Coffee – The most consumed drink in the world! Research has shown it has incredible benefits from reducing risk of type 2 diabetes and liver cancer to improving heart health.

However, like anything else, it is important to ask yourself,

“Is it right for me? Can it affect me negatively?”

The average person in North America is very acidic. Being acidic is associated with a number of health issues such as joint pain, weak immune system, weight gain, diabetes, migraines, yeast infections, low energy / chronic fatigue, Sciatica / stiff neck, cardiovascular issues, poor digestive health, allergies and even cancer! Coffee can increase this acidity and cause more harm than good.

Coffee is one of the highest sprayed crops in the world. So while you are enjoying your morning cup of coffee, you are also ingesting a wide variety of pesticides and chemicals used to protect and preserve the coffee beans.

Research shows coffee to be very beneficial to athletes as a pre-workout nutrient. It has been shown to improve focus, performance, strength and fat loss. This comes from coffee’s effect on cortisol (stress hormone). Before training, high cortisol can be beneficial. But chronically high or low cortisol does a lot of damage on our systems – faster aging, fat around the waist, raises blood sugar by almost 50%, blunts production of growth hormones (repair and recovery hormones), increases LDL (bad cholesterol).

Another issue with coffee is drinking it later in the day (after 3pm). Cortisol naturally start at about 50% higher when we wake up and starts lowering as the day passes. Drinking coffee later, disrupts this cycle and affect sleep quality. People who drink coffee later in the day usually have trouble falling asleep or wake up in the middle of the night (usually between 1am and 3am from overworked liver) or wake up tired. “I need coffee in the morning” is a sign of disrupted stress hormone and poor sleep quality.

Lastly, caffeine in coffee can cause leaky gut in people who drink coffee regularly. Leaky gut is associated with issues such as IBS, colitis, eczema/psoriasis, yeast infections, brain fog, insulin resistance.

Stay tuned for next week’s blog where I will give you ways to enjoy coffee with minimal side-effects.