Sep 04 2008
Coffee, Tea and Blood
One of the things that helped me gain my type 2 diabetes was soda. When I was a teenager, I drank about a 2 liter a day. I’d gotten down to 2 20 oz. sodas a day just before my diagnosis. I had no problem going cold turkey on soda, but I did have one minor complication: I liked caffeine. And now, I didn’t have any.
I’ve looked up what coffee and tea are supposed to do to diabetics. The good news is that there is something in coffee and tea that helps diabetes. The more you consume, the better off you are. The bad thing is that it’s not the caffeine and the amount of caffeine you’d have to take in to get the effects of whatever it is that does help, well… that amount of caffeine might cause it’s own problems.
This is in addition to the fact that diabetes usually comes with hypertension, which caffeine is no good for.
On the better side of things, my preferred non-sugar sweetener, Stevia, works well in both coffee and tea. Stevia has a hint of a bitter aftertaste that gets completely masked by the slight bitterness in the beverage. I take coffee and tea with a little milk or cream, and I try to remember that those carbs count towards what I consume. Moderation is still the key for safe caffeine consumption.
And besides all that, if I don’t take in as much caffeine as I used to, then when I do drink a few cups… caffeine becomes fun again.
Here’s a discussion of the effects of coffee/tea on diabetics with some more specifics.
