Cortisol / Coffee / Glucose / Insulin

#1

Greetings Friends,

I am focusing in on my coffee intake and its effects on my body. Would someone please advise me as to whether or not measuring my blood glucose after drinking coffee is a good indication of whether or not coffee is also raising my insulin? Is there another way to determine the coffee / insulin effect?

Thanks so much.
Happy Independence Day.

(Edith) #2

I believe if you drink your coffee black and your blood sugar decreases after consuming it, that means you had an insulin response to the coffee. If your blood sugar stays the same, approximately, then there was no insulin response.

#3

So the caffeine raises blood glucose, then the insulin raises, then the insulin lowers the blood glucose?
Thanks, :slight_smile:

#4

I don’t think that’s correct. I don’t believe caffeine, by itself, affects blood sugar. All the “extras” that most people add to their coffee, however, definitely does. (Sugar, flavored creamers, syrups, even HWC.)

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #5

The glucose may or may not rise, itself. But a drop definitely indicates an insulin response.

#6

Thanks for the helpful responses. I wonder if coffee raises my cortisol levels.
Subjectively I would have to say that my heart rate increases and I feel more stressed when drinking the liquid life force. Objectively, I could order a cortisol test and test myself after drinking a cup.

(betsy.rome) #7

This has always been a bit confusing. If you have a BS rise, it means the food in question has raised your BS. If you have a BS fall, it means the food caused an insulin response. The only good response is no change. Is that correct?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #8

Pretty much. The idea is that we don’t want insulin to rise, if we can help it. So foods that turn to glucose in our body are to be avoided, because the rise in glucose will trigger a rise in insulin. Then there are things, such as artificial sweeteners, that can trigger insulin secretion but that have no effect on our glucose level. They are also to be avoided, because we don’t want insulin to go up. Since we have no direct way to measure our insulin at home, we have to rely on measuring our glucose. So if glucose doesn’t go up when we eat something, but it does drop after a while, it’s a pretty good bet that the glucose drop resulted from a rise in insulin.

There! I think that’s about as concise as I can get it. Does it make sense?

#9

This looks good. To forward it to cortisol. Cortisol is a flight or fight hormone. When it is present it causes a rise in glucose which causes a rise in insulin. So if I am drinking caffeine is it raising my cortisol which will raise my insulin?

Thanks for the excellent explanations.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

Now that is a good question. I haven’t read that it does, but then I haven’t read that it doesn’t, either. Anyone?

#11

I don’t think coffee raises everyone’s cortisol levels. I drink a lot of coffee and have perfect cortisol levels at all stages of the waking cycle. It does precisely what it’s supposed to do (higher in the a.m and gradually falling so you can go to sleep).
I do think if you have adrenal issues (stemming from cortisol) then coffee can exacerbate those, but to an otherwise healthy cortisol/adrenal person, it won’t mess it up

#12

Good to know. Thank you…