Scientists have found that drinking coffee on an empty stomach when sleeping poorly can weaken the body’s ability to process blood sugar and cause blood sugar to rise.
Boston, MA (Merxwire) – The global coffee market is heating up, and coffee is now the most popular beverage globally, with an estimated 2 billion cups consumed daily. Coffee is more than just a delicious drink. The caffeine in coffee has been scientifically proven to have various beneficial effects on health. But did you know that the time you drink coffee also impacts your health? Scientists suggest that drinking coffee after breakfast is better than drinking coffee before breakfast.
The global coffee market will reach US$122.9 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach US$170.8 billion by 2030. A cup of coffee every day has become a daily routine for modern people. Many people suffer from the symptom that “you must drink coffee to feel energetic.” However, according to the latest research, coffee must be drunk at the right time to be healthy and refreshing. The study was published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
The University of Bath in the UK recently published a study led by Professor James Betts, co-director of the Center for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism. Bates and the research team wanted to test the combined effects of sleep disruption and caffeine on metabolism. So, they recruited 29 healthy men and women and divided them into random orders to conduct different overnight experiments. The participants in the first group usually slept at night and were asked to Have a sugary drink when they woke up in the morning. A second group of participants experienced disrupted nighttime sleep (researchers woke them up for five minutes every hour) and then drank the same sugary drink after waking up. A third group of participants experienced the same sleep disruption (i.e., being woken throughout the night). Still, this time, they drank a cup of strong black coffee 30 minutes before consuming the sugary drink.
The results showed that being interrupted several times a night (without losing hours of sleep) for just one night did not worsen blood sugar or insulin responses to breakfast. However, if the subjects were not sleeping well and drank strong black coffee on an empty stomach, the subjects’ blood sugar would soar by about 50% after breakfast.
Past research has proven that caffeine may cause insulin resistance. This time, it is further found that drinking a cup of coffee the night before when you have not slept well may reduce the body’s ability to process the sugar in breakfast. Bates said in response to the results that many people drink strong coffee to wake them up in the morning after an inadequate sleep, but this habit hurts health. If you need to drink coffee, it may be better to drink coffee after breakfast than before breakfast.
Breakfast is the meal most likely to cause blood sugar fluctuations among the three meals, so the choice of breakfast is critical. In addition to not drinking coffee on an empty stomach, eating low-GI foods, such as whole-wheat bread, whole-wheat toast, oats, sweet potatoes, corn, etc., high-fiber, low-refined, and low-processed foods can also slow down the rise in blood sugar and prevent the brain from being affected by it.
