(OrganicJar) Stop drinking coffee? Have you gone mad? If you’re part of the 64% of the US population who drinks coffee everyday it might be a good idea to know the negative side of this deliciously addictive liquid. Coffee or should I say the caffeine within coffee is a psychotropic drug which alters our brain chemistry. That caffeine high comes with a steep price tag – your health.

I’m not going to lie and say I never drink a cup of coffee (you can read more of my personal thoughts at the end) and I’m not telling you to eliminate caffeine entirely from your diet. But the less caffeine you consume, the better off you are especially if you’re not currently healthy.

10 Reasons To Stop Drinking Coffee:

Caffeine Depletes Feel-Good Neurotransmitters

It damages our ability to produce feel-good brain chemicals, or neurotransmitters. Have you heard of serotonin? It’s the brain chemical most of us don’t get enough of. It’s the reason so many of people are taking antidepressants. Caffeine actually depletes serotonin. Simple Truth: Coffee is a cheap high that robs us of the building blocks for good chemistry.

1. Caffeine Hurts Our Adrenal Glands

   The adrenals are considered the storage center for the vital force, your inherited reservoir of energy. It helps produce brain chemicals that make you fell energetic, focused and ready to work. Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant and causes the adrenal glands to secrete adrenaline – the hormone your body depends on in emergencies – but caffeine exhausts your adrenals. If your caffeine sensitivity has diminished or you’re one of those who claims you can drink 3 shots of espresso and go right to sleep, guess what? Your adrenals have given up responding. This leaves you vulnerable to many health hazards. Adrenal fatigue is one of the fastest growing problems. (I’ll be writing more about this soon.)

2. Caffeine Lowers Your Sex Drive

   When our adrenal glands are exhausted, they can’t produce sufficient sex hormones. For one, testosterone. (Even women produce testosterone, although not as much as men.) Low testosterone = low sex drive.

3. Caffeine Hurts Fertility

   Women need adequate progesterone in order to get pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term. Progesterone means “for gestation.” Stress requires that we use more and more cortisol. When our adrenal glands are burned out, we can’t make enough cortisol. So our body will steal as much progesterone as it needs to make cortisol.

4. Caffeine Causes Insomnia

   I think we all know how vital it is to get relaxing sleep at night. Caffeine reduces your sleep and research shows that people who consume more than 2-3 cups (an actual measuring cup, not your giant mug) per day have poor sleep quality.

5. Caffeine Causes Malnutrition

   Caffeine inhibits the absorption of thiamin, B vitamins, calcium, minerals, sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, and zinc. All of which are essential for good health. “Coffee and tea consumption at the time of a meal can significantly decrease iron absorption. Tea can cause iron absorption to drop by 60 percent and coffee can cause a 50 percent decrease in iron uptake.” (Source)

6. Caffeine Suppresses Our Immune Function

   In all, more than 150 hormones are produced by the adrenals or metabolized from adrenal hormones. One group, known as glucocorticoids (including cortisol), act as a brake on the immune system. Scientists have recently learned that excess glucocorticoid production (caused by stress and caffeine) can profoundly suppress immunity.

7. Caffeine Makes You Fat

   Our thyroid gland controls our metabolism. Low thyroid function = slow metabolism and weight gain. Caffeine stresses the adrenal glands. Our thyroid gland works in tandem with our adrenals. We need healthy adrenals for the thyroid to work properly. So if you’re stressing out your adrenal glands with coffee, you’re slowing down your metabolism.

8. Caffeine Could Damage Your Liver

   Caffeine is broken down by the liver through the use of enzymes. The more these enzymes are involved in breaking down caffeine, the less available they are for breaking down other chemicals in the bloodstream. Excessive caffeine use, therefore, causes the liver to work less efficiently at its job of detoxifying the body.

9. Coffee is the Most Pesticide Laden Food on the Planet

   Coffee is the most chemically treated food crop on the planet. Period. It is heavily sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers. Many of which even kill the workers. Over 1,000 chemicals have been found in roasted coffee. 19 of these chemicals are known carcinogens (known to cause cancer). Decaf coffee is even worse because chemical solvents are used to extract the caffeine. 

MY THOUGHTS:

I was one of those individuals who drank coffee all day long and even through the night. However it became to taxing on my body and I noticed the signs. I would “need” that cup of coffee to even function, my skin was extremely dry, I had acne, and the worst was coming off that caffeine high. It was a vicious cycle that became to much. So I switched to tea and herbal infusions and slowly kicked my caffeine addiction and wouldn’t you know it, my urge for it left, my dry skin and acne disappeared and I felt a consistent energy throughout the day. I still enjoy a nice cup of “organic” coffee now and then but like all drugs I function better without – something I didn’t realize or think was possible until I overcame my caffeine addition.

The take away message is this. If your healthy, fit, happy then keep drinking that coffee, but if your not I would highly suggest you start by cutting out all the caffeine in your life and yes, that includes green and black teas as well as chocolate [I hear screams]. Keep in mind this isn’t forever, just until you get back to feeling happy and healthy. – Jason

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Image: nourishedkitchen.com