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Coffee

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Cbmod

Active Member
Messages
34
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Has anyone worked out a decent strategy to deal with the effect of coffee on blood sugar? It doesn't appear to matter if it is with or without milk, and the effect on my blood sugar varies completely so I would rather avoid giving insulin for it if possible! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
That is odd....I am a 'T2' on medication and supplements.....I don't have any measurable BG influence from coffee that I can point to. I only have it in the morning with breakfast and perhaps a cup later in the morning. However, I do have (confirmed by my GP) a blood pressure issue with coffee. A cup of instant sends it up 15-20 points.....for strong brewed - add another 10 points.....Since we figured that out - the doc says one light cup of instant with breakfast max...Maybe your liver has a coffee issue......Hope that helps a bit....If you are sure it is causing a BG issue - ditch it for a week and test what the result is.....than test consistency for a week afterwards - and discuss with your doctor. If it is that annoying I personally would ditch it....Try green tea instead.....Japanese is best.....and in a few months you can order some great sakura tea from Kyoto.....You won't miss coffee....
 
Out of interest, when do you drink the coffee?
If it is first thing in the morning, it may have nothing to do with the coffee and could be a Dawn Phenomenon/liver dump thing.

Personally, not drinking coffee is one of the many things on my "I'm weird" list. So the closest experience I can share is that black tea (yeah, not having milk in tea is another thing on my "I'm weird" list) has no impact on my BG.
 
Try swapping the milk for double cream........I had the same problem till I swapped to double cream, now I can shlurp away to my hearts content.........mmmmmmmm........mind I only drink percolated coffee as instant gives me migraine.....
 
Cbmod said:
Has anyone worked out a decent strategy to deal with the effect of coffee on blood sugar? It doesn't appear to matter if it is with or without milk, and the effect on my blood sugar varies completely so I would rather avoid giving insulin for it if possible! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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I don't drink a lot of coffee, but never noticed any affect on my blood glucose and I take it with milk.
Could you just drink the coffee with a meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner, though I understand a drink is nice in between.
 
I drink a few coffees thru the day, I can see a 1mmol milk rise on my mid day one but only that and it's as the fast acting runs out and the basal's starting to work, semi skim milk I use and coffee beans.
 
Cbmod said:
Has anyone worked out a decent strategy to deal with the effect of coffee on blood sugar? It doesn't appear to matter if it is with or without milk, and the effect on my blood sugar varies completely so I would rather avoid giving insulin for it if possible! Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
We are all different but if coffee is amping up your nervous system and causing your liver to release glucose then that is a bummer. Have you experimented as suggested with different times of the day or using decaf? I would not need to bolus for coffee but if you are on a pump you could do a micro amount and keep enjoying this fantastic drink with low carb almond/coconut milk (unsweetened) or cream (fat may blunt the spike?).
 
It’s weird how we’re all so different. I drink lots of very strong black stovetop brewed coffee throughout the day, and it has no effect whatsoever on my levels - yet some folk have had to switch to decaf to avoid a spike. It’s baffling.
 
i drink coffee by the bucket loads and it does not have any effect on my bgs whatsoever although i dont have milk or cream just black and strong :)
 
If you basal test only with coffee you will find out what spikes etc you are having.
I have always drunk copious quantity’s of coffee with milk but always basal tested to include it in part of my daily living.

If you drink coffee out of any type of coffee vending machine then you will need a bolus... same probably with the pods that are used so much now...
 
I cant offer any input on coffee BUT I drink so much tea during the day with semi skimmed milk and I see no rise at all with my BGs. As has been said we are all different (and some of us are really weird @helensaramay :angelic: ;) )
 
I only ever drink fresh espresso and this has no impact on me (that I’ve noticed), and I drink it throughout the day from first thing at morning through to evening. (Also doesn’t do much to keep me awake!)

Will have to do some nasal testing soon so when it’s all in order I might have to experiment...I have read that it causes a rise in levels.
 
@Cbmod - I accept that decaf coffee isn't totally free of caffeine, but have you tried decaf coffee at all? I went to decaf a couple of years go - not because of blood sugar levels, but I was noticing I got a bit "wired" if I had too much.
 
I have no problems drinking black coffee without sugar or sweeteners.

Just about ready to get into my second heartstarter of the morning.
 
Thank you all for your inputs! I wonder if there is a relationship between not eating breakfast and having a coffee spike? I don't eat breakfast, I just have my coffee in the morning. I have played around with skipping coffee- I don't spike, black coffee and coffee with full fat milk -both of which spike me. This suggests that it is the coffee and not dawn phenomenon. Cutting out the caffeine isn't ideal too, as I pretty much need it to function! I also don't have a strict morning routine (I work in a very chill place) so can't include it in my basal rate. I wonder though- I do use a pod machine. I suppose it is possible they could be adding something else to the pods.
 
Cbmod said:
Thank you all for your inputs! I wonder if there is a relationship between not eating breakfast and having a coffee spike? I don't eat breakfast, I just have my coffee in the morning. I have played around with skipping coffee- I don't spike, black coffee and coffee with full fat milk -both of which spike me. This suggests that it is the coffee and not dawn phenomenon. Cutting out the caffeine isn't ideal too, as I pretty much need it to function! I also don't have a strict morning routine (I work in a very chill place) so can't include it in my basal rate. I wonder though- I do use a pod machine. I suppose it is possible they could be adding something else to the pods.
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Erm,........... If you need caffeine to function, it might be time to give it up?

Many moons ago, I saw a naturopath, looking ways to manage pain due to a very nasty post-viral polyarthritis. One of the things she did was identify foods she considered I was intolerant too. What shocked me most was those foods were some of the foods I liked most!

Her theory was that we often get hooked on foods we can't handle, because our bodies rush to chuck out lots of hormones, enzymes and the like, to deal with them. When the impact of those hormones/enzymes begin to abait, we have almost withdrawal symptoms.

The elimination diet, at that time, was quite brutal, but I was eventually able to reintroduce everything to my day to day diet. The acute polyarthritis also abated, but I have zero way to properly assess if the diet helped or whether it would have abated anyway as the time post virus (in this case Rubella).

I'd be curious to find out what would happen with decaf.
 
Cbmod said:
Thank you all for your inputs! I wonder if there is a relationship between not eating breakfast and having a coffee spike? I don't eat breakfast, I just have my coffee in the morning. I have played around with skipping coffee- I don't spike, black coffee and coffee with full fat milk -both of which spike me. This suggests that it is the coffee and not dawn phenomenon. Cutting out the caffeine isn't ideal too, as I pretty much need it to function! I also don't have a strict morning routine (I work in a very chill place) so can't include it in my basal rate. I wonder though- I do use a pod machine. I suppose it is possible they could be adding something else to the pods.
Click to expand...
I rarely eat until the afternoon, and don’t get a coffee spike...
 
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