Higher Fasting Number is Called The Symogi Effect

Why would coffee, assuming your drinking it in the morning and not drinking it at night, affect your fasting number. I've noticed that my fasting readings are often the highest in the day. I am trying to figure out why.. I infrequently drink coffee in the morning. However, I frequently drink caffeinated iced tea in the afternoons. Is the tea you drink all day caffeinated?

AFAIK, caffeine has no bearing on glucose levels one way or the other. Naturally, adding cream and/or sugar would add carbs, but black coffee or tea shouldn't affect a diabetic's control, especially not at only two cups a day. Your higher fasting number is because of something called dawn or sunrise phenomena (also called the Symogi Effect, I may have spelled that wrong). One of the normal functions of the liver is to take some ciruclating glucose and store it as glycogen. Then in times of fasting or high muscle demand, the liver can take the glycogen, reconvert it back to glucose, and release it back into the bloodstream. Someone with a normal pancreas will compensate for that extra glucose with a bit of insulin, but our pancreases don't do that so well, so our blood sugar goes up when the liver does its thing during the long night fast, and you see a higher number in the AM than you'd like.

Something you can try is a snack right at bedtime (I mean right before jammies go on and teeth are brushed). It'd be most effective if the snack was a serving of carbs and a serving of protein-- a boiled egg and a piece of toast, 6 crackers and an ounce of cheese, a half sandwich made with leftover meat from dinner, a half cup of cottage cheese and half an English muffin, a half cup of unsweetened pineapple and a string cheese-- you get my drift. Try that, Jill, and see if it helps (give it a good week or two before you decide one way or the other). Be careful not to go over the daily calorie and carb level you're supposed to maintain-- the bedtime snack carbs and calories should come from other places in your 24 hour eating plan.