Coffee Talk

It’s perhaps one of the top questions posed by our clients:

Is coffee good or bad?

The short answer is – it’s complicated. But truthfully, our findings continue to show that it’s not ideal for our bodies, for a variety of reasons.

While tremendous research has circulated for decades about its benefits, including improved cognitive function, a reduced risk for certain diseases, increased athletic performance, and serving as a source of antioxidants, the downside of coffee is unfortunately significant – and it has been appearing more and more frequently lately as a root cause of symptoms when muscle testing our clients.

Here’s where the complication comes in.

On the one hand, coffee exists on a spectrum. The commercially produced variety is packed with mycotoxins produced by mold and pesticides, which have the potential to wreak havoc on all parts of our health. 

Consuming organic definitely helps to mitigate toxicity exposure, but that still leaves the impact of caffeine. At its core, the caffeine within coffee is an excitotoxin, which has a profound impact on the levels of glutamate in the brain and can overstimulate cells, leading to damage and cell death. 

For those who are sensitive to caffeine and opt for decaf, chemical solvents like methylene chloride are used during the decaffeination process. While the Swiss Water Process certainly helps lower the chemical exposure, it doesn’t completely negate the biggest downside that we see in our clients:

Nervous system dysregulation.

Regardless of its caffeine status, coffee is extremely dense. This means that it lacks living water, and because of this, its molecules require significant work on the body’s part to digest and process the density. In turn, this effort is taxing on the nervous system and throws off the balance of the parasympathetic and sympathetic parameters. When the nervous system is out of whack, we become weaker and are more susceptible to illness and injury. It also makes it more difficult for us to heal, and it causes the body to age faster given how much energy is needed to try and rebalance the nervous system.

In our client work, coffee comes up regularly during muscle testing as a root cause of different symptoms. It will even throw off the cranial nerves, which have a cascade effect on the vertebrae and even our emotions.

So, what’s a coffee addict to do?

First of all, we invite you to tune into your body and ask yourself some questions. 

What’s your current intake like? 

Are you consuming enough water to compensate for its effects?

How’s the overall health of your nervous system? 

Is there a chance that coffee is hindering your vitality? 

And if so – how bad do you want to feel good?

If the answer is ‘not bad enough to give up my coffee’, we hear you! It’s something we’ve been told by a few of our clients, and we certainly aren’t interested in convincing you to overhaul your routine if it’s not on your radar right now.

For those who are curious about its effects and beginning to connect some dots as to its impact, here are our suggestions:

• Cleaner is always better. Make the swap to organic beans, and if you brew your own at home, ensure that you’re using spring water to counter any residual toxicity that might sneak in

• Offset your coffee intake with a large amount of water. Drinking 24 oz. of clean water before and after coffee helps the body process and digest the dense acidic byproduct that gets created

• Step down intuitively. Listen to your body and cut back in an amount that feels right

• Lean into tea. Black & chai tea are two good options with half the caffeine, and making this switch to these initially can help your system acclimate to the reduction. There are also several caffeine-free herbal tea varieties growing in popularity that mimic the taste of coffee, including dandelion root and chicory. Just make sure it’s organic!

• Leverage breathwork. Our research shows that 5 deep breaths every morning has similar effects on the body compared to coffee, especially if done every day. 

Not sure if your coffee might be at the root of your current health issues? Schedule an appointment with a practitioner today, and we’d be glad to get to the bottom of it with you!