Is drinking black coffee or eating an Apple more effective in lowering blood sugar?

Andrew Gumperz
I see many questions concerning foods which are said to “lower blood sugar.” I will answer these question eventually, but I want to correct a misapprehension that underlies this questions. No foods lower blood sugar directly. Individual foods do not perform blood sugar magic. Suppose you eat a black coffee and a donut. The black coffee does not prevent the blood sugar spike caused by the donut. It may not increase the size of the spike, but it surely doesn’t prevent it or control the effect of the donut.
If you must choose between a cup of black coffee and a cup of orange juice, you are choosing between a food which doesn’t increase blood sugar at all (the black coffee) and one that spikes it very high (the orange juice). So when you choose the black coffee, you aren’t lowering blood sugar but you are not raising it. A whole apple will raise blood sugar, but not as much as an apple juice so it isn’t lowering blood sugar, just raising it less aggressively than the juice. So don’t choose between black coffee and apples. To control blood sugar, you must control the entire diet. You must remove most of the foods which spike blood sugar. Black coffee is a great substitute for coffee with creamer and sugar. A whole apple is a great substitute for a fruit yogurt. However the real benefit comes from not eating the unhealthy alternative, rather than from the coffee or the apple.
For anyone serious about managing blood sugar, here are suggestions:
1. No sweetened drinks at all, not even artificially sweetened ones. No fruit juices even. Stick to water, black coffee and tea.
2. Very limited foods which taste sweet, except raw whole fruit with the skin.
3. Limit starches like grain and root vegetables (potatoes, carrots, etc). Build your diet around meat, eggs, nuts, healthy fats, green vegetables, high fat dairy (cheese, cream, full fat yogurt).
4. No ultra-processed foods. Cook foods at home made from raw ingredients. (Quaro)