This iced latte did NOT do “a latte” to move my blood sugar

diabetes latte coffee espresso steamed milk

Sorry for the terrible latte pun, but I’m pretty sure Official Internet Law requires it.

Back in 2019, not too long after I was first diagnosed with goddam diabetes, I had a nice, tall vanilla latte. And spoiler alert! That vanilla latte really did a number (a high one) on my glucose.

Ever since then, I’ve been drinking Americanos. And yes, I tested an Americano once, and the glucose increase was literally less than zero.

But today I went totally insane and ordered a latte!

I did NOT get a vanilla latte, or a mocha latte, or a pumpkin spice chocolate hazelnut latte.

I just got a plain ol’ latte, which is basically just coffee + steamed milk. More specifically, if they’re doing it “right,” it’s espresso + steamed milk.

I was expecting a pretty decent glucose hit, but a lower one than the Vanilla Latte Disaster of 2019.

Here’s what happened!

Blood sugar reading before drinking: 111

This reading of 111 was at work, a few hours after lunch. No metformin/Diabex yet.

diabetes latte coffee espresso steamed milk

Blood sugar reading after drinking: 128

This reading was about an hour after I finished my iced latte.

Well, well … WELL! 111 → 128 is an increase of +17 mg/dL.

In other words, this delicious latte basically did nothing to my glucose! It’s like I was expecting a punch in the gut but got a pat on the back instead.

Oh, and just to be sure my glucose meter wasn’t trying to prank me, I checked again 30 minutes later and got 114 mg/dL.

So obviously I’m gonna be drinking more lattes to confirm this result for science.

But if these numbers are somewhat repeatable, then I think it’s safe to conclude that a latte by itself won’t kill you. It’s the vanilla, or chocolate, or whatever else they add that’s gonna launch your glucose into high orbit.

diabetes latte coffee espresso steamed milk

Stay tuned, folks. I have a latte testing to do on this subject!

And if you start ordering lattes yourself, please resist the temptation to add anything to it. My vanilla latte experience of yore tells me that you’re gonna regret it.