There is a lot of controversy about coffee. Is it unhealthy or can one or two cups still be beneficial? It is certain that coffee is in any case a burden on various organs. Coffee also destroys vitamins, acidifies the body and too much coffee causes a rushed feeling. On the other hand, that one cup of coffee in the morning provides some relaxation. Although a healthy body should be able to handle one to two cups a day, it is healthier to stop coffee altogether. An overview of ten good reasons to quit coffee.
Contents
- 1. Coffee is bad for your stomach and intestines
- 2. Coffee destroys vitamins
- 3. Coffee acidifies the body
- 4. Coffee reduces the amount of minerals absorbed
- 5. Coffee also contains other harmful substances
- 6. Coffee unnaturally increases blood sugar levels
- 7. Coffee disrupts the proper functioning of the liver
- 8. Coffee causes adrenal fatigue
- 9. Coffee reduces fertility and breaks down testosterone
- 10. Coffee gives the body the rest it needs
- Quitting coffee is a good idea, but how do you go about that?
How incredibly tasty it is, that one cup of coffee in the morning to start the day. And then, let’s go, one more. Ha! Delicious. After two good cups of coffee you are ready again. The body feels fitter and you can think better. Now let the day come!
There is a lot of controversy about the use of coffee. On average, the Dutch drink 3.2 cups per day. It is known that excessive coffee consumption can lead to many complaints and overload of organs. Together with alcohol and refined sugars, coffee is one of the three substances to avoid. Coffee seems to do your body good because it makes you feel fitter, but in fact coffee is nothing more than a temporary stimulant that must also be broken down by the body. If you are considering giving up coffee, here are ten good reasons to reinforce this choice.
1. Coffee is bad for your stomach and intestines
Too much coffee and caffeine damage the stomach and intestinal wall. Everyone knows the feeling of an upset stomach after too much coffee. This is not just a signal to ignore. Internal damage is not visible, so tenderness or pain is the body’s only way of sending out a warning. As is known, the intestinal tract is an important part of the immune system. Why would you overload or even damage it with too much coffee? Even stomach bleeding can be a result of drinking too much coffee. Ultimately, an overload of the stomach and intestines will decrease your internal energy. Coffee drinkers will compensate for that exhausted feeling with even more coffee. A downward spiral is the result. Stop coffee, and your stomach and intestines will be healthier.
2. Coffee destroys vitamins
Coffee breaks down vitamins, especially vitamin B (including B1, B2 and B12) and C. Vitamin C is, among other things, an important antioxidant, is important for the immune system and strengthens iron absorption in the intestines. Vitamin B1 plays an important role in memory. Vitamin B2 is important for metabolism (conversion of fats), breathing, for healthy growth of skin, nails and hair, and for the formation of red blood cells. Vitamin B12 is also important for the formation of red blood cells and oxygen transport. Especially when coffee is drunk shortly after a healthy meal, many vitamins are destroyed. Anyone who drinks a lot of coffee will therefore have to take more vitamins.
3. Coffee acidifies the body
In natural medicine, coffee, alcohol and refined sugars are considered major acidifiers in the body. The more acidic the body is, the unhealthier. Metabolic processes, energy supply, oxygen transport, everything in the body benefits from a healthy acid-base ratio. As a rule, in a body that is too acidic, all these processes run less smoothly. In an acidic body, poison also accumulates more easily, but in a body with a healthy acid-base ratio, waste products and poison can be removed better.
4. Coffee reduces the amount of minerals absorbed
Nowadays our food contains fewer and fewer minerals. This is a result of depletion of the soil on which our food grows. By also drinking coffee, the body receives even fewer minerals. Coffee hinders the absorption of minerals, including calcium and potassium. Calcium is necessary for healthy bones and prevents osteoporosis. Potassium is necessary for healthy acid-base balance, fluid balance and blood sugar levels, and healthy blood flow. Coffee also increases zinc secretion. We need zinc for a properly functioning thyroid, prostate, for the proper functioning of antioxidants, and for the immune system. The absorption of iron is also reduced by coffee (among other things because coffee breaks down vitamin C), iron is necessary for oxygen transport. Coffee also increases selenium secretion from the body. Selenium (commonly found in nuts) is an important detoxifier, especially because it removes the toxic metals cadmium, arsenic and mercury. Coffee also breaks down magnesium, magnesium is very essential for the body’s energy supply and plays a role in the conversion of L-tryptophan into 5-HTP and then into serotonin.
5. Coffee also contains other harmful substances
Coffee and caffeine stimulate you and make you a little fitter. But too much caffeine can cause headaches, insomnia, shakiness and migraines. However, coffee not only contains harmful caffeine, but also other harmful substances. For example, the carcinogenic substance acrylamide, or the LDL cholesterol-raising cafestol, which is bad for your heart and blood vessels. The roasting process of coffee releases chemicals that are carcinogenic, which is why a judge in Los Angeles decided in early 2018 that coffee companies must place a cancer warning label on the packaging. So don’t just focus on the caffeine content you consume while drinking coffee. Please note that decaffeinated coffee can still contain bad substances.
Chocolate, cola and tea also contain caffeine, the amounts are:
- 1 cup of filter coffee 60-120 mg
- 1 cup of espresso 45-100 mg
- 1 cup of instant coffee 70 mg
- 1 cup decaffeinated coffee 1-5 mg
- 1 cup of tea 40 mg
- 1 cup of green tea 40 mg
- 1 can of cola 40 mg
- 1 glass of chocolate milk 4-20 mg
- 100 g chocolate 160-240 mg
6. Coffee unnaturally increases blood sugar levels
Caffeine is known to dramatically increase blood sugar levels. Coffee gives the adrenal glands a big push to release adrenaline, which increases blood sugar levels. That is the energy that coffee drinkers like so much. The sugar level immediately rises in your brain. That’s why we immediately have a sweet filled cookie with our coffee. The pancreas, in turn, must produce extra insulin to burn all the sugars. This does not work completely, so many excess sugars are converted into fat. Indeed, drinking coffee makes you fat. Research published in the medical journal Diabetes Care has shown that from four cups of coffee, the sugar level rose by an average of 8% to a maximum of 26%. Please note, this is an unhealthy unnatural stimulant. Remember that drinking coffee forces all involved organs to go into top gear early in the morning. Moreover, as a result of too much insulin being produced (because the pancreas had to go into top gear), the blood sugar level can drop too sharply again, resulting in nervousness and fatigue. And so we grab an extra cup of coffee to give us another boost.
7. Coffee disrupts the proper functioning of the liver
The body must detoxify daily, and the liver plays an important role in this. Coffee ensures that the liver is less able to perform this task, because the liver now also has to process all the poison from the coffee consumed. It is not just caffeine that is bad for the liver, coffee contains many bad substances such as acrylamide and cafestol, all of which have to be broken down by the liver. Excessive coffee consumption causes the liver to become exhausted, causing the body to become increasingly polluted with waste products and can become acidic.
Another important task of the liver is to store energy and release it (glycogen is released in the form of glucose). It needs no further explanation to understand that a weakened liver is less able to supply energy and that this creates a tired feeling. The liver burns less fat from the body and you therefore become fatter. For people who want to lose weight, coffee is something that should be avoided.
An overloaded liver also produces too little bile, which means food is digested less well. Finally, a lot of cortisol and adrenaline is produced when drinking coffee. These stress hormones all have to be broken down by the liver, which is an extra task for the liver, which is already having a pretty tough time! A healthy limit often indicated by the coffee industry is four to five cups of coffee per day as a maximum amount, which corresponds to approximately 500 mg of caffeine. If the liver could talk, it would sooner choose a limit of a maximum of zero cups of coffee per day and no caffeine.
8. Coffee causes adrenal fatigue
What we all really want is to be healthy and fit. Then don’t drink coffee. Coffee exhausts the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands produce cortisol, this hormone is needed to make us feel extra alert in times of stress or illness. It is therefore possible that the adrenal glands naturally produce a lot of cortisol during long periods of stress or illness and are therefore heavily burdened. But why would we, whether we are healthy or sick, exhaust our adrenal glands even more with coffee? Coffee stimulates the adrenal glands and makes them produce extra cortisol. And not just once, no, that happens to a coffee drinker several times every day. Exhausted adrenal glands are the result, and these are often accompanied by a poorly functioning thyroid gland.
9. Coffee reduces fertility and breaks down testosterone
Too much cortisol, which is released by consuming coffee, breaks down testosterone. Some of this testosterone is made in the adrenal glands. A testosterone deficiency makes you fat faster. In addition, coffee increases the conversion of testosterone into estradiol. We need testosterone for our self-confidence and it plays a role in short-term memory. It is also important for keeping the reproductive organs healthy. In addition, if women consume too much caffeine per day, fertility is reduced.
10. Coffee gives the body the rest it needs
Precisely when the body needs rest in the morning, coffee forces it to go full throttle. This can never be healthy. The kidneys are overloaded because they have to expel extra fluid. As mentioned, coffee increases the stress hormone cortisol. Too much of this hormone causes concentration problems and reduces movement coordination. Ultimately, coffee deteriorates your memory in the long term and makes you less emotionally stable. But more importantly, by drinking coffee you never give your own body the chance to really relax. The body must first be given the space to be really tired before it can recover.
Quitting coffee is a good idea, but how do you go about that?
If you stop drinking coffee, this will first cause the same complaints as those caused by too much coffee. These are headache, nervousness and restlessness. But these are all temporary symptoms that only last a few days. In the long run, quitting coffee helps get your body running at the pace it needs.
Quitting coffee is not easy. It is a very addictive product. If you stop, you should start with green tea or herbal tea in the morning, which is not a very pleasant prospect for a die-hard coffee drinker. What you can then do is make your body active in a different way, for example by going outside and running or breathing deeply. This way you forget about the coffee. You could also cut down on coffee. This can be done very well, for example, by using a pack of coffee for exactly one month and only buying a new pack in the next calendar month. But always realize that quitting coffee completely is really the best thing to do. Your organs will be happy with it. Your liver relaxes and can recover, your kidneys are no longer overloaded, hormone production starts again, vitamins work better, the absorption of food in the intestines improves again, the pancreas calms down again. If you think about that, the lack of coffee is not so difficult anymore. After a while you will notice that your internal energy will increase, this is your stomach and intestines regaining their strength and starting to feel relaxed again.
Quitting coffee; the lack of that one nice “cup” and the conviviality will always remain, but you get a lot in return, perhaps even a longer life.
