Can coffee really do this?

[Korban]

Experiment 1 and Results: I awaken at 6:30 and take my bg. Drink one or two cups of coffee first thing (1 TBS heavy cream + 1 packet Splenda). I wait one hour (7:30) and take a before breakfast bg. The increase in bg over 6 days from 6:30 to 7:30 has averaged 50 mg/dl (51, 35, 70, 58, 37, 47). As a n00b, I figured that this is what is meant by dawn effect/phenomena. I never expected this effect to be this great and I posted about it sometime ago (from one result). I rarely drink coffee the rest of the day but decided to drink one with the wife night before last about 90 mins before bedtime… My bedtime bg increased 49 mg/dl! (Usually from around before lunch to bedtime my bg’s are very stable as I still eat very low carb.).

Experiment 2 and Results: Two mornings in a row: no coffee from 6:30 to 7:30 my bg increases were 12 mg/dl and 15 mg/dl (dawn effect I think). I have read of some people having an increase of 10 or 15 mg/dl from coffee but 50?... The weirdest med I take (other than Lantus) is a beta blocker. I have no idea if there is a relationship.

This morning at breakfast (7:40 with 4g carb) I drank two cups of coffee… one hour later my bg had gone up 47 mg/dl.

Appeal: Please say it ain’t so… I love my morning coffee.

Conclusion: I hope I am totally missing something or that I can become a decaf lover.

Regards and Thanks,
/smile

[Lottadata]

That seems a bit high for coffee. And with a beta blocker in your system, you wouldn't be getting cortical hormone releases to raise your bg either.

Looks like a mystery you'll just have to keep testing around. The study that I saw about coffee raising blood sugar regardless of carb content showed a very small increase, nothing like what you report.

But it is very possible that it is the coffee. Blood sugar does some pretty wacky things, and if I had a buck for everything inexplicable mine has done that left doctors and even other folks with diabetes shaking their heads, I'd be very wealthy.

[LynnDee]

I have very similiar problem with Splenda in my coffee, without it I have no problem. I usually drink my coffee with just cream or put in a couple teaspoons of DaVinci sugar free syrup if I want it sweeter. I can't guarantee it will work for you but if you don't want to give up the coffee it might be worth a try.

[Charran]

That is one of the reasons I switched to decaf. I think the caffeine has a different effect on people, but I also was having quite large increases because of it. Try switching and see if if makes a difference to you. Make sure you let us know what happens if you do.

[ruthla]

What happens if you drink unsweetened coffee, or coffee with a different sweetener? What happens if you have splenda in another form (say, in herbal tea or decaf coffee) instead of in the coffee?

I've heard that splenda can mess up blood glucose in some people- it's designed that the sugar molecule is damaged to the point where the human body can't use it, but some individuals can still process part of the sugar anyway.

[amonage]

I was going to say the same thing about the Splenda.

Can you try your coffee with cream only and then test with your meter? I think for me AS trick my body in to thinking it is (sweet).

[v-effect]

Type 1 here: I have to take insulin for any coffee I have in the morning, with or without cream and splenda. It's not a big deal- just a few buttons on the pump.

V.

[MizKitty]

I had to make the switch to decaf for the same reason. I didn't mind, I wasn't drinking coffee for the jolt, anyway, and prefer not having the caffeine.

In either Bernstein's or Atkins Diabetes book, one of them states that some diabetics may have problems with caffeine.

[Nancy LC]

Coffee definitely raises my BG levels too. By 10-20 I believe. And that was for 1/2 decaf. Now I'm mostly decaf and I think I've pretty well eliminated that morning blip in BG. I drink my coffee black so I know it wasn't the cream.

But you know what raises it even more? Getting my period. It raises it by about 30 pts!

My advice is: Gradually, gradually, gradually cut back on the caffeine. It'll give you painful withdrawls for a week if you're addicted.

[Korban]

Experiment 1 and Results: I awaken at 6:30 and take my bg. Drink one or two cups of coffee first thing (1 TBS heavy cream + 1 packet Splenda). I wait one hour (7:30) and take a before breakfast bg. The increase in bg over 6 days from 6:30 to 7:30 has averaged 50 mg/dl (51, 35, 70, 58, 37, 47). As a n00b, I figured that this is what is meant by dawn effect/phenomena. I never expected this effect to be this great and I posted about it sometime ago (from one result). I rarely drink coffee the rest of the day but decided to drink one with the wife night before last about 90 mins before bedtime… My bedtime bg increased 49 mg/dl! (Usually from around before lunch to bedtime my bg’s are very stable as I still eat very low carb.).

Experiment 2 and Results: Two mornings in a row: no coffee from 6:30 to 7:30 my bg increases were 12 mg/dl and 15 mg/dl (dawn effect I think). I have read of some people having an increase of 10 or 15 mg/dl from coffee but 50?... The weirdest med I take (other than Lantus) is a beta blocker. I have no idea if there is a relationship.

This morning at breakfast (7:40 with 4g carb) I drank two cups of coffee… one hour later my bg had gone up 47 mg/dl.

Appeal: Please say it ain’t so… I love my morning coffee.

Conclusion: I hope I am totally missing something or that I can become a decaf lover.

Regards and Thanks,
/smile

Various and Sundry Iterations:
Dawn Effect for reference (+12, +7, +9), <avg> = 9 - fasting 1 hour in the morning. Dawn effect was not used in morning calculations but I suspect it participates in morning elevations, etc.

Morning - 2 Cups Decaf (w/cream & spenda) : bg +27 (impact is about half of regular coffee but still a significant impact)

Same Day - 1 Cup coffee with cream & Splenda: (Breakfast+4hrs to Before Lunch - 1 hour) - bg is usually pretty stable here... bg +33 (about half of the morning 2 cup coffee result). In other words - another verification of what I suspect re: effect of coffee.

Same Day - 2 packets of spenda: (yuck) taken (Lunch+4hrs to Before Dinner - 1 hour) - bg is usually very stable here... bg +2

Next day - 1 Cup Green Tea with cream and splenda: (Lunch+4hrs to Before Dinner - 1 hour) bg +2

Comments: Green Tea has more caffeine than de-caf but almost no effect from Green Tea; Splenda seems to have little to no effect as well. De-Caf with little to no caffeine has significant effect but almost half the effect of regular coffee.

Conclusions: I can't drink regular without accounting for it similar to V, above (added insulin). I don't like de-caf so probably won't drink it preferring green tea which has a little caffeine with no apparent increase in bg. Caffeine may be a component of the increased bg but, at least in my case, it is not the only component. That makes me sad /sigh.

Approx Caffeine Loadings:
Coffee per 2 cups has 200 - 270 mg caffeine (1 cup: 100 - 135 mg);
De-caf Coffee per 2 cups has 2 - 8 mg caffeine (1 cup: 1 - 4 mg);
Green Tea (brewed): per 1 cup (as in experiment above) has 5 - 20 mg Caffeine); (2 Cups could thus have 10 - 40 mg) [I suspect mine was on the lower end as I don't brew it very long... it looks like slightly colored water]

Regards,
/smile

P.S. maybe I should try with different brands of coffee (Arabica vs Robusto or whatever) as a last resort. I know it is a long shot. FYI, there are over 500 compounds in coffee.

[Charran]

Thanks for letting us know. It's great that you're doing the experiments to find out just what the culprits are for you.