From what I’ve read online, champagne is one of the alcohols (other than hard liquor, straight) with the lowest amount of carbs per eight ounces. Time for a little happy dance. After three months on Keto without an alcoholic beverage, I decided to celebrate my quarter year anniversary with some bubbly. I found these single serve bottles of champagne at a local grocery store.
And lucky for me, they are my favorite brand – Martini & Rossi. According to the MyFitnessPal website, 4 ounces is only one carb and 80 calories, and since these bottles are somewhere north of six ounces, but less than seven, they have less than two carbs per bottle. BONUS!
But of course, I couldn’t just drink and enjoy. We had to test the science of how alcohol affects ketones in the blood. So before popping the top (or unscrewing the cap, my little bottles sadly did not have the cork), we tested my ketone level which was at 1.5.
Then, the glorious moment of “Bottoms Up” comes. Oh Em GEE, my mouth was doing a happy dance! It tasted so good, so much better than it ever did before. The bubbles were like confetti popping and pinging all over my taste buds. Words cannot not do it justice. Pop over to our YouTube channel and watch the video. You can see the joy on my face. That experience totally made my weekend. Especially after a hard work week.
Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WRcdjnFAAI
In theory, because of the fruit and the sugar, it should have been too sweet, but it was so yummy. Maybe I just haven’t been on Keto long enough to forget how regular sugar tastes. Or, maybe it’s more likely that I have been on Keto long enough, and that’s why it tasted so good….do I vaguely remember it not being this sweet? It’s possible. I’ve always loved champagne, but I think I might remember a little sourness in the first sip when I would drink it (pre-Keto). I can remember sometimes making a slight face when drinking it (I’m not a lover of sour flavors), but this time it was delicious from the first sip to the last (which happened far too soon in my opinion).
And I truly did miss the way that it makes me warm from my head to my toes, because I’m always cold. I remember the cartoons from when I was a kid, where they’d have the Saint Bernard with the mini whiskey barrel marked “XX” go out in the snow to retrieve and revive people that were frozen. LOL At that age, I really had no idea what was in the barrel, and never gave it another thought until just now. I finally get it! Must’ve been humor for the adults that were stuck watching cartoons with their kids on Saturday mornings.
The intention was to wait 15 minutes and test my ketones again to see if there was any change. But Greg was having fun filming me because the buzz for me was almost instantaneous. So it turned about to be 20 minutes later that we tested again. I was happy to see that the ketone level was unchanged. Victory is mine! I happily kept sipping on the rest of my champagne while Greg happily kept recording for scientific evidence. The brain to mouth filter had been temporarily blown to bits.
I lamented for a good hour about how yummy the champagne tasted, and how I wanted more….and I might have said a little something about Dr. Berg reminding me of Mister Rogers. Like I said, the filter had been temporarily removed. Before I go any further, let me say that I think Dr. Berg is the absolute best. We have been watching his videos since we started Keto. I was never a science lover in school, but I’ve taken an interest into the science behind all things Keto in the last few months. I love how he breaks things down and explains the science in a way that I can understand it. I will use his videos to self-diagnose myself sometimes. All this time, Greg was keeping an eye on the clock, once it hit an hour from the first sip, we tested my Ketone levels again. There was just a slight drop to 1.3, which was a whole lot less than I thought it would be. Victory is mine again!
Of course by then, the bottle was completely empty, and when I say completely, I mean that I tipped that sucker up and held it there until every last drop of alcohol gold (Or would it be silver? Platinum?) rolled into my mouth. Before I let loose with my next statement, let me preface by saying I’m really not an alcoholic, and that when I previously stated that it had been a rough week, it really HAD been a rough week. To my dismay, after that first hour went by, I noticed that the buzz wore off pretty quickly. That was disappointing because I could feel the tension beginning to settle back into my shoulders and neck.
Next thing I know, it had been two hours since I opened that bottle of liquid relaxation. Time for Greg to get more enjoyment out of sticking me with the pointy end of the lance. I think he was disappointed to see that my Ketone level had dropped only a little again to 1.1, but at the same time, there was definitely some glee in his voice that my level continued to drop. I still felt like Victory was mine because I thought for sure all the Ketones in my blood would’ve been killed off by then.
So at that time, it was midnight, and I was done. The relaxation buzz was totally gone, but what did stay with me was the usual tiredness that I always got when I had alcohol. For some people, alcohol is a stimulant, for me, it’s a relaxer and I was ready to hit the pillow. I am no longer the night owl I used to be, even on a Saturday night. Time for bed.
The next morning, we got up and did all of our normal get ready to face the day stuff. We just started doing live chats on Sunday mornings on YouTube and we had to get ready for that as well. One of the things we always do on Sundays is our official weekly weigh in. We als test our blood pressure, and our fasting glucose and ketones. I think we were both certain that the champagney goodness from the night before had kicked me out of ketosis. But lo and behold, 12 hours after that first sip, my ketones soared back up to 1.9. Victory truly is mine.
I never got full on drunk, which probably would have occurred had I drank more than the one bottle. But for a short time I did experience a really nice, relaxed feeling, which was much needed. I would’ve liked it to last a little while longer. And, for the purpose of science, we probably should’ve started the experiment sooner in the evening so we could’ve tested again at four hours and six hours, just to see how far the ketone readings may have dropped. Because of that, we cannot say that I ever did or did not drop out of ketosis, and further testing is needed.
