A cup of coffee after dinner is usually fine—unless your meal was high in fat. This combination can sharply raise blood sugar levels, increasing diabetes risk.
Marie-Soleil Beaudion, a researcher at Canada's University of Guelph, found that healthy people experience elevated blood sugar after high-fat meals. Drinking coffee afterward doubles this effect, pushing levels similar to those in people at high diabetes risk.
Long-lasting consequences: Saturated fats disrupt insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar. This impact lingers for hours, stressing organs and heightening diabetes risk.
More about diabetes.
Study details: Conducted only on men, it used specially designed fat-only cocktails paired with sugary drinks and coffee as 'meals.' Full results appear in the Journal of Nutrition (2020).
