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Why coffeeTest itSugar packetsTell the pumpCreamerCoffee shopsTeaCaffeine, compared
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Bolus 4 · Episode 1885

Coffee

No carbs in black coffee — so why does it push blood sugar up? Scott has never had a cup in his life. Jenny has had plenty, tested it on herself, and landed on a number: about a unit of insulin for an eight-ounce cup, pre-bolused. Then the sugar packets, the creamer you don't measure, and how much caffeine is really in everything else.

Scott Benner and Jenny Smith, RD, CDCES, LD
Open the Bolus 4 estimator
Carb ratio1:11
Sensitivity—
Target—
Fat + protein50%

The estimator wasn't run on this one. The ratio is Jenny's own morning ratio, 1:11 — she rounds to 1:10 on the recording for easy math. Her coffee unit is her number from her own testing, not a rule: it might be 0.3 for you, or two. 9:12

01 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1885

A cup of black coffee

Someone told Scott their blood sugar had been high and they'd been drinking more caffeine than they should. He wanted to know why.

2:30
Why it rises2:55

Caffeine works a little like a hit of adrenaline.

Jenny: caffeine kicks your energy into gear, and in doing it can reduce some insulin sensitivity. So if you drink black coffee and see a rise — “there aren't any carbs, you're right, there aren't any carbs” — you're bolusing for the effect, not for food.

1 unit
Jenny's number for an 8-ounce cup of coffee

Hers, from her own testing — not everybody's. It depends on your sensitivity to insulin.

How Jenny found her number5:16

Measure it on yourself before you guess.

  1. Start stableDrink a cup with a steady, nice-looking blood sugar. Test it black first — she tested hers without the cream.
  2. Don't bolusWatch how far it rises and where it finally plateaus. It will level off, the same way unbolused carbs eventually do once basal holds you flat.
  3. Do it for a few days and average itThen use your correction factor to work out how much insulin prevents that rise.
  4. Hers came out to about a unitFor an eight-ounce cup — a one-cup cup, not a giant “Jethro” mug. Yours might be 0.3. It might be two.
02 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1885

What you put in it

Jenny takes a tablespoon of coconut milk creamer — two grams of carb — and no sugar. Somebody else is going to toss in two packets.

8:41
Sugar, measured8:41
One sugar packet at a coffee shop is a teaspoon. How many carbs?
4g
Two packets is eight grams. Two tablespoons of sugar would be a lot; two teaspoons is about right for a sweetened cup.
Tell the pump — in carbs11:40

Scott asked if she “lies to the pump.” She doesn't see it that way.

  1. The coffee goes in as carbsMost of today's pumps won't subtract insulin behind a bolus you just take. So Jenny converts her coffee unit into grams at her ratio — 11 at 1:11 — and enters it as carbohydrate.
  2. Then add what's in the cupEight grams for two packets. “That comes to 19 grams of carb.”
  3. Why it mattersDepending on the algorithm, what you enter is what the system acknowledges and follows after. So she puts it in as if it's a carbohydrate.
8 oz coffee + two sugar packets · Jenny's 1:1112:03
19carb0protein0fat
Up front
1.73u
11 grams for the coffee's unit + 8 grams of sugar
No extended wave
0.00u
0.0 fat-protein units
Theoretical requirement
1.73u
0% of it is not carbs

Jenny's example worked at her own morning ratio: 19 grams at 1:11. At the 1:10 she used for easy math on the recording, it's the one unit plus 0.8 for the sugar. Then she looks at what her blood sugar is doing.

Creamers, per tablespoon, as Scott read them12:41
0.4g · heavy cream
Negligible, Jenny says — a couple of tablespoons won't change much unless your ratio is very low.
0.6–0.7g · half and half
Same story.
5g · flavored liquid
Regular flavored liquid creamer. Powdered flavored creamer is 2 grams per half teaspoon. Zero-sugar creamer has none.
⅛–¼cup · your pour
Jenny: nobody measures a tablespoon. You dump it out of the jar, and the average dump is an eighth to a quarter cup. Scott: “creamer is the ketchup of drinks.”
The coffee shop14:10

Two to four pumps of syrup, plus the caffeine.

Nobody goes to Dunkin' or Starbucks for a black coffee. Specialty drinks come with real milk or cream and usually two to four pumps of sugar syrup — the peppermint mocha at the holidays. Sugar-free syrups exist, but plenty of people don't like them. So there are more carbs than you think, and you're still getting the kick from the caffeine.

03 · Bolus 4 · Episode 1885

Tea, soda, and energy drinks

Does tea do the same thing? How does a soda compare? Scott looked up the caffeine.

15:07
Tea15:07

Jenny sees no rise from tea.

She has a cup on the way to yoga in the morning, fasted — green, white, sometimes herbal — and nothing moves. Tea's caffeine is low compared with a cup of coffee. A matcha latte is a different story: milk and maybe a vanilla syrup. Count what you add.

Offset the timing16:34

Jenny pre-boluses her morning cup 12 to 15 minutes.

It will hit hard enough to mess her up otherwise. Coffee isn't a fast kick like soda — don't drink a cup of black coffee to treat a low — but it isn't nothing either.

Caffeine, as Scott looked it up18:02
95mg · brewed coffee
Eight ounces. More than anything else on the list.
80mg · Red Bull
An 8.4-ounce can — with 27 grams of sugar. Sugar-free versions still have the caffeine; that's the point of drinking it, Jenny says.
63 · 62mg · espresso · instant
Espresso, then instant coffee.
54 · 46 · 34mg · soda
Citrus soda like Mountain Dew, diet cola, regular cola.
Look at the CGM, tweak for next time18:37

Where coffee hides.

  1. It's the thing nobody asks aboutJenny: beverages get missed in a lot of health care conversations. The coffee maker already dripped it, you pour a cup while you brush your teeth, and it's not a thought.
  2. It isn't just type 1Would someone with type 2 get the same rise from black coffee? Yes.
  3. Scott's summaryDrink a cup of black coffee, or with minimal stuff in it, and see what it does to you. Then you know how much the coffee moves you before anything else is in it — and maybe you have a better morning.
Take a picture of this one

Things to remember from this one

The numbers that transfer to the next one.

1uper 8 oz
Jenny's number for her own black coffee, found by testing. Yours may differ.
4gper packet
One sugar packet is a teaspoon, and four grams of carb.
12–15min
Jenny's pre-bolus for her morning cup.
95mgcaffeine
in 8 ounces of brewed coffee — about three times a cola.

“There aren't any carbs. You're right. There aren't any carbs.”

Jenny Smith3:56

“It sounds like creamer is the ketchup of drinks.”

Scott Benner14:01

“I pre bolus for my cups of coffee.”

Jenny Smith16:33

“When I get tired, I go to sleep.”

Scott Benner19:53
The tool

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Every Bolus 4 page

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Everything on this page is a simulation for education, not medical advice. Nothing here should change your insulin dosing without your care team.
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