Tag: coffee

Diabetes Coffee Talk

mollyt1d1 Comment

Random confession time: I used to think that I couldn’t order anything at “fancy” coffee shops like Starbucks other than a plain, black coffee.

Truthfully, I do drink my coffee black 99% of the time. I used to load it up with Splenda and a generous pour of cream, but in an effort to reduce my artificial sweetener intake (and cut excess calories from the cream), I started drinking it black in my late teens and haven’t really looked back…

…except for when I find myself ogling the incredible-sounding concoctions from places like Starbucks.

Vanilla sweet cream cold brew? Iced brown sugar oatmilk shaken espresso? Mocha cookie crumble frappuccino? All of those sound fantastic, and I don’t even know what “shaken espresso” or “cold brew” really means! But besides having appealing monikers, these drinks’ names also imply heavy sugar contents, and that scares me as a person with diabetes who tries to avoid sugary drinks (I’d rather “save” my daily carbohydrate intake for actual food). Moreover, I’ve always assumed that it wasn’t worth it to ask for substitutions in those drinks, so up until recently I’ve just stayed away from them.

Things changed, though, when I won a couple of Starbucks gift cards at work and I decided that I wanted to venture out of my comfort zone. I wanted to try a “fancy” drink, dammit, or at least one that was a notch or two above my usual plain black coffee! So I hit up the website to see what my options were, and in pursuit of as much nutritional information as I could find.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover two things: One being that nutritional information was extremely easy to locate, and the other being that I could customize any drink of my choosing by clicking on it and making modifications to my heart’s desire. So I started with the most intriguing-sounding drink – the shaken espresso – and swapped out the oatmilk for almond milk (which is much lower carb), the vanilla syrup for sugar-free vanilla syrup (they don’t have many sugar-free syrup options, but they do have basic flavors which was just fine by me), and a light caramel drizzle for fun (I liked that you could choose to make the drizzle light, regular, or extra). The website updated in real-time to reflect my customization options, so I had a sense of how many carbs the drink would contain. I opted to make it a large – venti in Starbucks-speak – and picked it up from the closest café to me.

I’m happy to report that my drink upgrade was delicious and didn’t spike my blood sugar like I feared its sugary counterparts would. It was a total win! And a learning experience to do a little more research before making assumptions about what I can and can’t have from different restaurants. I have to remind myself that many places are making strides to not only make nutritional information more accessible, but to also accommodate people with food sensitivities/allergies. So swaps aren’t necessarily an uncommon or unreasonable request for most spots oblige.

Duly noted (and appreciated) by this person with diabetes.

The Daily Drink that My Diabetes Dislikes

mollyt1d2 Comments

I remember my first-ever cup of coffee. I was around 10 years old. I had it at my grandparents’ house, where much of my family was gathered for some sort of holiday or other occasion. Coffee was being served with dessert, and I asked my mother if I could try some – I wanted to know why all the adults in the room were so enamored with the seemingly innocuous brown beverage.

I’d like to say it was love at first sip, but I think it was only after I poured in a hearty amount of cream and 2 or 3 Splenda packets that I felt any affection for coffee. But once I did that? I was a goner. Coffee became a staple for me. I’d get it from Dunkin’ Donuts at the mall whenever I went shopping with friends, pour a cup on the weekends to have at breakfast, and when I was feeling fancy, I’d go to Starbucks and get a couple of pumps of sugar-free syrup to jazz up an otherwise ordinary order.

But whenever I try to add anything like milk, real sugar, syrups, or whipped cream…coffee gets real dicey for me and my diabetes.

Coffee can get real confusing for a person with diabetes.

In other words? I’m at a loss as to how to bolus for things like lattes, mochas, or cappuccinos – let alone any of the crazy, carb-loaded concoctions that you can get at cafes or Starbucks.

As a result of my confusion around coffee drinks and, let’s be real here, my laziness (because I could look up carb counts, but the sugary spike that my blood sugar could experience after having one of these drinks make it not even worth it for me to do research), I tend to drink coffee black. And luckily, I like it that way. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not tempted from time to time – like when the local coffee shop that’s just a half-mile away from my home introduced a winter drink menu with things like an Irish cream latte, eggnog latte, and gingerbread latte on it. I seldom give into the impulse to try those kinds of drinks, but they sounded too good to skip out on.

So rather than have all 3 at once – because I’m not totally reckless like that – I did give the seemingly-lower-carb option a try (the Irish cream latte), while my boyfriend got the eggnog latte. I figured it was the best of both worlds because I could have a fancy drink to myself while also getting to try one of the more sugary options.

And guess what? My blood sugar didn’t spike after I drank it, not even a little bit. I think the secret to my success was being super active all morning long after I got the latte (I was busy running errands and tidying up my home for guests that were coming over later in the day). My insulin intake for the latte, coupled with lots of movement, seemed to prevent any disastrous blood sugars – and I think it also helped that I ordered almond milk in lieu of regular milk to go in the latte. Whatever the actual cause(s), I was just thrilled to learn from this little experiment that I can enjoy specialty coffee drinks after all – probably not all the time, but definitely as an occasional treat, which makes me a happy and well- caffeinated T1D.