Coffee Problems

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Nov 11, 2014
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I love coffee. I've had a variety of problems with it in the past so I try to cycle it and will continue to do so. I'm a very healthy individual and this is my consistent experience with coffee: for the first 30m i feel awesome, body temp shoots up (throughout, in limbs and finger tips too), focused, and I sweat a bit. Then after about 30m or 45m I get cold in all of my limbs and don't feel as well in general (weaker).

Is there a solution to this? Eating more fat with it doesn't seem to help very much.
 

tara

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It may depend at least partly on the rest of your diet too. In the short term it can raise metabolism, which means it requires more fuel - preferably more sugars than fats, and maybe more of all the other essential nutrients. I think Peat would recommend drinking coffee with sugar and cream after a meal, and making sure you eat enough sugars to prevent blood sugar drop and resultant increase in stress hormones.

I have trouble with coffee too, but It usually makes me feel better for a few hours if I eat enough. Much quicker crash if I'm undernourished. I'm only drinking decaf at the moment because the nighttime withdrawal seems to be too hard on me.
 
OP
O
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It happens to a greater degree with nothing in my stomach, of course. But still, if I have a yogurt with blueberries and a shot of coconut oil for breakfast (i.e. some regular food for me that I do well on) - coffee will still cause the stuff in my original description. Are you saying this may be resolved by increasing a certain nutrient (you said "essential nutrients")? Anyone have ideas?
 

Sea

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You just need more sugar, and possibly more protein. Try adding a few tablespoons of sugar to your coffee and you should have no problem. Blueberries and yogurt don't have much sugar.

I used to have severe caffeine intolerance. 1/2 a cup of coffee would make me jittery, followed by a headache/crash a couple hours later. With a peat style diet, high in sugar and protein, I can drink multiple cups of coffee throughout the day without any problems. Protein requirements can also increase due to the temporary increase in metabolism that coffee causes. However, in my experience a lack of sugar is more likely to be the problem unless you are drinking multiple cups of coffee after which I think protein requirements start to increase.
 
OP
O
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Any recommendations for getting more protein? I'm not a big fan of protein powders. In terms of sugar, I put pure maple syrup in my espresso (which I quite enjoy). Any enzymes or nutrients I might not be getting which could induce or remedy caffeine intolerance (which is what this might actually be)?
 

pboy

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its most likely a blood sugar thing, which of course has more to do than with just sugar...as above mentioned protein also and related vitamins and minerals. You probably just are drinking too much too quick...if not even a meal can overcome the effect then its too much, just sip smaller amount and see from there. Theres no absolute necessity to drinking coffee, but if you crave it and want it then your body probably still finds some value in it so id say just go with a smaller amount and see how that goes
 

tara

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For protein, Peat recommends milk, cheese, eggs, gelaninous joints/stock from ruminants. At least 80-100g, but many people do better with more - eg 130-150. You can use gelatin as a protein powder. Quite a few people here make their own simple fresh cheese. Some people eat condensed milk. Skim milk powder may have some down-sides from the damage of dehydration, but it's pobably better than many protein powders out there.

Peat recommends getting most carbs as sugars from fruit, milk, honey, sucrose. Starting when you wake up, spread through the day, with any protein you eat and any metabolism boosters like coffee, and before bed. If you are eating starches (some people here limit them), well-cooked potatoes with some saturated fat have some good protein and minerals along with the carbs.

Coffee intolerance is sometimes just the stress of running out of fuel (sugar) because the coffee helps you burn it faster. If the liver has been overwhelmed and undernourished, glycogen storage capacity can be reduced. When the sugar gets low adrenaline and then cortisol go up to maintain the sugar level. These stress hormones can cause various symptoms, including cold extremities, and can set loose stored PUFAs that can then make for a whole lot more problems.
Theoretically, if the liver is well supported it can improve it's glycogen-storage capacity. There are people who report this outcome. Raw carrot salad is part of taking the load off the liver.

But it can use up all other nutrients faster too, so if you are deficient in anything it can make it worse, or tip you from just enough to not enough of something. You can run your diet through cronometer dot com to see if you are comfortably meeting all the micronutrient recommendations. But i'd take their calorie advice with a grain of salt. Or two.

Speaking of which, salt (NaCl) can help with lowering adrenaline and supporting magnesium retention. Peat recommends a weekly helping of liver to provide several minerals and vitamins. Fruit gives some minerals (eg potassium) that help with efficient use of the sugar. It 's hard to get much vit-E when avoiding PUFAs, and quite a few people here supplement vit E to help protect against PUFAs and vit K. The other vitamins are valuable too, but you've got more of a chance of getting them from food (and sunshine for vit-D). Peat recommends ~2000mg calcium, and more calcium than phosphorus. More people have a problem with too much iron than too little.

This is all general. There is no guarantee any of this will let you drink coffee without problems. You get to be the sleuth for your own situation. But these may be relevant factors. I agree with pboy's point that if coffee gives you trouble even with a meal, then it's worth just trying less.

Good luck.
 
OP
O
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I've done a little more digging and experimenting. In my time in various major cities, I've been to many high-end cafes... The only coffee that I consistently do not get a reaction from is nespresso. They've advertised that they've fewer allergens, but not about how they've achieved that. It is the only one where I don't seem to get the weird brain effects - but my body temperature will still drop if: 1) I'm stressed at all when I drink it 2) I don't have a lot of sugar with it 3) I have more than 1 shot-worth of espresso. I'm pretty sure this same reaction is caused by the same caffeine doses from other sources (Guayusa). I've not done research on so-called caffeine allergy/intolerance yet. There is supposedly some gluten-coffee cross-reactivity. And, in the past when I used to eat wheat, it caused me brain-fog.

(For those that are also sensitive you may be curious: my go-to recipe for coffee is: 1 shot of nespresso, about a half cup of quality heavy cream, bunch of maple syrup, gelatin)
 

Amazoniac

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I've experimented some more with dairy and coffee. Milk (all kinds) increases my coffee tolerance a lot, as does regular full fat cheese. However low fat quark cheese only helps a tiny bit, and creme fraiche did nothing to help. This makes me think it's not the milk sugar, it's not the milk fat, it's not the milk protein, it's not the progesterone, and it's probably not the calcium that helps me, it's something else.
It can be related to electrolytes, whole cheese is often salted, and I believe that rennet-preparation retains more nutrients.
You can try to combine the low-fat cheese with the cream to know how it affects you, and then include something salty in the meal.

You must've readed this:
The alkali minerals can substitute to a great extent for each other, so a slight excess of magnesium or sodium or potassium will help to spare calcium in a stress situation. And calcium can likewise make up for a deficiency of one of the others. For example, if you’re having cramps, it might essentially be a magnesium deficiency. But you can often stop the cramp with just baking soda (or salty water) or milk (for the calcium) or fruit (for the high potassium content). It lets you re-arrange the balance of your alkaline minerals and helps to make up for a crisis deficiency of one of them.
 

Amazoniac

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- Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism (978-1-133-10405-6)

"Several dietary components diminish calcium absorption or promote its secretion from the blood back into the gastrointestinal tract. Ingestion of caffeine, for example, increases the secretion of calcium into the gut, thereby leading to increased endogenous fecal calcium losses."​
 

postman

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It can be related to electrolytes, whole cheese is often salted, and I believe that rennet-preparation retains more nutrients.
You can try to combine the low-fat cheese with the cream to know how it affects you, and then include something salty in the meal.

You must've readed this:
Interesting, thanks. I'll have some experimenting to do.
 

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