I hope you had a wonderful Easter Weekend!!!
I have had a blast in Atlanta! We have been doing so many fun activities (hiking, ping pong, golf, swimming, etc.). I’ve been making food and working also, but it doesn’t seem like work at all. I love everyone down I’ve been around and working with. I did not expect to see how beautiful the land here is, filled with forests and flowering trees and creeks and rivers.
Now…. Let’s talk about coffee! So many of my clients ask me if they have to give up coffee to be healthy, because they love it so much. I personally haven’t touched coffee in years, and I feel way better from giving it up. Here are some reasons to nix the ugly black drink :) :
1. Coffee is extremely acid-forming in the body. We want to choose foods that will help us raise the alkalinity of our blood and our bodies. Coffee does the opposite!
Certainly not a beauty food!!
2. Coffee can deplete us of nutrients. Heavy coffee consumption can cause a deficiency in B vitamins, and specifically B1, thiamine. This can make us feel fatigued, nervous and achy, and not provide any headache relief. Furthermore, when we regularly consumed coffee it can prevent nutrients from being absorbed efficiently in our small intestines, which can further contribute to nutritional deficiencies.
3. Coffee is one of the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops. Much of our coffee comes from South America, and specifically Colombia, and uses pesticides such as heptachlor, chlordane and deiedrin. These pesticides are toxic to our body!
4. Drinking coffee for the long-term taxes our liver, a major fat-burning and detoxifying organ. The liver can get overloaded trying to detoxify out all the chemical residue in coffee, along with all the caffeine. This then impedes us having fresh, clean blood and being able to grow and regenerate healthy tissue.
5. Coffee stresses the adrenals. Anyone exasperated by their chronic undereye circles?? That would be adrenal exhaustion. Since coffee contains an acid-based oil it irritates the lining of the stomach and promotes gastric acidity. This encourages our body to secrete adrenaline, which then stimulates insulin secretion, and this in turn can fuel hypoglycemia. What does that mean?? The bottom line for us can be craving for sweets a few hours later, having crazy dips in energy, and moodiness!
If you still insist on drinking coffee, here is how I suggest you do it:
1. Always drink organic coffee! Don’t pollute your body with all those poisonous chemicals that are rampant in coffee crops.
2. Don’t think decaf is any better! Decaf coffee usually has the caffeine extracted from it by a chemical called trichloroethylene, which is toxic. It has been used in dry-cleaning and for degreasing metals!
3. If you like coffee sweet or with milk, only use stevia almond milk. We DON’T want to be throwing any kind of dairy or creamer on top of the already acid coffee!
4. Try switching to Yerba Mate, which is a tea that has caffeine, but less, and is a good transition drink for you.
5. Don’t drink coffee at the end of dinner! You will acidify the food you just ate. That is a terrible habit that we should never do!!
6. Don’t drink more than one coffee a day, TOPS.
That’s how I feel about that! One cup a day isn’t going to kill you, but it would be best to wean down to a few times a week…
Have a great start to this April week! I’ll write more really soon.
All my very best,
Kimberly
