5 Cups of Coffee a Day for Type 2 Diabetes?

5 Cups of Coffee a Day for Type 2 Diabetes?
Spread the love

5 Cups of Coffee a Day? If WHO says so, there might be something to it. Right?

However, a new research, funded by American Diabetes Association (ADA), indicates that coffee is good for:

  • Cardiovascular diseases(myocardial infarction, high cholesterol…)
  • Cancer (prostate, breast…)
  • Parkinsons disease
  • …And type 2 diabetes!

According to the research conducted by Marilyn Cornelis, PhD, from NFU School of Medicine:

(Of all the foods we consume) coffee has the most potential to prevent type 2 diabetes.

What is more, WHO has released guidelines for dietary recommendation for Americans for 2015-2020, in which they state that 3-5 cups of coffee is associated with health benefits (including for type 2 diabetes).

Seems like both the latest research and even WHO is pro-coffee. I know I’m pro-coffee myself, being an avid coffee drinker and I think it’s great I’m doing something good for myself by having a cup of coffee a day! Let alone 5 cups!

You can download the WHO statement here, I’ve copied the section about coffee for you here (be aware what is says about how much sugar and milk you should add to coffee):

5 Cups of Coffee a Day for Type 2 Diabetes?
5 Cups of Coffee a Day for Type 2 Diabetes?

Let me pour myself another cup of coffee right now (and according to the coffee and diabetes research, you should grab a coffee yourself) because we’re going to see:

  • Why is coffee good for us?
  • What does other research about coffee and diabetes suggest
  • How much sugar and milk I personally add to my coffee? I’ll reveal my own easy recipe for diabetes-friendly coffee – I’m drinking one right now!

In short, do coffee and diabetes go hand in hand together?

Let’s find out:

Coffee and Diabetes – An Age Old Question

I don’t really know anybody that wouldn’t like coffee. In fact, when I meet with some old friends with type 2 diabetes, we go for a coffee. Ok, maybe beer sometimes.

When talking about coffee and diabetes, we’ve been talking a lot about caffeine and diabetes – which is not the same as ‘coffee and diabetes.’ Why? Because coffee is not just caffeine.

Who doesn’t love a cup of coffee?
Who doesn’t love a cup of coffee?

The latest study by Dr. Cornelis has revealed that coffee is good for diabetic patients because of hundreds of other ingredients in coffee. Some of them have strong antioxidant properties; and this may very well be the reason why coffee is good for not only type 2 diabetes, but for cardiovascular diseases and Parkinson’s, for example.

So when we talk about coffee, we really should be talking about caffeine and other ingredients.

This can be summed up in the following paradox:

  1. Caffeine (in coffee) increases blood glucose. More coffee drinkers should have diabetes, right? Well…
  2. People who drink a lot of coffee have a lower risk for diabetes. Source: WebMD.

In short, caffeine is bad for diabetes. But those other things in coffee are good for diabetes! We can’t judge coffee just based on caffeine.

Caffeine and Type 2 Diabetes – The Bad Side of Coffee

How much caffeine is in your coffee?
How much caffeine is in your coffee?

There is one very obvious problem with coffee as far as diabetes is concerned, and it’s this:

Caffeine (in coffee) increases blood sugar levels. A study by James D. Lane, PhD, from Duke University found out that drinking several cups of coffee per day can increase BG by 8%.

For people with diabetes, drinking coffee or consuming caffeine in other beverages may make it harder for them to control their glucose. (James D. Lane, PhD)

To give you an example how much this 8% means – If your blood glucose is 150 mg/ml, it can be 162 mg/ml if you drink 4 cups of coffee per day.

What is more, if you read the statement by WHO about coffee consumption, they state that 400 mg/day of caffeine is still allowed (that’s up to 5 cups of coffee per day).

So there is a limit on caffeine consumption. The reason is pretty obvious – numerous studies like the one from Duke University on caffeine and diabetes has shown that caffeine does raise blood sugar. For diabetes patients, that’s bad news.

But as we’ve talked about earlier, coffee is not just caffeine.

Other Coffee Ingredients and Diabetes – The Good Side of Coffee

Coffee is quite a complex mixture of substances. The red coffee berries are grown from Brazil to Kenya. When picked, they’re roasted to taste. The roasting process produces hundreds of different ingredients that give coffee its genuine taste.

These hundreds of ingredients of coffee don’t only influence taste; they also influence us when digested. More specifically, they influence our health – it is believed that many of coffee’s ingredients are good antioxidants which help with cardiovascular diseases.

Do you know why dark chocolate can be healthy? Some people would argue that ‘of course chocolate can’t be healthy, it will only make you fat with all those sugars’. Yes, that is true, sugars in chocolate can make you fat, but there is another side to chocolate as well – chocolate is rich in antioxidants, and the darker it is, the more antioxidants it has. The same as chocolate, coffee has a bad side (caffeine) and a good side (other ingredients) as well.

Decaf, Anybody? (Not My Cup of Tea)

There’s an easy solution to which is the healthiest coffee to drink for diabetes – it’s decaf, of course.

You get all the health benefits of hundreds of coffee ingredients and none of the bad sugar elevating problems of caffeine, right?

For me, a decaf is a no-no. I have a passion for coffee and coffee without caffeine is like, well, coffee without caffeine. I don’t know what it would take for me to stop drinking coffee, but quite frankly, type 2 diabetes is not it.

Nonetheless, if anybody drinks coffee just for the good taste, I would highly recommend switching to decaf. According to the latest research, it can be said that will only do you good if you have type 2 diabetes.

Research Focused on Other Coffee Ingredients and Their Benefits

The research conducted by Mrs. Cornelis will focus on the ingredients that coffee in made out of. She hopes that be studying habits of people who drink a lot of coffee, she will be able to finally answer whether coffee (with caffeine) is good for diabetes patients.

And where to get people who drink a lot of coffee?

In the US, average American drinks about a cup of coffee per day.

Mrs. Cornelis turned to Finland – there the national average is 2.6 cups of coffee per day. Among other things, she is looking into a research where one group will drink 0 coffees per day and the other 8 coffees per day.

Even before the results of this study are in, one can have a good feeling that drinking coffee is not as bad as we once thought. Why? Because both WHO and FDA recent guidelines suggest that drinking coffee is not bad at all – it is good!

Now, I would not encourage anybody to drink more coffee – everyone has his or hers own choice to make about their health, and consult their physicians – but I breathe a little bit easier knowing that a cup (or five) coffee a day can actually be good for me.

Where Did They Got ‘5 Cups of Coffee Per Day’?

This was the first time I heard that something like 5 cups of coffee per day can be good for health. I drink about 3 cups per day, and even I thought I was going over the limit.

5 cups of coffee per day goes back to the World Health Organization’s statement where they specify that it is ok to drink 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day, as long as you don’t drink more than 400 mg of caffeine per day.

Of course, a single cup of coffee can have different amounts of caffeine (espresso has less than brewed cup of coffee, for example), but a rough average would be 100 mg of caffeine per cup of coffee.

What has more calories, Coca-Cola or espresso?
What has more calories, Coca-Cola or espresso?

This would yield 4 cups, each with 100 mg of caffeine, per day. That would hit a 400 mg limit.

I like this. I can live with 4 cups of coffee per day with ease.

You Want Coffee with Sugar, Creme or Milk? ‘Am…I Got Type 2 Diabetes, so…’

Of course, people don’t only drink black coffee. So how do you take it?

With sugar, creme or milk? Therein might lie a problem (and you’re probably aware of it). All this sugar and milk can add quite a bit of sugar in your coffee (and your veins). If you have type 2 diabetes, you’re more than aware now that you have to stay away from bigger sugary things. But hey, it’s just coffee, right?

Well, not always. I have a friend who always drink his coffee with two sugars, creme but NO milk. He seems very proud of not adding milk but with the sugar and creme alone he is, in my humble opinion, drinking more a milkshake than coffee.

Always be aware that sugar in coffee can add up. Starbucks coffee, for example, can easily exceed 500 calories. If you drink 4 of those per day, your doctor won’t be very happy with that. And you know doctor can always find out what were your glucose levels with A1c parameter – this is measured in the blood, not in the urine (I just mention this because someone asked me if I would recommend synthetic urine to fake blood glucose levels to a doctor? No, just no.)

How I Take My Coffee? – My Diabetes Coffee Recipe

As I’ve mentioned, I’m a coffee enthusiast. I’m also a type 2 diabetes patient.

Even before FDA and WHO came out about coffee being good, I was drinking my signature coffee.

It’s very easy to make and very diabetes-friendly. Anybody can make it, it’s so simple.

I call it Steve’s Delight – but actually it’s just brewed black coffee with a teaspoon of cinnamon. That’s right, no sugar or milk; but let me tell you, the cinnamon makes all the different. Not only to me but to my body as well. Cinnamon lowers my cholesterol and heart pressure (or at least studies suggest that).

Here’s a cup. Maybe you should make yourself one as well.

My coffee I like to call Steve’s Delight. It’s actually black coffee with a teaspoon of cinnamon. Very easy to make right away.
My coffee I like to call Steve’s Delight. It’s actually black coffee with a teaspoon of cinnamon. Very easy to make right away.

Source: diabetesdaily.com | Photo Credit: Steve McDermott

Related posts

Leave a Comment