A healthy person's blood sugar levels shoot up after eating a high-fat meal, but that spike doubles after having both a fatty meal and caffeinated coffee -- jumping to levels similar to those of people at risk of diabetes, says Marie-Soleil Beaudoin from University of Guelph.

"The results tell us that saturated fat interferes with the body's ability to clear sugars from the blood and, when combined with caffeinated coffee, the impact can be even worse," said Beaudoin, doctoral student who conducted the study, reports the Journal of Nutrition.

"Having sugar remain in our blood for long periods is unhealthy because it can take a toll on our body's organs," adds Beaudoin, who conducted the study with Guelph professors Lindsay Robinson and Terry Graham, according to a University of Guelph statement.

The study is the first to examine the effects of saturated fat and caffeinated coffee on blood sugar levels using a novel fat cocktail which contains only lipids.

This specially designed beverage allows researchers to accurately mimic what happens to the body when we ingest fat.

For the study, healthy men drank about one gram of the fat beverage for every kilogram of body weight for their first meal. Six hours later, they were given a second meal consisting of a sugar drink.

Typically when humans ingest sugar, the body produces insulin, which takes the sugar out of the blood and distributes it to the muscles, said Beaudoin.

However, the researchers found that the fatty meal affected the body's ability to clear the sugar out of the blood. The subjects' blood sugar levels were 32% higher than they were when the men had not ingested the fat cocktail.

From the April 4, 2011, Prepared Foods' Daily News