Do you find that you get a little… irritable, with your morning coffee lately? Have you enjoyed it for a while but now find that it sets you off? Are you having trouble sleeping lately? If this sounds like you, this article may help.
It’s no news that coffee (otherwise known as the nectar of the gods) has caffeine. This is what gives us that jolt we seek each morning. But there’s more to coffee than just caffeine.
Try taking a caffeine pill and you will be able to tell the difference.
Coffee is a stimulant but it is also acidic and a diuretic.
This means that while coffee gives you energy, it will also deplete some of your body’s essential resources.
The nervousness you might be feeling with your coffee will probably have more to do with the deficiencies caused by prolonged coffee intake than the coffee itself.
Here’s a way to combat the deficiencies so that you can enjoy your coffee stress-free.
The first and obvious choice, drink less coffee! In fact, if you eat well and get great sleep, you won’t need coffee for energy. However, if you enjoy the drink, there are some great ways to help reduce the downsides of drinking regularly.
Coffee Quality
Most coffee that you drink tastes bitter. And why is that? Because it has gone rancid. Coffee goes rancid a week after it has been roasted. A good cup of coffee should not taste very bitter or heavy with tannins (those particles that float in the cup and rest on your tongue) and should be brewed within a week of roasting. You should easily be able to enjoy the taste without any cream or sugar. If you need cream or sugar, you know you have a bad cup.
To ensure a good cup of coffee that’s fresh, buy it from a shop that roasts its own coffee or begin buying fresh coffee beans and roasting them yourself. It’s surprisingly easy, and if you love your coffee, totally worth it.
Mineral Deficiencies
Coffee is acidic. This mean it lowers your body’s natural Ph level (your level of alkalinity). Your body is always striving to maintain balance, so when your blood becomes acidic, your body responds by releasing basic molecules to balance out your Ph. Our body does this by leaching calcium and magnesium from our bones and muscles. Calcium and magnesium are important minerals that regulate muscle contraction in your body. If you’re feeling tight and jittery, it’s likely because you are calcium or magnesium deficient (or you simply had too many cups at once).
If you’re a regular coffee drinker you should be supplementing with calcium and magnesium to correct the deficiency and be eating an alkaline diet high in fruits and vegetables.
Sleep
The less sleep you get, the more coffee you need. The more coffee you drink the less sleep you get. It can become a vicious cycle.
The stimulant effect you get from caffeine comes from the release of noradrenaline from your adrenal glands, which lie just above your kidneys. When these glands tire from over-stimulation and lack of rest, you’ll begin to get adrenal fatigue. And when your adrenals are burnt out, so are you.
Make sure you get enough rest so your adrenals can recover and you will enjoy lasting energy from your coffee without a nasty crash.
Stress Management
This ties right in with sleep. Physical and psychological stress also tax your adrenals.
Meditating for 10 minutes in the morning is a great way to become centered before fully waking up. When you are nice and calm before you have coffee you are going to be more focused and grounded.
Hydrate
Drink water slowly throughout the day. If you drink a bunch of water in the morning with your coffee you can bet that you’re going to need to go to the bathroom often. This will actually cause you to expel more water than you take in, causing you to become more dehydrated.
Timing
Have your coffee with some food and wait to have it at least an hour after waking. This will slow the absorption of the coffee so that there is less of a spike in the energy you get from the caffeine, creating a slower come up and a better lasting buzz.
Avoid having coffee within 8 hours of sleeping to ensure it is no longer in your system when you want to sleep. As mentioned before, the key to enjoying a good cup of coffee is to make sure you are well rested.
If you follow the steps listed above, your coffee-related anxieties and jitters should disappear, and you’ll be able to enjoy your morning pick-me-up without any of the negative side effects.
Tags: behavioralhealth, coffee, denver, health, healthyeating, newwestphysicians