Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Howie767 on January 10, 2013 at 7:38pm

Skipping breakfast is not a good idea. Breakfast is the very thing that stops the dawn phenomenon in it's tracks. It's not the milk in the coffee that spikes you, it's the caffeine causing an adrenalin rush.

The best time to exercise is around breakfast. If you can manage, eat a protein only breakfast after exercising. You can often skip your meal bolus entirely. The best time to eat is at dinner time when your insulin sensitivity is it's highest. You can get by with a small bolus then. Midday? That's the meal of choice to omit.

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Permalink Reply by GracieSF on January 13, 2013 at 8:13am

No coffee bolus for me either. I've used the Trader Joes unsweetened coconut milk, Blue Diamond unsweetened Almond Milk and a few other nut milks. Occasionally I get lazy and just use the half-and-half my husband buys.

My only additional note for folks investigating alternative "milks" is that the Blue Diamond has been the only almond milk I've used that hasn't separated once added to my coffee. The others (unfortunately I can't remember the brands) have been great in other applications, but in coffee not so much :)

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Permalink Reply by lizzistardust on January 31, 2013 at 5:29am

I'm fine without bolusing for black coffee. I see absolutely no bump in my BG from just plain coffee.

The same doesn't apply if I decide to add milk and sweetener, of course.

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Permalink Reply by rbenson on January 31, 2013 at 6:18am

My pump is set on a 1:10 ratio, and for coffee alone, I do need a pump bump of 1.5 units. Completely empirically derived.

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Permalink Reply by shoshana27 on January 31, 2013 at 8:04am

i don't bolus for coffee. i am irregular anyway, when it comes to bg.

i use 1 % milk when at home & no sweetener.

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Permalink Reply by Gerald Francis Miller on February 5, 2013 at 8:06am

Whats a "bolus"?Im not a type one.ger

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Permalink Reply by rbenson on February 5, 2013 at 9:01am

A bolus is the equivalent of giving one a syringe shot of insulin for people who don't wear a pump. Bolus is pump-talk and is the noun describing the insulin needed to cover consumed food and beverage. Basal rate, in contrast, is the background insulin rate that is constantly delivered in low levels by the pump to cover basic metabolic function.

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Permalink Reply by David (dns) on February 5, 2013 at 10:27am

I do not bolus for coffee. I sweeten with Stevia and lighten with cream (pure cream, not half and half). So a cup of coffee has effectively no carbs, or at least not enough to have a measurable effect on me. So says my meter.

BTW, we MDIers also use "bolus" to refer to insulin injected to cover a meal. It's not just a pump term.

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Permalink Reply by rbenson on February 5, 2013 at 11:35am

I hope people are realizing that the affect of coffee isn't tied to the caloric affect of raising your blood sugar, it's that caffeine inhibits the ability of insulin to work properly,leading to a slight rise in diabetics. From a personal perspective as a competitive bike racer, I find that consuming it to help alleviate lows is a positive benefit, but that's just my empirical data.

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