Is it better to drink coffee before or after breakfast?

MORNING CAFFEINE DOPING

The habit of people in almost every nation in the world is to start the day with a cup of coffee. We all know about its waking effects, so it's logical that when we need to wake up in the morning, we reach for a cup of fragrant hot coffee. This caffeine dope works great, that is, in terms of immediate effect for an active start to the day. Is this popular morning tradition of tricking the body and mind with coffee good for our health?

More and more research is focus ing oncoffee and its effect on health, and in general it can be said that drinking coffee has significant positive and sometimes almost therapeutic or preventive effects for our health. However, even coffee consumption has its conditions to maintain these health benefits.

PROPER COFFEE CONSUMPTION

Drinking well and freshly roasted coffee that isprepared using the right methods isabsolutely essential . Such coffee, and preferably pure black coffee with no sugar and no milk, is then recommended to be drunk in specific quantities according to everyone's individual metabolism. In addition to the volume of coffee drunk, the time at which the coffee is drunk plays an essential role inobtaining its benefits while minimising its negative consequences.

When consuming coffee, we should take into account its well-known ability to stop fatigue. The moment we need to work or drive a car, sleep suppression is very useful. However, we must also accept that suppressing fatigue in the later hours has implications for our sleep patterns at night.

WHAT EVENING COFFEE DOES TO OUR SLEEP

Let's say you have a lot of work to do before the evening and you take a work coffee break around 5pm. Your coffee may perk you up and you can get back to work, but the caffeine you ingested at 5 p.m. won't leave your system until, say, 11 p.m.

Itis usually said that it takes about4 to 8 hours for the body to get rid of caffeine, but on average we can count on about six hours for the body to be affected by coffee. If we have a coffee in the evening, it is possible that the caffeine will still be effective in our body by the time we are trying to fall asleep.

The result is that, if we manage to fall asleep at all, our sleep will be of poor quality. Caffeine can disrupt not only falling asleep, but the entire sleep process in all its stages, which are necessary for our proper functioning.

THE BODY'S NATURAL NIGHT AND DAY ROUTINES

Just as night comes and day comes after it and the hands on the clock are always moving, so too do we have what is known as a biological clock within us. Our organism works in accordance with its circadian rhythms, i.e. our internal day and night settings. Along with these rhythms, certain processes occur in our body such as the natural production of melatonin or cortisol.

These substances are produced in our body and help us with the proper function of sleep and wakefulness. When these processes are disrupted by caffeine, adverse effects can occur, which can manifest themselves in health problems. By interfering with functions related to our circadian rhythms, caffeine can affect the production of the aforementioned cortisol or coffee could interfere with blood sugar control.

HOW CAFFEINE INTERFERES WITH MORNING CORTISOL PRODUCTION

The aforementioned cortisol is dubbed the stress hormone. It is a substance that activates and regulates many of our body's functions. In a narrower sense, we could say that cortisol stimulates us to a certain activity. In this way, it is very similar to caffeine. Thenatural secretion of cortisol into the body from the adrenal glands as a result of the functioning of the HPAaxis occurs in waves throughout the day, with the first wave being associated with our awakening .

The morning's normally elevated blood cortisol levels may then seem unnecessary to the body if we get into the habit of drinking coffee at this time, i.e. the morning after waking up. The substitution of caffeine for cortisol can manifest itself over time as a chronic need for morning coffee. This habit is then more than similar to an addiction.

STUDIES ON THE INCREASE IN BLOOD SUGAR LEVELS DUE TO A MORNING CUP OF COFFEE

Recent research by British university scientists suggests thatcaffeine-influenced sleep has an effect on our metabolism. Specifically on blood sugar levels. Given the fact that cardiovascular disease and diabetes are among the most common diseases with a high risk of death, it is advisable to keep blood sugar levels within a safe range to reduce the risk of these diseases. This research involved 29 men and women who underwent three experiments.

In the first one, the researchers let them sleep in a normal mode and in the morning after waking up, the test subjects drank a sugary drink. In the second trial, sleep was disrupted by the researchers waking the experimenters every hour and having them drink a sugary drink again the morning after waking up. Then, in the third experiment, the test group was again kept awake throughout the night, but when they woke up, they drank first strong black coffee and only after half an hour the sweet drink.

RESULTS OF RESEARCH ON THE EFFECT OF COFFEE ON METABOLISM

During the testing, the experimenters took blood samples from the research participants after they drank a sugary drink that was supposed to be a caloric substitute for their usual breakfast. The results of the study reported that one night of interrupted sleep did not impair the participants' blood sugar responses to breakfast compared to insulin blood test results after the first test with normal restful sleep.

In contrast ,strong black coffee drunk before breakfast significantly increased the blood sugar levels of those tested after "breakfast." The increase was approximately 50%. This is probably because caffeine causes insulin resistance.