Another coffee thread yaaayyyyy. Thanks
@Korven.
In the name of trying to be useful:
Over the last 6 years I've tried to keep a finger on the pulse of how coffee has affected me throughout many radical (and often irresponsible) dietary & lifestyle interventions, including taking 10 days off of all caffeine on a few occasions. At this point, it feels rather demystified for me, so I'd like to share various points/hypotheses that I've perceived to be 'true' about the magic brown water:
-coffee doesn't offer MORE energy, it just causes the existing reserves of stored energy to be expended at an increased rate.
-coffee is a STRESS. It depletes all bodily reserves in the name of increasing metabolism. It requires that the liver has protein and saturated fat and that the adrenals have all water soluble nutrients including B vitamins, vitamin C, electrolytes, and trace minerals. For as many weak links are in the chain of the total body nutritional reserves, the stress response of taking coffee will be amplified further and further. On a brief note... when my health was the worst it's ever been, 1 tablespoon of coffee would cause me to lose 2 liters of urine within 30 minutes and I'd be locked in a state of fight or flight for several hours afterwards.
-if coffee is causing appetite suppression, this is an easy way of telling that nutritional reserves are too low.
-coffee will demineralize the body similar to excessive fruit intake or apple cider vinegar. It notably reduces magnesium and B vitamins.
-when coffee is consumed between the solar hours of 6-11AM, it digests WAY better than any other time of day. If looking for caffeine after 11AM solar time, tea will digest best between 12-3PM.
-very low quality coffee will give a more immediate feeling of wired-ness because of heavy metals, mold, pesticides, genetic modification, and over-roasting of the beans.
-high quality coffee will offer a pleasant mood increase without a rushed sensation of mental hyperactivity, and can also be reliably consumed in much larger quantities compared to cheap coffee with little negative side effect.
-well cooked vegetable soups, trace mineral supplements such as concentrated seawater or fulvic acid, vitamin C and the B vitamins altogether are the road to restoring adrenal glands to better tolerate the stress response that comes from drinking coffee.
These same substances are what dictate the 'craving' sensation for caffeine. If craving caffeine, you're lacking all of the aforementioned water soluble nutrients. Water itself is also important to this equation.
-raw animal fat, animal protein, and various sugar sources are the primary restorative substances for the liver to deal with the increased rate of action that coffee causes it to work at.
-the adrenal stress effect of coffee means that more sleep will be required for recovery.
-10 days of abstaining from caffeine will reset the adenosine receptors of the brain to baseline.
-if trying to wean off of coffee, chewing a few coffee beans and spitting out the pulp can attenuate some withdrawal symptoms.
-in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), coffee is said to increase liver qi (energy) yet weaken the spleen. Oppositely, green tea is said to support the spleen.
-when coffee causes excess acidity, this is due to a classic 'detox reaction' of the blood becoming more acidic on account of circulating metals, fats, etc, going into the bloodstream. Appetite suppression is also a result of being excessively acidic.
-the dark circles under the eyes which come from excessive coffee consumption are some combination of overwhelmed adrenal glands, sluggish liver, nervous system detox, and lackluster sleep quality (which dramatically slows down nervous system detox).
-fat-deficient people are more prone to emotional swings and 'crashing' after coffee consumption.
-saturated animal fat will greatly slow the rate of caffeine uptake, however fruit fats such as palm, olive, avocado, or coconut will greatly intensify the possible symptoms of excess acidity.