Rinse & rePeat
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- Joined
- Mar 10, 2021
- Messages
- 21,516
From a RPF e-mail......
ttramone: Just wondering why some of us get severe withdrawals (headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, low mood) if we don't use coffee daily. We don't get side effects from drinking coffee, just if we don't drink it for 24 hours (sometimes less). These 'withdrawals' can last as long as 5-6 days. Why would this happen? We are thinking there could be issues with our liver? Adrenals?
RP: "I suspect that it happens mostly with hypothyroidism, because in the 1970s I averaged dozens of cups a day, and thought about it as soon as I woke up, then suddenly after I took some thyroid, I didn't feel any need for it." -Ray Peat
I have heard Ray Peat talk about the differences between people who tolerate coffee well and people who don't and get jittery. Admittedly, I never drank coffee until I was 32. I am sure with all my PUFA eating and mostly potato and grain diet my thyroid was not happy. I was underweight for most of those years until my first cup of coffee at 32. Coffee was helpful getting me through the stress of a second newborn, while keeping a 4 year old little boy happy too. I liked that adding coffee to my regular routine took the "baby weight" off too, far quicker than the first pregnancy. Not only was in my size 6 jeans within weeks, I effortlessly took off the baby weight that I hadn't taken off from my first pregnancy too!
Coffee kept me energized, "regular" and slim, and I now understood why everyone was drinking it. There was a downside though. For the first time in my life I would get debilitating headaches if I didn't get my coffee in the morning, and then nausea afterwards if I didn't eat soon after. I felt bad for my coffee habit and tried a couple of times to quit, once for a whole year! It wasn't until discovering Ray Peat, 5 years ago that I realized coffee wasn't bad, and that it was my diet, that was bad, and how I was using it that made coffee feel bad sometimes.
So here I am now, several years into my PUFA free journey and drinking coffee, sometimes one a cup a day, sometimes 5 cups a day, and sometimes in the middle of the night without any issues, as if it were just food. Then a few weeks ago my husband made a comment that made me realize I am in a good place with me health. It had been a stressful couple of days where we were distracted and forgot to have our morning coffee. At the end of the second day my husband said, "Wow I just realized I haven't had any coffee for two days and I don't have the bad headache I use to get when I skipped coffes." I realizing the same, knew all the PUFA eliminating had our thyroids in a good place! My husband who has lived a stressed life, owning a business with deadlines, has been eating my Ray Peat diet, because I buy the food and I am the cook, and he just got back his thyroid test and the doc said it was excellent. The doctor said anything over 7 indicates a thyroid suppliment is needed, and his test number is 1.09. He never drank coffee until I did, just maybe a cup until "Peating", and now he enjoys several cups on some days. He always marveled how I could drink a shot of coffee in middle of the night and still sleep well, and now he can have a cup of coffee a few hours before bed and not have it affect his sleep either!
"Adequate nutrition is essential,” he said, “because coffee increases the consumption of glucose in the bloodstream. So, if you’re not drinking it with carbohydrates or fat — either in the form of a meal or as cream and sugar— that’s when you start feeling shaky.”
View: https://youtu.be/wJZJVaeawqU
"Our scientific community talks about coffee like it’s a drug, when actually it’s an adaptogenic nutrient. The caffeine in coffee mimics anti-stress hormones like progresterone, scavenges free radicals, and increases the efficiency of fuel consumption in the body.” -Ray Peat
ttramone: Just wondering why some of us get severe withdrawals (headaches, fatigue, drowsiness, low mood) if we don't use coffee daily. We don't get side effects from drinking coffee, just if we don't drink it for 24 hours (sometimes less). These 'withdrawals' can last as long as 5-6 days. Why would this happen? We are thinking there could be issues with our liver? Adrenals?
RP: "I suspect that it happens mostly with hypothyroidism, because in the 1970s I averaged dozens of cups a day, and thought about it as soon as I woke up, then suddenly after I took some thyroid, I didn't feel any need for it." -Ray Peat
I have heard Ray Peat talk about the differences between people who tolerate coffee well and people who don't and get jittery. Admittedly, I never drank coffee until I was 32. I am sure with all my PUFA eating and mostly potato and grain diet my thyroid was not happy. I was underweight for most of those years until my first cup of coffee at 32. Coffee was helpful getting me through the stress of a second newborn, while keeping a 4 year old little boy happy too. I liked that adding coffee to my regular routine took the "baby weight" off too, far quicker than the first pregnancy. Not only was in my size 6 jeans within weeks, I effortlessly took off the baby weight that I hadn't taken off from my first pregnancy too!
Coffee kept me energized, "regular" and slim, and I now understood why everyone was drinking it. There was a downside though. For the first time in my life I would get debilitating headaches if I didn't get my coffee in the morning, and then nausea afterwards if I didn't eat soon after. I felt bad for my coffee habit and tried a couple of times to quit, once for a whole year! It wasn't until discovering Ray Peat, 5 years ago that I realized coffee wasn't bad, and that it was my diet, that was bad, and how I was using it that made coffee feel bad sometimes.
So here I am now, several years into my PUFA free journey and drinking coffee, sometimes one a cup a day, sometimes 5 cups a day, and sometimes in the middle of the night without any issues, as if it were just food. Then a few weeks ago my husband made a comment that made me realize I am in a good place with me health. It had been a stressful couple of days where we were distracted and forgot to have our morning coffee. At the end of the second day my husband said, "Wow I just realized I haven't had any coffee for two days and I don't have the bad headache I use to get when I skipped coffes." I realizing the same, knew all the PUFA eliminating had our thyroids in a good place! My husband who has lived a stressed life, owning a business with deadlines, has been eating my Ray Peat diet, because I buy the food and I am the cook, and he just got back his thyroid test and the doc said it was excellent. The doctor said anything over 7 indicates a thyroid suppliment is needed, and his test number is 1.09. He never drank coffee until I did, just maybe a cup until "Peating", and now he enjoys several cups on some days. He always marveled how I could drink a shot of coffee in middle of the night and still sleep well, and now he can have a cup of coffee a few hours before bed and not have it affect his sleep either!
"Adequate nutrition is essential,” he said, “because coffee increases the consumption of glucose in the bloodstream. So, if you’re not drinking it with carbohydrates or fat — either in the form of a meal or as cream and sugar— that’s when you start feeling shaky.”
View: https://youtu.be/wJZJVaeawqU
"Our scientific community talks about coffee like it’s a drug, when actually it’s an adaptogenic nutrient. The caffeine in coffee mimics anti-stress hormones like progresterone, scavenges free radicals, and increases the efficiency of fuel consumption in the body.” -Ray Peat
