Does caffeine raise your blood sugar? I have read discussions in which many people say there is no significant increase in BG caused by caffeine. Others say they definitely have an increase with caffeine. When having coffee or tea, I have typically had postmeal numbers, two hours after eating, that were 30-50 points higher than premeal numbers. I decided to experiment with having eating without any caffeinated beverage.
The following pairings show my BGs at breakfast, and two hours later.
With coffee containing caffeine: 86,156…87,152…86,161…85,142…92,154…101,161
With decaffeinated coffee: 78,99…102,102…120,121…89,93
I did the same experiment in the evening when I also drink coffee. Same kind of results. It seems I DO have a sharp rise in BG with caffeine. I tried decaffeinated coffee, and do not like it. Today I had a cup of hot chicken broth with breakfast. I loved that. From now on I will have chicken broth or beef broth with meals when I want something hot. Only one carb per cup with broths, and no caffeine.
Now I will experiment with tea and diet soda.
I drink a lot of coffee. A lot. And I bolus for about 30g of carbs each morning to cover my morning fix because I will go up. Confession: I also use a good amount of half & half and splenda too.
More proof that we are all like snowflakes. 
As with Mike, I bolus for coffee. However, the strange thing is, it never affected me until about 2 years ago. Prior to that, it didnt budge my BG much. Im about a pot or two a day drinker.
I had always been “nah, it doesn’t do anything” but I think it’s starting to.
I have to bolus for 30g equivalent for my morning 20oz “cup”.
For me, I find that coffee doesn’t spike my BG, while tea does.
Chicken broth can raise your blood sugar.
I drink at least two cups of coffee before lunch every day. No rise in my BG.
Have you considered that your BG rise in the morning naturally?
Day 1: Coffee with slice of toast.
Day 2: De-caffe coffee with slice of toast
Day 3: Slice of toast.
BG test all three. That’s how you’ll figure out if caffeine raises your BG.
For some people coffee includes cream and sugar.
For coffee snobs, coffee is just … well the coffee. No sugar. No cream. No splenda. No coconut milk. etc. Just coffee.
Without knowing what people mean when they say coffee, this discuss is like a hamster wheel.
I drink black coffee and mostly it LOWERS my BG… although sometimes I think it raises it… Eh… But coffee is one vice I just can’t give up (yet…)…
Khurt, on the days I was experimenting I had the same breakfast every day, the only difference was that I had caffeine in my coffee for 6 days, and no caffeine for 4 days. I think my testing was done appropriately. My coffee had a teaspoon of Cremora, and no other additives.
In another support group someone said it is not the caffeine that raises the BG. He insists that it is the coffee bean. I am now experimenting with tea. If that does not raise my BG, then maybe it is not the caffeine.
Your tests are not scientific so you can’t come to conclusion based on what you have done so far. You simply can’t say “X happened to me a few times, I think it was because Y”. Read How to Conduct Science Experiments
You need more data point before a determination can be made.
NOTE: As a coffee snob I find idea of adding an artificial ingredient like Cremora to coffee saddening . 
I noticed that my BG does spike a little bit if I have coffee with breakfast, but the spike is almost non-existent if I have coffee later in the day. Typically, I only add on an additional half unit or so for my morning coffee and won’t do anything for coffee consumed during the afternoon/evening. I admit to drinking about 48oz of black coffee per day (yay, nursing school!), so knowing how to effectively bolus for it without sending me sky-high has been really important.
PS.I tried switching to deaf when I was diagnosed. The endo is never going to get me to switch back to decaf. 
That’s a bit harsh and unfair. Richard’s approach was most certainly scientific – he implemented controls and attempted to isolate variables, to cite a few important process steps he took. Most important, he did follow the scientific method.
I think your criticism is more of degree than method. He certainly didn’t follow the rigorous protocols necessary to yield results that are broadly applicable, but then that’s not a requirement for someone to be doing science.
Not that relevant to the question of whether or not he was following a scientific approach… that’s a matter of the design goals of the experiment.
Yes, what I think, is something that is weird but true. caffeine is a stimulante, and what it does, is it does form a reaction similar to stress. Your brain works faster. go one morning without coffee, and watch how you think, (yes I know this is weird) then go the next with coffee, and watch again. you do think faster, more thoughts, (multiple thoughts) =. Very similar to stress. I have done this,
Whenever i have coffee I have to give myself 3u of insulin to cover it. I take my coffee with milk just till it is white. I have experimented without milk and still raises my blood sugar. I don’t use k-cups as they really raise my sugar although the company says there is nothing in their coffee that would raise my blood sugars. (like they are doctors?). I only drink imported coffee beans and grind at home. I do not ever drink coffee from a can.
I’d expect that Richard’s experiments are more meticulous than mine however I pretty much only drink black coffee (French Press, my favorite seems to be TJ Cup of Joe however the store didn’t have any of it last week. I prefer that to several varietes of Intelligentsia which was my prior favorite, just the right amount of smoothness…) unless we are travelling and I run into a cappuccino or something for a snack but I’m not a huge fan of those either. Mostly black. I have noticed that I am bolusing for quite a hunk in the AM, getting crashy spikes afterwards and I’ve also seen quite a few days where the coffee will seem to jack me up or make it hard to blow away the DP. But I’m totally unscientific as I loathe logging enough that I don’t write anything down…
Breakfast for me has always been one large coffee with light cream and Splenda, nothing else except on rare occasions (just not a breakfast kinda guy I guess). If I don’t bolus it, it knocks the BG up considerably. If I figure it as equivalent of 34 grams/carb that takes care of it. So yeah.
What happens if you skip the coffee (besides the fact that you might not be happy w/o your morning joe?)
With no-joe and with my current pump settings I’d see a slow decline across the morning. I have a compensation for dawn phenomenon programmed, so that probably factors in. If I have to go without, I program a temporary basal at something like 75% for an hour or two.