Coffee and Health

Most people I know have a serious love for coffee. It might be the taste, it might be the buzz, or it might even be the trendy cafe they get to visit each morning but regardless of your motives I think it's important to stay educated around the effects it has on your body.

The caffeine in coffee stimulates the release of cortisol and adrenaline by activating your sympathetic nervous system. This is our "fight or flight" system and therefore you are more likely to experience symptoms of stress or anxiety such as racing heart, palpitations, reduced concentration, or increased sweating.

Caffeine has a half life of around 5-8 hours which basically means it takes this long for half of that shot of coffee to be removed from your system. So if you are drinking an additional one or two coffees throughout the day, well, you are always going to have caffeine in your body. If you are having difficulty sleeping, coffee may be the culprit.

Coffee can also inhibit the absorption of some important nutrients due to its diuretic effect increasing excretion of water soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C, its tannin content which can bind to iron making it unavailable to your body, and its direct impact on certain receptors for nutrients such as Vitamin D and calcium.

With all of this in mind, perhaps you might like to explore some coffee alternatives:

• Chai

• Dandelion

• Herbal tea

• Matcha

• Turmeric latte

• Decaf

or my personal favourite - Cacao