Foods to avoid

No non alcoholic anything.  No saurrkraut, no mouthwash, no red wine vinegar, no kombucha, nothing with vanilla extract which includes chocolate mousse , tiramisu , some frosting some cakes, rice pudding.  Be careful when eating out. No poppy seeds which includes everything bagels, no sour dough bread. I also heard honey buns should be avoided. I stick to pizza when I eat out.  Some nicer Italian sauces have alcohol. We will not get the benefit of the doubt if there's a positive test. No benadryl unisom cough medication.  We didn't get a list. I eat cookies or candy bars if I need something sweet.  When this is over I'm going to eat drink and be merry.  I'm starving. 

Oh. I also don't pump gasoline on days I test because it's 10% ethanol.  I don't use hand sanitizer because some contain ethanol. 

I think they test for psych drugs so get those approved. 

Good grief, sounds like I'll be losing some weight LOL!! I put red wine vinegar on literally everything so I'm glad you mentioned that! Thanks for the info!

Smit5292 said:

Good grief, sounds like I'll be losing some weight LOL!! I put red wine vinegar on literally everything so I'm glad you mentioned that! Thanks for the info!

You're welcome.  I've also read too much white bread, ripe fruit especially bananas. Definitely read ingredients first. I have lost a lot of weight  

I still eat literally everything I've eaten prior to beginning monitoring. The only thing I avoid is poppy seeds tbh and anything with red/white wine sauce if I'm eating out. If you cook with alcohol, such as vinegars etc, the alcohol usually always gets cooked out. It's just to induce fear in my opinion. I've never had an issue before and I've been in my program for 1 year and a half almost. Accidentally eating a steak that has "red wine" marinade isn't going to cause you to fail a urine or even a blood test imo.

Thank you for the info!! I put red wine vinegar on all my salads & usually cucumber salad a couple times a week. I wonder if I use it in moderation & dilute it with a little white vinegar if it would be OK? I also use balsamic vinegar a good bit, so I guess I'll need to cut that out. 

It's probably safer to eat foods cooked with alcohol as it should cook off. People tesr positive for alcohol after using mouthwash and they don't swallow it intentionally.  Salad dressing is obviously uncooked. I love salad too. 

I err on the extreme side of caution.  I don't want more time plus they have an investigation and pull you from work until the investigation where I am. If you have to use it maybe on a Friday? 

Thank you for the advice!! ?

I have been testing for over two years and the only thing I avoid is alcohol of course, poppy seeds, bourbon sauces, red wine vinaigrette, and mouth wash with alcohol. I use hand sanitizer at work almost daily and have no had any issues. 

Healer555 said:

No non alcoholic anything.  No saurrkraut, no mouthwash, no red wine vinegar, no kombucha, nothing with vanilla extract which includes chocolate mousse , tiramisu , some frosting some cakes, rice pudding.  Be careful when eating out. No poppy seeds which includes everything bagels, no sour dough bread. I also heard honey buns should be avoided. I stick to pizza when I eat out.  Some nicer Italian sauces have alcohol. We will not get the benefit of the doubt if there's a positive test. No benadryl unisom cough medication.  We didn't get a list. I eat cookies or candy bars if I need something sweet.  When this is over I'm going to eat drink and be merry.  I'm starving. 

Oh. I also don't pump gasoline on days I test because it's 10% ethanol.  I don't use hand sanitizer because some contain ethanol. 

I think they test for psych drugs so get those approved. 

Healer555, I think you are a little too paranoid that is considered healthy!  I eat everything that I did before monitoring and I get 3-4 urine ETGs a month so everything is fine.  The only thing I stopped eating was things that are heavy in poppyseed such as bagels and muffins.  That's it.

I've had a variety of non-alcohol beers, but the ones with 0.5% I reserve for the weekend "just in case."  Heineken 0.0 or Budweiser 0.0 I have drank the night before and tested the next day and nothing has resulted positive (I have the typical 100ng urine ETG cutoff that medical professionals have).  

Have eaten food cooked in alcohol.  I use alcohol mouthwash with no issues.  Even with a low cutoff of 100ng, these things don't cause a positive test.

They list all of these things in the monitoring agreement and warn you because you CANNOT use the foods and non-alcohol drinks as an excuse.  That's what everybody does - "Oh, it's positive because I ate red wine Italian food last night."  No excuses will work if you have a positive test.  But these foods are not going to cause a test.

Relax and live your life still  - can't drink but you shouldn't have to watch what you eat.  That's ridiculous!

Universe93B said:

Healer555, I think you are a little too paranoid that is considered healthy!  I eat everything that I did before monitoring and I get 3-4 urine ETGs a month so everything is fine.  The only thing I stopped eating was things that are heavy in poppyseed such as bagels and muffins.  That's it.

I've had a variety of non-alcohol beers, but the ones with 0.5% I reserve for the weekend "just in case."  Heineken 0.0 or Budweiser 0.0 I have drank the night before and tested the next day and nothing has resulted positive (I have the typical 100ng urine ETG cutoff that medical professionals have).  

Have eaten food cooked in alcohol.  I use alcohol mouthwash with no issues.  Even with a low cutoff of 100ng, these things don't cause a positive test.

They list all of these things in the monitoring agreement and warn you because you CANNOT use the foods and non-alcohol drinks as an excuse.  That's what everybody does - "Oh, it's positive because I ate red wine Italian food last night."  No excuses will work if you have a positive test.  But these foods are not going to cause a test.

Relax and live your life still  - can't drink but you shouldn't have to watch what you eat.  That's ridiculous!

I know I'm very cautious.  I've just read too many people online saying they didn't drink but tested positive here and other places.  If it's not accidental ingestion it's lab error? I understand lying to the powers that be but why would someone lie on an anonymous site? I'm not saying you're wrong.  Our etg cut off is 20. 

This whole thing makes me miserable.  I want to finish without adding Time 

Healer555 said:

I know I'm very cautious.  I've just read too many people online saying they didn't drink but tested positive here and other places.  If it's not accidental ingestion it's lab error? I understand lying to the powers that be but why would someone lie on an anonymous site? I'm not saying you're wrong.  Our etg cut off is 20. 

This whole thing makes me miserable.  I want to finish without adding Time 

Understood.  ETG cutoff is not 20 for any lab, maybe possible for research labs.  It is 100ng for urine ETG for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists etc etc.  Urine ETG cutoff is 500 for legal cases for many people on probation, but they have been decreasing that to 250 or even 100 like us recently.   Some urine also test for ETS, ethyl sulfate which can be a cutoff of 20 or 25, I forget.  Peth cutoff is 20ng/ml.  

Most of these things do not result in a positive Urine ETG test.  Enjoy your life at least a little during your monitoring period.  I've drank non-alcohol beers the night before.  I've had a very ripe banana, white toast and orange juice and other ripe fruit the morning before a urine etg - nothing.  

Cake icing is the big one.  Cupcakes, Birthday Cakes often have vanilla extract and that vanilla extract contains 35% alcohol/70 proof Bourbon if the cupcake/birthday cake is make will real vanilla extract from Bourbon and this is often the case.  2 parts to it.  First, the extract is cooked off from the portion of the cake that is baked.  But, vanilla extract is also regularly used in the icing and this is not cooked off.  You are ingesting pure 35% alcohol.  Eat 2 cupcakes the night before or a giant piece of birthday cake with great icing and test the next morning (within 12 hours) and you are taking a risk.  This is the one that comes up more often than mouthwashes, alcohol hand sanitizer, etc.