HOME HOLISTIC WORKOUT: VOL 18
Coffee Routine Hacks
I love coffee. And let me just say, I only follow these tips every now and then. Regardless of whether I take my own advice or not, many people can benefit by making one or two of these minor changes to their coffee routine.
1. Timing
Right before we wake up each morning, our body produces a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is often talked about as if it’s a bad thing because it’s a hormone that is produced in times of stress. It gives you rapid energy for fight of flight situations. Only when production goes unregulated is it a bad thing. In the mornings it provides the energy which wakes you up.
If we were to see a graph of cortisol production on a healthy person throughout the day, it would spike in the morning and then taper off throughout the day. Coffee can also spike cortisol levels. For this reason it can be helpful to delay that morning coffee until a few hours after waking, once your natural cortisol levels start to fall. This can give you a feeling of extended energy from your coffee and often helps cut the need for a second or third cup throughout the day.
2. Digestion
I heard Paul Chek tell a story once, about a cow who ate a barbed wire fence on the farm he used to work on. His boss, an old boy farmer, told him to go to the shed and to make the darkest batch of Foldgers coffee he could. They cooled it down and fed it to the cow because dark coffee causes the stomach to produce more hydrochloric acid, a digestive substance which is strong enough to break down metal.
We also produce hydrochloric acid in our stomachs and, in the digestive process, it’s not until about 1 hour after eating food that hydrochloric acid is released into the stomach. Before that, all kinds of enzymatic reactions go on, which initiates the break down of food. If we drink coffee with our food, we essentially kick off the HCL production a little too early and cause our meal to miss this crucial part of the digestive process, one which won’t happen again.
So in order to get the most out of your food, try waiting an hour or so before you drink a strong coffee.
3. Fat
Caffeine crashes and caffeine induced panic attacks are not fun.
Adding fat to your coffee can effectively buffer the caffeine hit and it also lengthens out the caffeine buzz, helping you land smoothly as it wears off. Bulletproof coffees have become popular for this reason and as much as I love them for a treat, I usually take my coffee black with a dash of cream.
To learn more about Nick, his workouts, and to sign up for a class, visit homeholisticla.com. Thanks again to Ty Williams for the lovely illustrations to lead us through our third lesson.