Blood Sugar spikes from coffee?

I prefer to call it _wh_ipping cream a la Stewie from Family Guy.

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Whipped cream = masochistic milk. Sorry. That joke was old before any of us were born.

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What are you thinking about when you drink your coffee?:joy: Kidding! But seriously, sometimes my thoughts spike my BG even without milk or cream or whatever! :roll_eyes:

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I think that I know my blood sugar will be LOW after drinking my coffee, not too low, but definitely no spike.

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I have a son who spikes from caffeine and especially teas. Also, artificial sweeteners make him spike as well, especially aspartame, if you are using them it could be the culprit. Caffeine is just not good from my experience with my three diabetics. (Husband and 2 sons) There is more in coffee than just caffeine that is not good. Be healthy, just stay away from it. Just my two cents. We survive without it just fine.

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@nini6 that is both a funny and legit question! I should pay closer attention!!! Thanks for making me smile today!

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It’s the acid in the coffee which causes your intestinal tract problems. I have the same issue. Try cold brewed coffee but you’ll need to give your system a week off coffee maybe first. I have the same issue as you.

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@Allen3 this is an incredible insight!! I have never thought of the acid being the cause. Some mornings coffee does nothing and others are through the roof. Would that be due to that day’s gut ph balance so to speak? I noticed when I did bullet proof coffee the spike diminished, but then returned months into it. I wonder if the butter and coconut oil used neutralized the acid slightly?
Thank you for this piece of the coffee puzzle! Diabetes…Always a mystery!

Hi Cynthia!

I think it’s due to it not being neutralized properly in the intestinal tract and causing inflammation and kinda like loose bowel syndrome. My theory is since the pancreas also produces the biocarbonate maybe it’s not doing its job and not able to neutralize all that acid before it hits the intestines. But it’s a total guess! :slight_smile:

Allen

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You have to be careful with “artificial no calorie” sweeteners. They are often deceptive and actually contain dextrose. For instance Splenda packets use dextrose as a filler and something like Equal uses both dextrose and maltodextrin. But guess what, it is all a “trick.” A packet is 1g. If you have less than 1g of carbs in a serving then you can list it as 0g of carbs. You get to round down. Industry worked very hard to get this loophole into the FDA rules.

Bottom line: if you are not careful using artificial sweeteners you may end up consuming nearly as much carbs as if you used the same volume of table sugar.

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Thanks Brian. I do use artificial sweeteners and artificial creamers. I think I will just begin using real cream and maybe even real sugar., and bolusing for carbs that I can actually count!

Hi. I’m a newbie here. Glad to be a part of this community.
After reading this I became concerned because I LOVE COFFEE! Thankfully for me, no bs spike! I do use a very little unsweetened almond milk in my coffee.

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@Denisej welcome! And ohhhhhh coffeeeeee! I love it too! I am willing to bolus for it these day! I am so glad that it agrees with your diabetes! One of our favorite sayings around here… “Your Diabetes May Vary!” We are the same in diagnosis, need and often emotion… Yet diabetes is just so darn individualized!!

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Coffee/caffeine can absolutely spike blood sugars, depending on how sensitive to it you are. I take humalog for coffee (unsweetened with only a little bit of unsweetened almond or cashew milk) as though it were carbs, and I know a bunch of other diabetics who bolus for coffee. It does this because when caffeine gives you that energy boost, it’s using the same biological pathways (sympathetic nervous system activation) that also cause the liver to dump glucose. It’s the same reason stress can raise blood sugars. In a nondiabetic this response helps you deal with whatever is alarming you or getting you activated by giving you energy; for us, it’s just a pain, ha. You can consider it sort of like the opposite of alcohol, which suppresses liver glucose output (though via different mechanisms). Any stimulant should do this; if you are habituated enough to not have much of a reaction to coffee, it might do it less.

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Also decaf can still have a fair bit of caffeine in it; it depends. Sometimes almost half as much as regular. I think different decaffeinating methods are more or less effective, so may be worth looking into that if you want coffee with less blood sugar impact, but I know a lot less about that! :slight_smile:

@cardamom I truly appreciate the caffeine explanation and I thought for a long time that it was the cause. It makes complete sense. For me however the spike is the same with decaf products and often even a hot broth based soup. Weird!
So then I thought it was the hot liquid causing a stress response. Not the case.
And all the other caffeine based drinks that I indulge in every so often do nothing!! And even seem to lower my blood sugar at times (like an energy drink or a Coke Zero). Also I am a chocolate addict and that does nothing. Lots of caffeine there.
I am baffled! But did love the insight from @Allen3 above in this thread. That it could be a PH gut response…
Hmmmmm?
Regardless, the discussion on this topic is unprecedented and has me feeling reflective of all of the things that go into managing our Diabetss. Sometimes a morning cup of coffee is so much more than that…

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@Pastelpainter lucky duck!! :hatched_chick::hatched_chick:!

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Interesting! I don’t get much of a reaction to Diet Coke, but I think it has a lot less caffeine than my (decent sized) iced coffee. The pH point is also interesting, although Diet Coke/Coke Zero is actually lower in pH than coffee (that stuff is pretty corrosive really, it’s a little scary and not good for your teeth, though I say that as someone who totally drinks it as well, ha). So I’m not sure that makes sense as an explanation either. Coffee does have tons of chemicals besides caffeine in it; maybe it’s one of those?

Either way, I love my coffee too much to give it up, so I’ve had good results covering it with insulin similar to a fast-acting carb (it seems to spike very quickly). May be worth a try!

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Me too! And me too! I try to stick to bubbly water…but every once and awhile I love a Coke Zero! It seems to settle my nervous stomach oddly enough! Thanks for sharing!

Little experiment this morning as pump had just about enough insulin left to get me home from work if I eat lightly… So I had my 2 cups of coffee black this morning, no 1/2and 1/2. BG barely moved between then and arrival at work (about an hour). Usually those 2 cups with 1/2n1/2 will need 1.5-2 unit bolus.