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How does drinking caffeinated drinks impact your blood glucose levels? Share more about your experience with caffeine in the comments.
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One of many things cgm use has taught the medical community and patients too is that there are many things that raise blood glucose that are not carbohydrate. Caffeine causes the liver to make more glucose. Effects vary w how much and individual sensitivities. I drink 2 cups of black coffee and see a 30 point rise over the next hr. You can bolus as a carb equivalent. I do as 7 grams of carbs.
Doesn’t seem to have an impact on my BG. I usually have 2 cups of coffee in the morning and many cups of tea throughout the day.
Me too … and I drink my coffee or tea unsweetened with just a splash of milk or 1/2 & 1/2 … or black with a squeeze of lemon.
I have found that coffee with small amount of creamer does raise my bg, but if I bolus for 15 carbs my bg does fine.
I drink cold brew with heavy cream. Only in morning so not sure if the coffee or if the natural cortisol rise in BS that happens anyway.
My coffee in the morning will many times raise my blood glucose. And other times, not at all. With everything else the same. Very frustrating. I just watch and take a correction if needed.
I find the morning mug of black tea, with stevia raises my glucose typically 30 mg/dl. Don’t see it with coffee.
I drink 6 to 10 cups of coffee a day, see no impact on BG.
The caffeine? No. The flavored creamer? A lot!! Those 5g carb per tablespoon sized flavors WAY increase my BG. More than anything else for me. I use a bar tender jigger to measure. 10g of carbs in 2 tablespoons of coffee cream requires 2 units of insulin for me. It’s really nuts how much of a spike I get from flavored creamer.
As like Robert, drinking black coffee I have no noticeable rise in BG. Having coffee creamer I can spike, so I have to dose like I’m having a meal.
I don’t drink caffeinated drinks except to drink a Coke to treat low glucose levels. Any impact from the caffeine alone is masked.
Caffeine doesn’t affect my BG nearly as much as just getting out of bed does. If I get out of bed with a BG around 100, within 10 minutes of getting out of bed, my BG will usually be over 120, and if I don’t take correction Bolus doses, it seems like my BG will just continue rising throughout the day unless corrected with more insulin.
If I stay in bed, no matter how long into the day, my BG will continue to slowly decrease until I get up and start getting dresses, at which time, whether in the morning hours or late into the afternoon, evening, or night, as soon as I get out of bed and get dressed, my BG will start rising without me eating or drinking anything.
I’ve heard this phenomenon of BG rising after getting out of bed called “feet on the floor” on the Juicebox podcast. It happens to me too….I always figured it’s stress hormones kicking in.
Yeah, feet on the floor syndrome (or dawn phenomenon) happens to FRH’s (free range humans) as well. Gotta be ready to do the hunting/gathering or chasing down a mammoth.
Caffeine from coffee raises my glucose significantly while caffeine in soda has no effect.
Coffee always raises my bg, so I bolus for 2-3 grams of carb (depends on size of cup) as CIQ on my pump can’t keep up with it.
I live for strong, black coffee. I drink it by the potful, not the cup since the age of 14.
Liver, enzymes, hormones – they’ve all worked it out for over half a century.
I don’t know what the medical / psychiatric definition of addiction is. But I think I’d rather have coffee than air or water. 😵
I drink m y coffee – and hot tea – black and strong. I ‘ve found that an 8g bolus (for me 0.57 units) does the trick. The bg rise from caffeine is consistent throughout the day (and night)
I haven’t noticed any impact. I start and end my day with coffee and I/2 and 1/2. For the past three plus years I’ve had to limit my coffee drinking to 16 oz or less because of chronic kidney disease restrictions. Before the CKD dx my daily caffeinated coffee/tea/Diet Coke amounts were much higher.
It’s not the caffeine, it’s the milk. Milk carbs are sugar carbs, read the label. It’s also your liver. Everyone has an increase in blood glucose in the morning. It’s your body preparing itself to wake up.
A tablespoon of milk is not gonna make that much of a difference. It’s the coffee for me. I’ve tried it both ways but thanks for your input.
I need to take additional 10-20 carbs for coffee.
I bolus 15 carbs for a cup of coffee with stevia and T of cream. If I don’t I can expect. BS upwards of 180
Caffeine from coffee raises my BG no matter what time of the day I drink it. I don’t drink any other caffeinated beverages.
Coffee in caffeinated and decaf will raise my bg’s, having to bolus for 15 g cho. Other variegated drinks don’t affect it.
I’m shocked that some T1D’s can drink caffeine w/o a BG spike. But I’m caffeine-sensitive: if I drink coffee after 12 noon I can’t sleep until early the next day. I can drink tea until about 2pm, but I have to be careful with coffee. I don’t drink caffeinated soda, so I don’t know if it raises my BG or not.
The premise is bad science, a mistaken logical fallacy; Post hoc ergo propter hoc.
For years, I’ve not had any noticeable effect on my blood sugars from coffee. In the last year or so, I started to get a small spike from coffee in the morning, but I don’t notice it when I am drinking diet soft drinks or anything.
Sometimes I notice a higher blood sugar and sometimes nothing at all.
Haven’t ever noticed a difference except when someone gives me Decaf with a (yuck) Sweetener!
When I was on the Medtronic G3 sensor it showed more of a spike than the Dex G6 or G7. With the G6 and now with the G7 it bums up just a little. I also like to savor my first cup while waking up and watching the morning news. spreading it out over an hour or so helps…
I never know caffeine raised my glucose until I started wearing a CGM. I then changed my morning coffee to half caf/half decaf & raised bolus insulin dose by 1 unit, which works wonderfully.