Many of us can't begin our day without one or even two coffees in the morning.
However, drinking the caffeinated drink before food first thing could have a negative impact on your health. According to experts, it is important to line your stomach before sipping away on your first coffee of the day.
Despite being packed with potent antioxidants, coffee can have negative effects, with the drink potentially having a significant impact on your glucose control if consumed before food in the morning.
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In a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, experts found that both disrupted sleep and coffee intake independently impair glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in healthy adults. Blood glucose is a crucial factor in a person's heart health, with uncontrolled levels potentially leading to conditions like diabetes and heart disease.
The study examined 29 healthy men and women who underwent three different overnight experiments. The participants were split into three group, with the first given a sugary drink when first waking up from a normal an uninterrupted right's sleep, reports The Express.
The second group were given the same drink when taking, but this time consumed it after a poor night's sleep where they were woken up for five minutes every hour. The third group also had disrupted sleep and were given a strong black coffee after waking up, and the sugary drink 30 minutes later.
Blood samples were then taken from all participants, with results suggesting that disrupted sleep appeared to have no significant impact on glucose levels compared to a normal night's sleep. However, having a strong black coffee on an empty stomach increased the blood glucose response to a sugary drink by around 50 per cent.
The study found that drinking black coffee first thing could have a significant effect on the today's blood sugar and metabolic control. This means that the blood sugar is impaired when the body ingests coffee immediately after waking from a night of unsettled sleep.
Additional research is required to fully understand the long term risk. However, impaired metabolism is understood to be a risk factor for health issues including diabetes. The suspected culprit, in this case, is cortisol, which is known to raise blood glucose by releasing stored glucose.
Medicover Hospitals states: “[…] Experts warn that coffee should never be consumed in the morning when you wake up. The reason is that coffee will increase the levels of cortisol very quickly and the body will take a long time to return to its normal state. This hormone controls our biological clock and the ability to stay awake.
"The consumption of coffee on an empty stomach will increase the level of acid in the stomach, which can lead to bloating and vomiting."
Olivia Hedlund, a functional nutritional therapist behind Livingwell, recently echoed this advice on TikTok. She explained: “Coffee is not only acidic […] but it literally causes our bodies to go into a stress response to shoot out cortisol and put us in a kind of fight or flight state.”
This effect could be softened by drinking coffee after the stomach has been lined with food, according to the expert.
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