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Whether it’s coffee, tea, soda, or chocolate, most of us consume caffeine every day. For healthy people, taking up to 400 milligrams of caffeine per day appears to be harmless. But if you have diabetes, caffeine can affect your blood sugar (glucose) levels or make it harder to control.
Studies suggest that caffeine may raise blood sugar and insulin levels for people with type 2 diabetes. In one study, researchers looked at patients with type 2 diabetes who took a 250-milligram caffeine pill. for breakfast and another for lunch (this is equivalent to drinking two cups of coffee with each meal). Patients’ blood sugar levels increased 8% on days they had caffeine compared with days without caffeine.
Caffeine and blood sugar: what’s the link?
Researchers say caffeine can affect how your body responds to insulin, the hormone that helps your body turn blood sugar (glucose) into energy.
Caffeine can lower insulin sensitivity, which is the responsiveness of the body’s cells to insulin. When cells don’t react normally to the hormone produced by the body, they don’t absorb as much sugar from the blood as they once did. The blood sugar level rises after meals. And when blood glucose levels rise, the pancreas produces more insulin. This is why you have higher insulin levels after meals.
Type 2 diabetes is a condition that occurs when your body does not use insulin effectively and your pancreas is unable to compensate with enough insulin. So, if you have type 2 diabetes, consuming caffeine may make it more difficult to control your blood sugar levels. Over time, this can lead to excessively high blood sugar levels and increase the risk of other complications, such as nerve damage or heart disease.
There are some theories as to how caffeine affects insulin and blood sugar levels. One possible factor, according to experts, is that caffeine raises the levels of certain stress hormones, such as adrenaline (also called adrenaline). This in turn prevents the cells from processing sugar effectively and reduces the body’s ability to produce enough insulin.
Another theory suggests that caffeine blocks a protein called adenosine, which plays a key role in the amount of insulin your body makes and how your cells respond to it. This means that if adenosine is not doing its job well, the absorption of sugar from the blood will slow down.
Also, too much caffeine can keep you awake at night, and lack of sleep can reduce your insulin sensitivity.
Instead, drink decaf coffee
If you have diabetes, taking in only about 200 milligrams of caffeine can affect your blood sugar level. This is the amount of caffeine you get in about one or two cups of brewed coffee or three or four cups of black tea. This means that black coffee is a better option for people with diabetes.
However, different people may react differently, depending on certain factors such as age, weight, and the amount of caffeine they normally consume.
If you have diabetes but can’t do without a cup of coffee in the morning, experts suggest drinking decaffeinated coffee. This will help you get the benefits of other compounds in coffee such as magnesium, chromium, and polyphenols without affecting insulin sensitivity.
Some studies suggest that the antioxidants in coffee can help reduce inflammation in the system and reduce the chances of getting type 2 diabetes in the first place.
Published: November 22, 2020 13:47 | Updated: November 22, 2020 1:57 pm
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