A cuppa and blood glucose

A. I had a query I was really hoping you could help me with; I have read that having caffeine with food raises the Glycaemic Index (GI) level. I never drink coffee but often have green tea with my breakfast, lunch and supper meals! Will the GI of the food be raised with green tea? Vanessa.

Q. There is no simple answer to this one Vanessa. There is more and more evidence that coffee, and now tea, is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. There have been small studies suggesting that caffeine may cause a slightly higher blood glucose after a meal but no health authority has suggested avoidance of caffeinated drinks in those with diabetes.

I am going to give the default answer: If you don’t have diabetes then 3-5 cups of tea or coffee a day is unlikely to upset blood glucose and may even protect you from diabetes. If you have diabetes, then you should still be able to handle 3-5 cuppas a day unless blood glucose monitoring suggests this is raising blood glucose too high. Oh, and you are one of the few people who realise that green tea has caffeine.