Coffee and Diabetes
Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
Should diabetics drink coffee? A survey reported in JAMA (July 6, 2005) showed that
drinking coffee reduces risk for developing type II diabetes, but
two other studies suggest that once you have diabetes, drinking
coffee may be unwise.
Canadian researchers writing in Diabetes
Care (March 2005) showed that caffeine significantly reduced
insulin sensitivity. In the July 2005 issue of the same journal,
scientists from Duke University Medical Center reported that
drinking coffee could upset a diabetic’s ability to metabolize sugar.
Blood sugar levels are supposed to rise after you eat. To
keep your blood sugar levels from rising too high, your pancreas
releases insulin. The researchers found that taking caffeine
causes blood sugar and insulin levels to rise even higher after
meals. If your blood sugar rises too high, sugar sticks to cells.
Once sugar is stuck on a cell membrane, it cannot be released
and is converted to a poison called sorbitol which destroys that
cell. High levels of insulin constrict arteries to cause heart attacks
and act directly on the brain to make you hungry, on your liver to
make more fat, and on the fat cells in your belly to pick up that fat.
If these studies are confirmed, diabetics will be advised to restrict
coffee as well as those foods that cause the highest rise in blood
sugar after meals.
Checked 10/14/09