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Coffee

P

pinewood

Well-Known Member
Messages
792
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I can't get by without coffee and I'm trying to work out how much it's affecting my BG levels. I have it with skimmed milk and splenda. It seems to be spiking my readings more than it should do given the limited carbs in the small amount of milk. Does anyone else have any experience with coffee?

I was diagnosed less than a week ago so still getting my head around everything, but I'll be so disappointed if I have to give up coffee!
 
Hi,

Skimmed milk (and semi skimmed) have added sugar. Whole milk is better, but that is also full of natural sugar. Try your coffee with double cream. No sugar, no carbs, and tastes much nicer!
 
coffee does nothing significant for me, so + or - 1.7mmol........

what kind of spikes are you seeing?
 
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Thanks Buetit. I'd read skimmed milk was the best so very confused now. I see where you're coming from with the double cream but although the carb count may be lower that's highly calorific, no?

Novorapidboi26 - to be honest it might not even be the coffee, I'm still trying to work out the patterns I'm seeing as I was only diagnosed last weekend. I've just noticed that it's always higher when I test after coffee (usually approx. +2) but my basal is probably still too low and it could be a result of breakfast or over food instead. Just curious what other people's experiences are.
 
Oh yeah, its early days then and nothing will make much sense unfortunately..............

you seem to be clued up though......getting the basal right is important.........and once that is pinned down you will probably find a coffee wont do much to your blood sugar, provided its only a splash of milk.........:)

caffeine has been known to increase resistance to insulin I think, but again, it would need to be in large quantities for most people.......

just keep no testing and you'll be good......
 
I have no problem with any de caff coffee made with unsweetened soya milk. As soon as i have sweetened soya milk my bs goes up to 10 - 12. I am allergic to cows milk so only so soya.

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As a long term T1, I've never had an issue with Coffee doing anything abnormal to my blood sugar. Black coffee, white coffee or Espresso that is. Cappuccinos and Lattes do cause a slight rise (~1.5 mmol/l) due to carbs in the milk, and the Starbucks Christmas Specials require an enormous great shot of insulin to cope with...
 
I have that coffee problem as well. I think its really a caffeine problem though.

I did some searching when i first noticed the same thing as you, it struck me as i drink black coffee and found my sugars would rise, stay up, and then as the caffeine wore off some hours later my sugars would drop drastically quick with that event.

If you search the net you will find that some websites/research claim caffeine interrupts the bodies ability to absorb insulin (for some people), and because of this it causes your sugars to go up if you have coffee within a couple hours of food because your body can't absorb the insulin your injecting to counter the food you just, or about to eat.

I used to have my black coffee every morning about 30-40 minutes after eating, and found that my sugars would go up as they normally did after my meal, but instead of coming back down they would go up another 1-2mmol/L and then stay there.. So i would go from 5 to 7 post meal, then up to 8.5 and they would sit at 8.5 for another hour or 2 and then sharply drop back to 5 about 2-3 hours post coffee..

My solution to this is to inject, wait my 20 minutes, eat breakfast, and then 1.5-2 hours later once the insulin has started going full speed ahead THEN drink my coffee. I have found that this doesn't affect me nearly as much.. Its almost as if coffee freezes my sugars in place for 2-3 hours lol

Try experimenting with your timing, and see what you can do to make it all work.
 
pinewood said:
but I'll be so disappointed if I have to give up coffee!
Click to expand...

You won't have to give up coffee :)

Coffee has little, if any effect on bg levels as a rule, even if you did find that caffeine effected your bg levels you could change to decaff coffee and tea, I've drank decaff for a number of years now and don't notice the difference taste wise.
 
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