Photo: Julius Schorzman
Add your daily cup of java to the list of things that can make it more difficult to control your diabetes. A growing body of research indicates that caffeine disrupts glucose metabolism and increases insulin resistance, even in people that don’t have diabetes.
The findings raise concerns that caffeine’s tendency to increase insulin resistance could increase the risk of developing diabetes, or lead to poor control of the disease in those that already have it.
In people with type 2 diabetes, the expected rise in blood sugar after eating carbohydrates is exaggerated if they also drink a caffeinated beverage. This larger than anticipated rise in blood glucose could throw off diabetics’ calculations of the required dosage of diabetes medication, including insulin injections.
This is further complicated by the fact that people metabolize coffee at different speeds, and that both slow and fast metabolizers are common in the general population.
Caffeine is not only found in coffee, but also in tea, soft drinks and in energy drinks. Caffeine’s impact on glucose metabolism was reported on in the inaugural issue of the Journal of Caffeine Research: The International Multidisciplinary Journal of Caffeine Science.
“The links that have been revealed between diabetes and the consumption of caffeine beverages – especially coffee – are of monumental importance when it is acknowledged that more than 80 percent of the world’s population consumes caffeine daily,” says the new journal’s editor in chief, Jack E. James.
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