An extensive survey reported in JAMA (July 6, 2005) showed
that drinking coffee reduces risk for developing type II diabetes.
However, two recent 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.
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