Coffee, Insulin Resistance and Hypoglycemia
So here I am at the lovely Farmhouse in Burgandy, France (blog to follow about it) and eating a little French breakfast of fruit, cheese, and a very small slice of French baguette since that is all there was available. I usually drink green tea but decided to be truly “French” and have a cafe.
My breakfast is usually quite a bit bigger with an increased amount of protein but that was all there was so I decided to go with it. Little did I know what danger awaited me just 2 hours later.
We left to go exploring for the day and as we arrived in a little town near by and all of a sudden IT hit: hypoglycemia. Low blood sugar not so bad that I wanted to pass out but definitely a “danger Will Robinson” do something right now type of moment. We had to immediately go and get some protein so I could function.
I think my last episode was about 15 years ago. Since I eat so clean and have so much protein it has not been problematic since then. I was agitated since I thought I was beyond that but given my insulin resistant/diabetic genes you think I would have known better.
Then a few hours later when I was thinking more clearly it hit me – it was the coffee.
I stopped drinking coffee at least 10 years ago since it increases insulin resistance and hypoglycemia but really wanted to drink a good cup in France. Coffee can be okay for those with hypoglycemia later in the day but sometimes truly a toxic thing in the am – especially with inadequate amount of protein.
I learned my lesson once again – and hopefully there will not be another anniversary in another 15 years. Protein is essential to those with insulin resistance and prevention of low blood sugars.
And the take home message  I’ll be drinking my tea tomorrow and hopefully enjoying the rest of my vacation without having to deal with an immediate situation- which can just be a bummer of a set back on such a beautiful vacation.
August 23, 2011 @ 1:41 am
Do you think if you had your regular breakfast with more protein you would have had different results? I would miss my coffee too much!!
August 23, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
By the way- what kind of tea are you drinking these days? Did you blog on tea?
August 24, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
I think it was a combination of the less protein and coffee but i think the coffee had the major effect since i would just have just been hungry earlier without the hypoglycemia. I drink green tea – more antioxidants but black is good too.