Let’s Get to the Bottom of this Trendy Food Fascination
I’ve seen an increase in claims that caffeine prior to eating a meal in the morning is negatively impacting your blood glucose levels. If your Instagram algorithm is heavy on nutrition and food content, it’s a huge possibility that you’ve seen the “recent research” that has been released about eating breakfast before having coffee. The media tends to find a singular research article and really cling to it, even if the research is incredibly lackluster.
Today, I’m here to back this clickbait story up with science! Any time there is a new health trend, my go-to thought process is to think “Is this scientifically what’s going on, or what should happen?” Let’s comb through a few scientific details to make this claim make sense.
Blood Glucose Basics:
Everyone has blood sugar levels that rise and fall based on what their body needs in addition to outside factors such as food, stress, and environment. You want the waxing and waning of the levels without a dramatic drop or rise. Blood glucose plays a significant role in energy and supporting your brain function (as well as a ton of other roles)! As it pertains to skin, when your blood glucose levels are continually high, this can lead to dry and irritated skin.
When you are sleeping your blood glucose levels rise and fall throughout the night into the morning. As you approach your usual wake time, it’s typical for your blood glucose level to be slightly lower as your brain is being fueled at this time.
So, we have slightly lower blood glucose in the morning. Now how does Caffeine negatively affect this?
Caffeine commonly increases your cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone in your body and really let’s just look at it as your stress hormone. When your cortisol levels increase, you are approaching that “fight or flight” response including increased heart rate, and your body responds by sending energy to your limbs, your lungs, and your heart. This rapid shift causes elevated blood glucose levels to occur to make up for this sudden need in energy.
Now, you were already starting at a lower blood glucose level upon waking up, so why is this a problem sometimes?
Cue the real-life example:
I’m a scaredy cat when it comes to roller coasters. The less steep hills the better. If it could just be almost level as a train, I’d be into it! Think of your blood glucose like that rollercoaster vs. scaredy cat train.
When you start your day and you’re at that lower but safe blood glucose level and then you have your Caffeine right away, you are shooting into the sky. Click, click, clicking up the rollercoaster, you’re setting yourself up for an all day rollercoaster ride with cravings and fatigue not far behind.
Let’s Rethink It:
You have breakfast in the morning before anything else is consumed. Your breakfast is a perfect combination to promote stable blood glucose throughout the day, and you’re sitting cute on your scaredy cat rollercoaster next to Alison. We are staying balanced, not hitting any severe cravings, and maintaining a chill vibe for the morning. We are set up for success to dabble in a little Caffeine (careful with the sugary additives on this one!).
So, whether the research is something you buy into or not, backing this theory with science makes me feel confident in saying it would be beneficial for you to have a blood sugar balanced, protein packed breakfast prior to your Caffeine.
I want my clients to feel that they are learning the science behind their body systems in a way that’s easy to duplicate in the kitchen and place into their lifestyle! If we can start with this absolute gold info about blood glucose levels, we can be on our way to addressing your dry skin, acne, inflammation and redness, among many other skin issues.
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