Fatty fast food makes damaging combination with coffee

Researchers have found that a cup of coffee doubles the adverse health impacts of a fatty fast food, The Vancuver Sun reported.

University of Guelph PhD candidate Marie-Soleil Beaudoin, who conducted the study with professors Lindsay Robinson and Terry Graham, found that blood sugar levels spike in healthy people after a high-fat meal followed by caffeinated coffee to levels similar to those of people at risk for diabetes.

The study, published April 1 in the Journal of Nutrition, examined the results of 11 active, healthy men, between 20 and 30 years of age, given one meal consisting of a special lipid concoction that had the saturated fat content of a cheeseburger, large fries and a shake, and six hours later, a second meal of a sugar-laden drink.

When sugar is consumed the body normally produces insulin, which takes sugar from the blood and distributes it to the muscles. But the fat meal apparently interfered with this process leaving blood sugar levels 32-per-cent higher than when the men had not ingested the fat beverage.

In the second part of the study, test subjects were given two mugs of coffee five hours after the fat beverage. An hour later, they were given the sugar drink. The results showed blood sugar levels were 65-per-cent higher than when the subjects had not ingested the fat and coffee. Beaudoin said the severity of the outcome -blood sugar spiking to pre-diabetic levels -was unexpected.

The study also looked at the levels of incretin hormones, which are released in the gastro-intestinal tract to signal the pancreas to release insulin to dissipate sugar in the blood. Ingesting the fat beverage seemed to blunt the hormones' responses to carbohydrates. In short, fat and caffeine impaired communication between the pancreas and gut, making it more difficult for the body to remove sugar from the blood.

One of the more troubling aspects of the study's findings is that the effects of a high-fat meal can last for hours. What you ate for breakfast can affect how the organism responds to food for the rest of the day.

There is, nonetheless, some good news in research on blood sugar as well. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts have found that red wine and tea help prevent the spike in blood sugar immediately after a meal. Results published recently in the Journal of Food Biochemistry show red wine was able to inhibit the activity of the enzyme alpha-glucosidase, which triggers the absorption of glucose by the small intestine, by nearly 100 per cent. A specific type of antioxidants, polyphenolics, are thought to play an important role in slowing the passage of sugar into the blood stream. Red wine was found to contain about 10 times more polyphenolics than white wine. Black tea was also effective in inhibiting the activity of alpha-glucosidase.

The antioxidants in wine and tea have received much positive press for their health benefits -from managing heart disease, lowering high blood pressure and even preventing cancer.