As a type 1 with a passion for coffee, I’ve tried to figure out if caffeine does or does not have an effect on my blood sugar. I’d love to hear from others about what their experiences have been. The articles I’ve read have been all over the map about it…
For me yes. 2 cups of coffee are good for a 40 point bump.
Coffee raises my BS. I knew that years ago before some of the studies started talking about that. The first time I mentioned it to my doctor, he said he never heard that before. I need to take 1 unit of insulin per cup of coffee. I normally have 2 cups in the morning. I also have to make sure I pre-bolus by 20 minutes or my BS will go up.
I only get 4 or 5 mg/dl from a cup. My cups are big, 6-8 a day, and WONDERFUL!
It’s one of those instances where we are INDIVIDUALS! YAYYYYY!
caffeine doesn’t affect me. i can drink a cup of coffee in the afternoon and my bs doesn’t budge…i do drink it black though, maybe the cream and/or sugar affects people too??
There have been studies showing caffeine does raise BS for a lot of people. It has nothing to do with cream & sugar - I don’t use either of those and my BS goes up. I drink diet soda with caffeine in and my BS goes up. I take Excedrin that has caffeine in and my BS goes up. It is the caffeine that does it to me.
I think it’s a coincidence and that it’s really Dawn Phenomenon.
It is not DP when it does it other times of the day besides mornings. Anything I drink with caffeine in does it to me.
No impact to my bs.
My caffeine likes to play tricks on me. I spike with caffeine, which I hate, so I bolus for it (one unit per cup). About three hours later, my body realizes that somehow there’s a unit of insulin wandering around with no carbs for it, so I either have to eat a bit three hours after my coffee, or go low. Way low. I know the routine, better to eat later that spike earlier. Gotta have my morning mocha latte.
I drink maybe 2 to 4 cans of diet coke or diet mountain dew each day…a LOT of caffeine. No effect on my bloodsugar.
I drink my coffee with just cream and, yes, it does cause a significant spike in my BG. I typically bolus 0.3 units for a small cup and 0.5 units for anything bigger than that. If I bolus this way, I can generally avoid any caffeine-induced spike. I’m T1.
I get very stressed without coffee and my blood sugars rise. A cup of coffee relaxes me and my blood sugars go down, bliss!
Well, I drink a diet soda every night and no effect.
And I drink coffee most of the morning, and no effect.
However, my BG starts plunging every night around 12 and continues down through the morning.
So I have gotten used to bumping it up a touch.
I drink diet coke/pepsi, & when I do I seem to run a little higher, but not a lot higher, and I usually don’t need to bolus for it.
Gary Scheiner, in his book Think Like A Pancreas, says that caffeine tends to cause a rise in blood sugar by stimulating the secretion of stress hormones and promoting the breakdown of fat (rather than sugar) for energy. My morning cup of joe raises my blood sugar–I take 1/2 a unit of insulin to compensate.
Thanks, everybody, for the responses!
Pseudo-semi-sort-of-scientific results thus far:
5 said it does raise their BS, and requires a small bolus, between .3 of a unit and 1.0 unit.
3 said it raises their BS just a tiny bit, but not significantly
4 said caffeine had no effect on their BS
1 said caffeine actually lowered their BS, as drinking it relaxed them, and reduced stress.
~I think this means I can keep drinking my cherished coffee, and perhaps bolus a little bit for it, depending on where my BS is at the time. Good news, as I’d rather give up almost anything else. : - )
I think coffee is a YMMV thingy.
I drink mine black and no fancy roasts. I drink about 10 cups per day, no effect on my BG. I’ve done coffee since it was considered a free food back in 1949. I was a child, and the free foods were very limited (about 8), so coffee was then considered free, so I drank lots.
My last A1C was 5.3.
Mary
Absolutely no effect for me.
I fought in the name of my caffeine addiction for years. I only stopped drinking coffee and energy drinks three weeks ago. I have caved all of three times. All three times, my blood sugar was troublesome to control for pretty much the rest of the day. It raised my blood pressure quite a bit too. I only noticed after fasting for 18 hours. I found I needed insulin to cover just the coffee, and I would say at least 3 units- though I readily admit I love my cream. Decaf doesn’t seem to do that to me though. THANK GOD.