Is Coffee Good or Bad for you?

[loreta]

MissK, don't worry about chickening out and resistance and all that. Just go shopping for the beautiful cup and saucer. Maybe even a whole tea set with the pot and a bowl for the xylitol and a nice spoon, and start having a CHOICE.

Having a cup of tea can be "doing something nice for myself". Don't even try to cut out coffee at first. Just start having tea as a choice.

This is a technique I can vouch for! :D I never thought a pretty tea set would make a difference, but it did. Now I hunt for tea shops everywhere, and even discovered one very close to home, an all organic bookstore tea shop, which I never would have found if not for stopping coffee. I did have to stop having afternoon tea, and switch to a decaf version, but on the whole, I don't miss coffee at all.

This is an extraordinary idea. Reminds me of my pleasure when I read Victorian novels, how important is the tea for them, like a ritual. Myself I will check for a set like this. This is very beautiful.

 

[Lauranimal]

Laura, that picture of the tea set is beeeeyoooootiful!!!! Thanks for sharing that!

I quit coffee many years ago... for about 3 years. And at the time I was on a more or less paleo diet. Never felt better in my life. Obviously for more than one reason. But it was primarily about re-balancing my adrenals, which were fried. I started using coffee again, when I started working super early morning shifts at work.

I quit again about 4 years ago and observed that with in 3 days (headaches and all) the inflammation in my whole body dropped by like 90% !!! That was big! I managed to make it a year, and then started a new job and fell back on my old addiction to get me through.

Well, I've been in a certain amount of denial about it for some time. Clearly, I know I feel better when I don't drink it. My denial went right out the window when I read this information:

_http://drclark.typepad.com/dr_david_clark/2011/09/coffee-and-gluten-sensitivity-surprising-news.html

"Ten percent of coffee is a protein that cross-reacts with gluten antibodies."

I had originally thought it was all about caffeine!!! It's not.

Good golly... I sure hope chocolate doesn't have the same proteins that cause cross-reaction! grrrrrrr.

Anyway... I am on the path to quitting coffee again. I drink one good cup a day with heavy cream or coconut creamer in it. I've got 1-2 weeks worth of coffee left in my freezer and then that is it! No more. I'll be transitioning by using yerba mate (a South American Green tea). And just a side note, as someone mentioned this above about brewing temps. When brewing white or green teas especially, it's a good idea to moisten your tea leaves with a little bit of cool water. Just enough to moisten the leaves. This protects the antioxidants from being scalded away. Also helpful if you do bring your water to a boil, to let it sit for a minute or two after turning off the heat, and then pour/brew. The longer you brew it, the more caffeine it will have and often will begin to take on a bitter taste.

One of my favorite ways to brew yerba mate is ... loose leaf with coconut shreds mixed in and just a touch of coconut cream!

 

[Aliana]

I don't think that anybody can make a judgment about coffee in their diet until they have cut it out completely for a significant period of time and have established a truly stable energy/state of clarity based on proper human nutrition, i.e. protein and fat with minimal to no carbs.

Also, the cream has shown itself to be tolerable in occasional dishes, but not something that is good on a daily basis. That's good to know, but obviously, I know that if I eat it I will pay a small price.

I stopped drinking coffee for quite some time and did not really miss it. However, as it was a mostly social thing to drink some in the morning with co-workers, I decided to try it again this past week with unfortunate results. I am one of those who is VERY sensitive to caffeine and cannot ingest any kind after early afternoon or will not sleep.

I experimented with small amounts of coffee - from 1/4 cup to a whole cup and found myself becoming irritable and impatient and then totally crashing in the early evening. Definitely NOT worth the initial energy boost. Just have to ween myself back off if it, which should not be too difficult - I love Irish Breakfast tea!

I did love the whipped cream in the coffee and might still occasionally have a bit with some dark chocolate or blueberries as a treat - but don't think it's a good idea on a regular basis either. Too bad as I liked the idea of another way to get more fat in my diet as I don't think I am really getting enough. :(

 

[Alana]

MissK, don't worry about chickening out and resistance and all that. Just go shopping for the beautiful cup and saucer. Maybe even a whole tea set with the pot and a bowl for the xylitol and a nice spoon, and start having a CHOICE.

Having a cup of tea can be "doing something nice for myself". Don't even try to cut out coffee at first. Just start having tea as a choice.

I am already having tea by choice, but my! that tea pot set is so pretty, I am going to try and find us one too!

 

[Josi]

Not going to try the coffee experiment. Never was a big deal to me unless it was doctored up with cream and maple syrup (in the olden days - before paleo). My favorite tea right now is Chocolate Pu·erh. Next in line would be a chai tea

_http://shop.numitea.com/Chocolate-Puerh/p/NUMIS-10360&c=NumiTeaStore@Teabag@Puerh?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&adtype=pe&kw=numi%20tea&gclid=CPbe-97dmLMCFVBgMgodhE0AEg

"This velvety infusion combines organic black Pu∙erh tea and organic cocoa. Accented by whole vanilla beans and sweet orange peel, this decadent blend is rounded off with nutmeg and cinnamon for a spicy finish."


Ingredients:

Organic Pu∙erh, Organic Cocoa Powder, Organic Vanilla, Organic Theo Chocolate Cocoa Nibs, Organic Rooibos, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Nutmeg, Organic Cinnamon.

 

[loreta]

Yesterday I tried a tea from the Celestial Seasonings brand, it was delicious. I tried the Mandarin Orange Spice. Surely with a tea pot like this of Laura my tea would be better! So I will try to find one. Has anybody tried this brand of teas?

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/

 

[SeekinTruth]

Yesterday I tried a tea from the Celestial Seasonings brand, it was delicious. I tried the Mandarin Orange Spice. Surely with a tea pot like this of Laura my tea would be better! So I will try to find one. Has anybody tried this brand of teas?

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/

Yes, when I lived in the U.S. I tried a bunch of their herbal tea blends. They were tasty, but I'm not sure how healthy the ingredients are (if they're conventionally grown, GMO, etc. -- I don't think they were "organic"). FWIW.

 

[anothermagyar]

I agree with Seeking Truth about Celestial Seasoning Brand, I tried to buy some in the past and I didn't like the ingredients.

Unfortunate you know how it is there is a lot of "healthy" products out there with evil ingredients.

For example "natural flavors" can be MSG.

What are natural flavors?

In addition to natural herbs, teas, spices and botanicals, some of our teas use natural flavors to achieve their unique tastes. The natural flavors we use are derived from real ingredients and do not contain artificial or synthetic additives. Please email us at consumerrelations@hain-celestial.com if you have a specific question or concern about natural flavors.

That's what they're claiming but for me they don't say anything useful in here, osit.
Because when process soy, MSG is as by-product "naturally" occurs.

 

[Psalehesost]

While I got satisfaction from drinking it, and didn't become too excitable like I used to when going over a certain threshold, I look back at the fact that I came down with not one but two bouts of flu-y sickness [...] I wonder if the coffee very subtly compromised my immune system (even though I felt great) and that is how I came down with my first colds in ... well, a long time! In fact, my symptoms could simply have been part of an allergic reaction to the coffee.

So that makes two who clearly got sick. And in my case, (stomach sickness) there's no doubt it's an infection rather than simply a reaction, given the way it's now progressing after the end of the experiment.

I tried a cup myself the other day and had the same reaction, my stomach couldn't handle it either. Even though it was nice to taste a good cup of java again it was definitely not worth what my tummy went thru. I do believe that it might have been the caffeine that did it to me because most of the tea I drink is Rooibos which is non caffeinated but even when I do drink tea that has caffeine in it I don't get any reactions close to what happened with coffee. So I think coffee is out for me.

My stomach could handle the coffee, but not the bug that followed. The experiment was done at a price: The illness had me sleeping and/or resting throughout half the day for three days when I needed to work and study hard.

Now, after some days, I finally find myself able again to eat bone broth without getting nauseous. (The thought of it still had my stomach automatically churning a bit, but the renewed positive experience of eating it will correct that.) In the meantime, I had eggs and later lamb meat - eggs digest very well without complaint, though I'm still a bit sensitive to them (and they are for me mildly addictive) - eating them was however far better than starving myself.

So, everyone not in on the coffee experiment but who consider it, take notice: Giving it a go might possibly result in catching stomach bugs that leave you listless and prevent you from eating fat in significant quantities.

 

[Laura]

Ya'll try ebay or junk/antique shops for nice old teapots and cups. I have some that I've acquired this way. A really pretty teapot, a selection of pretty cups, do NOT have to match, you know!

 

[Scottie]

This is a technique I can vouch for! :D I never thought a pretty tea set would make a difference, but it did. Now I hunt for tea shops everywhere, and even discovered one very close to home, an all organic bookstore tea shop, which I never would have found if not for stopping coffee. I did have to stop having afternoon tea, and switch to a decaf version, but on the whole, I don't miss coffee at all.

Yup. Never underestimate the power of "presentation".

In the olden days when I ate veggies, people would comment on how colorful my plate was. I always liked varied colors on my dinner plate. I also tend to like certain plates, of a certain size and shape, with certain colors. It adds to the meal.

Plus, you could try using a bigger plate even for smaller amounts of food. Moving to a smaller plate can mean to your brain that you aren't eating as much. So, why not use the big plate with less food on it? On the other hand, maybe seeing an overflowing plate is better for your brain than a large plate with less (and more healthy) food on it.

Why are holiday meals so good? Well, certainly there is yummy food, but there is also usually dishware and silverware of a higher quality... the meal is something "special".

If I have herbal tea or cocoa or something in the evening, I like to use my Star Wars mug. It makes it more fun. And if my Star Wars mug is MIA? Well! Then I get to complain about it, AND I get to have fun choosing a new mug just for that night from among the vast selection available. Thus, it's still special.

The point is that our brains fool us all the time, so when it comes to food and drink, why not fool them back?

Of course, it's always good to shake things up. If you get used to dining on fine china, it will soon become the norm and then you'll need to find some solid gold plates or something.

As for tea sets, you can always add another set later if necessary, mix and match, and do other things to keep it special. Besides, who drinks coffee in fancy cups? Not anyone I know!

 

[Jacques]

Not going to try the coffee experiment. Never was a big deal to me unless it was doctored up with cream and maple syrup (in the olden days - before paleo). My favorite tea right now is Chocolate Pu·erh. Next in line would be a chai tea

Ingredients:

Organic Pu∙erh, Organic Cocoa Powder, Organic Vanilla, Organic Theo Chocolate Cocoa Nibs, Organic Rooibos, Organic Orange Peel, Organic Nutmeg, Organic Cinnamon.

Hi Rhiannon,

I am not sure that real organic puerh exists.

As you can read here:

Pu-erh tea, also spelled as Pu'er tea is a variety of post-fermented tea produced in Yunnan province, China.[1][2][3]Post-fermentation is a tea production style in which the tea leaves undergo a microbial fermentation process after they are dried and rolled.[4] This is a Chinese specialty and is sometimes referred to as dark, or black tea (this type of tea is completely different from what in West is known as "black tea", which in China is called "red tea").[2][5] There are a few different provinces, each with a few regions, producing dark teas of different varieties.[1][2] Those produced in Yunnan are generally named Pu'er, referring to the name of Pu'er county which used to be a trading post for dark tea during imperial China.[

And according to someone who went there and has many friends in that province, there is no organic puerh in the Yunnan.

Moreover, most of the puerh sold in the world does not come from the Yunnan and consequently is not a real puerh. According to a tea master, from all the puerh sold in the world, only 3% comes from the Yunnan. So unless you know your tea dealer and that he knows from whom he is buying his tea, you can not be certain that it is a real puerh. Of course if you buy what they call a puerh galette, you may find on the paper some signs telling exactly when and where it was done. It is like a validation seal for the puerh.

 

[Jacques]

I am already having tea by choice, but my! that tea pot set is so pretty, I am going to try and find us one too!

Indeed that tea pot is pretty but it might not be the best thing to really appreciate all the subitility of your tea if there is no strainer in it.

Here's a picture of my teapot:

It is a small one, good for only 1 cup of tea and you can leave your tea leaves in it for many infusions.

When you are using good tea leaves, you can make many infusions with the same leaves and from one infusion to another one, you can taste all the subtility of the tea evolving in many different flavours. Each infusion could vary form 30 seconds to 60 seconds. So if you keep your leaves in the water for too long, your tea will probably have a bitter taste.

And if you are drinking green tea, the temperature of the water must be around 80 degree celsius when you are pouring it on your tea leaves.

 

[truth seeker]

That's a really lovely teapot, Gandalf. I like the simplicity of it. :)

Miss K. - I've been thinking of you and just wanted to say to try not to be so hard on yourself. It can be difficult to give certain things up. I agree with the advice to start having tea as a choice.

Update: I also came down with a cold/inflammatory reaction over the last few days and am just getting over it. At first, I couldn't figure out if I really enjoyed coffee or was just 'happy' to be able to incorporate something new into my diet.

What was also interesting is that not only have I not had coffee in years, but when I was drinking it, I never had more than 2 cups at the most per day. With this experiment, I drank more per day. While I didn't have any digestion problems (although urination seemed to be more frequent), it seemed to increase my cravings - desire to try other foods that I wasn't previously eating.

So I'm back to tea now. My favorite for a few years has been Assam tea. It has an almost malty flavor to it which I enjoy.

Yesterday I tried a tea from the Celestial Seasonings brand, it was delicious. I tried the Mandarin Orange Spice. Surely with a tea pot like this of Laura my tea would be better! So I will try to find one. Has anybody tried this brand of teas?

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/

I agree with what others have said regarding this brand in particular. They and some others for whatever reason include soy lecithin so you may want to try a different company. Also, depending upon the individual, some spices may set off inflammatory reactions.

Last, one of the nicest 'cups' my grandmother used to drink her tea out of was actually a Japanese tea bowl. Eventually, I purchased one for myself although I believe they can be bought as sets or even mixed and matched (see link below for examples). There are so many ways to go with this based on what 'speaks' to the individual, so have fun!

_http://murata.ca/onlineshop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=9_75

 

[dugdeep]

Given the number of people bailing on the coffee experiment due to bad reactions, I figured I should cool it for a few days to see if I notice anything negative. Although, I have to say, most of what I've noticed have been positive benefits over the past week of coffee drinking. The best result has been that my bowels have been back on track (although I think there still needs to be some adjustment here). Also, I'm really benefiting from having another means of getting fat into my diet without risking nausea.

The negative effects people have mentioned haven't really seemed to be happening to me - no dry nose, no sleep disturbances, no inflammation, no illness... In fact, if anything I think I'm sleeping better. I used to wake up nightly at around 4 or 5 am and would gradually fall back asleep, but lately this hasn't been happening. I don't know whether I can attribute that to the coffee or not. It may have more to do with the shortening lengths of days.

The key for me has been adjusting the ratio of decaf to regular grounds so that I'm not getting an active "buzz" from it. Although the buzz is pleasant, I figure it can't be doing good things for me (although I haven't noticed any sort of crash from it, as others are reporting).

Anywho, I didn't have any coffee today (to no noticeable effect) and am going to lay off it until the weekend, just to see if there's anything that's crept in without me noticing.