wonder, too, if there might be a cross-contamination problem with the brand of cornstarch your wife uses--or if it may have gotten traces of flour in it during storage and/or use in your kitchen! These are all things to consider. Good luck solving this mystery!

[Streakytoosle]

A very good friend of mine is also finding it difficult to stop drinking beer. I can see why its so difficult for him because he's a 19 year old british male, and beer drinking is a big thing in this age group. So the amount of peer pressure on him to have a pint at the pub with his mates is enormous!!

he knows just as well as i do that his friends, and the people who really care for him, would understand his situation, and wouldnt make a fuss if he drinks something else (god forbid!!!). but there's still his masculinity to think about!!

yes, i know.... how does his masculinity weigh up to his life!!??!! i suppose at 19 you're not really old enough to understand what life is really about- you just float along in this fun-loving environment, and that involves alcohol! and this, it seems, is stopping him from seeing what really is important!

Its a sensitive topic for him. He doesnt like to talk about celiac disease or have people fuss over him (im sure this is quite generally true). which may be another reason for his reluctance to stop drinking. if he wasnt drinking beer, he would feel different from everyone else. he would feel resentment for the celiac disease besause its stopping him being a regular adolescent in a very obvious way. not eating bread, or eating gluten free pasta, or simply not odering anything that contains gluten at a restaurant isnt so noticable. But not drinking beer in a pub is noticable, and so would make him feel "abnormal".

His new years resolution was to stop drinking beer, which made me happy because it seems as though he does really see why it is important. But as soon as he enters a pub, it all goes out of the window!!

I cant make him stop, it needs to be his decision entirely. but i can support and encourage him! i wont try and make him see why its so important, because he already knows!!

but this is difficult for me because i love him so much and i cant bear to think about what this is doing to him. and i cant nag him! and i dont want him to think im nagging him! so how can i go about this so that he takes it seriously, without me being next to him in a pub and making him order something different (which i can not do seeing as i live in a different country from him!!)?

Vio xxx

[Guest JEN]

does anyone know what brand and where you can get gluten-free beer in the US?

[alexa11219]

Hi Jen. About a week ago, I saw information about gluten-free beer on this board, something like "Hi guys, I found gluten-free beer", with no additional details. Since beer is not the greatest loss for me, I don't remember where exactly I saw it. Try "search". It's here. Good luck.

[Kim]

try www.ramapovalleybrewery.com for gluten free beer. I haven't had it, but people on the post said it was good.

Good luck.

[DrLeonard]

The hardest thing for me to give up was beer. Here are some things I've figured out...

First, the ramapo valley brewery does make gluten-free beer. I ordered a case (it was $60, I think) and a few of the bottles were broken in the mail. The beer itself was okay, and I've since been told that it's technically illegal to ship alcohol this way across state lines. That's probably not going to work for someone who likes to drink beer regularly---too expensive, not a very good taste, breaking the law, etc.

There's a new company that has a website advertising gluten-free beer (Open Original Shared Link). They won't direct ship, and I've been trying to get local stores to order it for about six months with zero success. The problem, I guess, is that an alcohol distributor has to get involved. But recently this company has added a list of states where you can possibly get their beer from. I've never had it.

Apparently there's a brewer in Italy that crafts gluten-free beer. This, for me, is good enough reason to go there in itself. But they won't ship it anywhere else, I guess because it spoils.

Sometimes a "hard cider" can taste good. I've had no problems with Hornsby's and there are plenty of others on the market you could try. EDIT: Thanks to Tom, who corrected me that Hornsby's is NOT gluten-free---just heard back from the brewer, and I'll post that letter about Hornsby's and other Gallo products elsewhere).

So your original post asked about how to quit beer-drinking, and I guess one thing that might work is replacing beer with something gluten-free. Another strategy to consider is finding some professional help and/or a support group. Sometimes not being able to give up a food (or beverage) as part of celiac disease has a lot to do with emotional reactions to the disease itself. I've seen a lot of posts where people describe their initial reactions to the diagnosis and diet, and it seems clear that most people get the hang of it with time. But I think you have to be concerned when someone is stuck and continuing to expose themselves to gluten, even though they know it's harmful and it makes them sick. That's where getting some outside help might make a big difference.

Good luck to you both.

[azedazobollis]

CONNIE: WE ARE HOME BREWERS TOO!!!

[zippyten]

Hi: I've been gluten-free for almost a year now and giving up beer (among other favorite things) was also hard for me. I discovered Ramapo Valley's honey-based brew, and I'm fortunate enough to live right near a gourmet beer store that carries it on a regular basis. It's on the sweet side, and you do get used to it, but I don't think I'd be shipping it to my house at a high cost if it wasn't convenient for me to just buy it in a store. Bard's Tale did finally release their beer just a short while ago and I was delighted to find it really tastes like the real thing, a nice ale. Unfortunately, however, I think the overwhelming demand (and good taste) is making it a little hard for the company to be consistent in its distribution. They have a list of all restaurants and stores that supposedly carry it by state on their website, which is www.bardsbeer.com.

What's happened to me is that I've gradually trained myself to like wine a little better than I did previously, and I tend more to have a glass or two of wine with friends or at dinners rather than beer. I know it's hard to give up beer if you are a beer drinker and really like the taste. But as with other food-related gluten-free issues, I think it's more about what the food/drink symbolizes than anything else, and that's the part that takes time getting over. For example, if you are used to going to a pub with your friends and drinking a few pints, it is very difficult to let that part of your life go, and hard to find a substitute, just like for other people it might be sharing that Friday night pizza with their kids, and so on. We need to find ways to adapt, to hold on to the rituals that made the food or drink so important, and try to find other ways of continuing them, rather than insisting it is the beer or the pizza or the pasta Alfredo that is the whole point -- that without it life is just not the same. I am not minimizing anyone's feelings on this, though. It takes a pretty long time for most of us to come to terms with a whole new way of living.

I feel a lot further along this path than I was 10 months ago, and I hope that I will make even more progress in the future.

Zippyten

[jboom]

gluten-free Beer!

I used to brew my own but gave it up and turned to wine making. Where can I get a recipe?

As far as getting someone to stop drinking it ... get him on this website, let him read some of the statistics on the likelihood of cancer among other things in his future. Having watched several loved ones die of cancer in my life, I don't care to go through it or put my family through it.

It's just something you have to do. gluten-free all the way! I don't even consider knowingly cheating. Just my $.02.

I sure would like that recipe though.

[tom]

Sometimes a "hard cider" can taste good. I've had no problems with Hornsby's and there are plenty of others on the market you could try.

I think Hornsby's is one of the few hard ciders that are NOT gluten-free, tho i'm not positive where I'd read that.

Streakytoosle - i bet all those pubs have hard cider, and one thing in its favor as a beer replacement is that it feels similar - same kind of pint glass, same heft, similar color. Friends of mine from the UK are always more familiar w/ cider than most in the US, and i think it's available at nearly all pubs there and quite common to see cider drinkers alongside beer drinkers.

Given all that, i'm also positive he JUST WANTS A #**%$@ BEER ! Unfortunately, he can't foresee the life ahead for a celiac ingesting gluten. It probably wouldn't kill him, just make him wish it had.

[pturse]

I thought Hornsby was gluten free??

Also, according to Amstel Light, they are gluten free, they do not use wheat in making their beer and any malt is burned off in the process. I had a rep tell me directly. That may be a choice for someone who is addicted to beer. It is also the lowest in calories! I drink w/o problems but I always prefer wine first.