What’s wrong with coffee?
Caffeine creates an energy rush. It stimulates the release of Adrenalin and an increase in blood sugar. Adrenalin is naturally produced as an emergency response to a threatening situation to supply energy to survive, to fight or flight.
Your body doesn't know the difference between Adrenalin produced from a threat such as a tiger attack or from your almond latte. Adrenalin creates a false energy borrowed from later in the day, taken from another vital function to meet the need for your energy emergency created by your coffee, to-do list, stress and pressure. With coffee you are unable to have a healthy stress response reaction.
Coffee is a drug. It is addictive. It’s habitual use is bound up in ritual, desperation, reward and immense need. Ever tried to suggest to a “wired woman” that her ritualistic morning coffee may be the cause of her overwhelmed, angry, irritable and non-sleeping demeanor? I have. Many times. And it is always met with “but i only have one” and “anything but my morning coffee” to tears and tantrums and flat out “no” and total refusal to stop. Women would rather give up their Friday night glass (or two) of wine or their phone for two weeks than their morning cup of coffee. What is it about coffee and our incessant need for it?
Is coffee bad for everyone? Not really. Each of us have a different reaction to caffeine. Some get jittery and anxious, others hyper alert and uplifted for hours. But eventually mental alertness and energy will start dropping rapidly, blood sugar will crash and the body needs the next pick me up to keep going. How you deal with caffeine depends on your genetics, adrenal health, stressors -perceived or real and your to-do list.
Having a relaxing coffee on a Sunday morning with nothing to do, is vastly different to having a coffee when wired and tired with a monumental “to-do” list swamping you. Everybody reacts differently and stress will intensify all reactions.
Perhaps the most concerning is that coffee at any time of the day disturbs the deepest and most important phase of sleep that you need to repair, rejuvenate and feel rested. It can cause insomnia and an inability to stay asleep, like waking at 2-3am wired with a busy brain that won't let you go back to sleep.
Caffeine affects your hormones. It is a hormone disruptor. It affects how your liver detoxifies estrogen causing estrogen dominance making PMS worse with wild mood swings, painful breasts, heavier periods and anxiety. In turn estrogen dominance can cause thyroid problems like Hashimotos.
It is also toxic. The coffee bean is the most heavily sprayed crop in the world. Coffee beans have high levels of pesticides, chemicals and fungus and the most significant toxic food that we consume.
Caffeine creates sugar and carbohydrate cravings, damages the gut lining and causes acid reflux, low iron, exhausts the adrenal glands, causes anxiety and mood swings, affects fertility and worsens PMS, is highly inflammatory, lowers our pH and makes us more acidic, causing osteoporosis and is linked to insomnia and poor sleep. Yet still we NEED it!
“The change we need the most, is the change we resist the most”
Take the Challenge- Stop consuming Caffeine for 4 weeks and let your natural energy balance return. You will be calmer, sleep better, have less brain fog, less breast pain and PMS and start to get your adrenal health back in balance. It’s pretty simple really:
How to reduce your coffee intake?
Stop drinking coffee, coke, energy drinks and anything else that has caffeine in it.
The best way to do this is go cold turkey! There is no easy way. Draw the line in the sand and say no to all caffeine for a minimum of 4 weeks.
Drink tea (several cups a day) initially to help with Headaches, cravings and slug like demeanour. Tea, especially green tea contains L-Theanine which buffers the caffeine found naturally in tea, whilst still giving you a little lift.
Drink water, lots of it to help with the side effects. Use fresh lemon squeezed into a glass of water especially on rising.
After 2 weeks cut out black tea and stick to herbal teas and green tea.
Alternatives to coffee when out or at home could be a dandelion latte, green matcha tea latte, non caffeinated chai tea. ( Be careful of chai lattes - they contain an excessive amount of sugar).
Be careful when your 4 week coffee hiatus is up, coffee has a slippery habit of sliding back into your life at a rapid pace, after all it is addictive.
