Sugar-free drinks to help diabetic students at campus bars

Diabetic students will be able to enjoy an alcopop at YUSU Bar, the Courtyard, thanks to a campaign by the Disabled Students’ Network, chaired by Thomas Ron. Next week, sugar-free alcopops will be ordered into all YUSU bars and served at the bar, along with sugar-free lemonade.

Thomas Ron, Disabled Students Officer, commented: “Basically the issue was reported to me by Katie Hignett last year and it sounded like an important issue to address. YUSU Bars were very happy to lead on this and really stepped up to the plate.

“I think in terms of provision we must remember that diabetic students exist and all places that serve food and drink should make sure they have options and they don’t run out.”

Jacob Roth, third year physics student, said, “It’s a bit of a double edged sword in my opinion. On the one hand it’s great, as most alcohol, aside spirits (which are ironically healthier for me to drink in the right quantities), contain loads of sugar. Beer, cider etc. are as bad as Coca-Cola for that. So it’d be nice to enjoy a bevvy without worrying about blood sugar for a change.

“On the other hand, should someone have a hypoglycemia (where the blood sugar plummets – which can happen if you don’t have enough food, do too much physical activity, or perhaps most importantly here, if I have too much quick release sugar like sweets and sugar drinks, my blood sugar will drop below what it was before ingesting the sugar) people will probably think they’ve actually got drunk and passed out from the alcohol. Whereas before your mates might be watching out for you more, knowing you were having all that sugar.

“And because you’re not worrying about the blood sugar as much, as a diabetic you’re not going to be looking for the all the signs.”