Is Coffee bad for you?

Friday always brings to mind coffee, because it used to be my Friday morning treat. 

I often get asked whether coffee is bad and what my opinion of coffee drinking is and whether I drink coffee. So here are a few thoughts from me.

I used to drink coffee when I was a student. Mainly espresso or café coffee, just 'cause everyone was doing it. At school and Uni, we'd head to the coffee shop for a coffee. Then in my early 20's I started getting some pretty intense digestive issues, prescribed as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

It was brought to my attention by my Nutritionist, that coffee certainly wasn't helping my intense tummy pains and toilet urgency and I lay off it.

I actually stopped drinking coffee for a year, it helped my symptoms heaps. I was working in a café at the time and it seemed like the most bizarre thing to not drink coffee in that environment (the barista was having like ten plus coffees a day) and everyone around me was too. I owned it and said, "No, I feel better without it." 

Then, I started working in an office job and the coffee culture was big, I began to rely on it a we bit, to focus, get through work and to be in on the social outing. It became a Friday treat that flowed into a few times a week..

Then, a few years went on and I realised that coffee was the thing that made me feel more flighty, overthinky and severely lacking focus (which was suppose to be benefit of coffee right?). It was a habit and until I brought my attention to it, I realised that Friday was my LEAST relaxed day, just by comparing Friday vibes with a friend. 

I realised that coffee was actually not helping the situation at all. 

These days, I save coffee for the weekends and holidays, in a really casual sense where I'm not trying to get something done, purely for the enjoyment of the taste. I wanted to share a couple of things that has helped me to figure all of this out.

Coffee is not inherently BAD for you, it's just a habit for a lot of people, and there may not be a lot of thought around it to start with. 

First of all, get honest and ask yourself this:

How much coffee are you actually drinking per day?

How does coffee actually make you feel?

Physically, like your digestion or breathing patterns. 

Mentally - can you focus or do you feel wired?

Emotionally - does it get you on a high, or overthink situations and/or conversations?

Why do you drink coffee?

Is it because everyone else is drinking it?

It's just a habit, just what you do and now you can't go back? 

Do you feel like you NEED coffee to function? #butfirstcoffee

Cravings?

There's definitely a few things that you could just bring awareness to, to start with, if you're even questioning whether the coffee is good or bad for you.

Digestion

Definitely one thing that a lot of people are affected by, or maybe not. That was one very obvious thing for me. I noticed how my digestion would change after having a coffee, usually very quickly!

Coffee also really dehydrates us, so drinking plenty of water is really important to help out our digestive system and for brain function, reducing cravings and boosting energy.

Mentally

If you have a tendency to overthink things, feel anxious or get really stressed at work or social situations, then usually I find that these tendencies are exacerbated with coffee.

If I'm in a social situation, it's best not to have coffee because the overthinking goes on overdrive, and suddenly I'm taking things personally (in other words, the opposiute to the benefits for Meditation and the old Julia comes out)

Your mood and your tendency to feel stressed or anxious, are certainly something to consider if asking whether coffee is a good idea.

Alternatives

You got options! I have explored many and now I am okay to be that person that orders a turmeric latte or a matcha. There are so many delicious options now.

Let me also just point out that a turmeric latte doesn't taste like a curry. It looks yellow because of the turmeric, but it tastes delicious like a chai, or something like that, so I recommend trying it and the health benefits are sky high! 

Tea is also pretty underrated. I love green tea because it does have a little caffeine in it and it also has L-theanine which calms the nervous system and actually allows you to focus more, so it may boost your energy a little and then it allows (with that calming factor) to have more single-pointed focus, so I recommend green tea as a goodie in the morning, perhaps as a coffee altnernative.

Really that's it.

Coffee itself is not actually bad for you, in fact it has benefits to our health, had in small quantities. It's the hard core reliance that so many of us have on the stuff.

Like everything diet related, it's different for everyone. That's one this I really push in my coaching!

I challenge you to bring your awareness to your coffee consumption as a habit and feel free to reach out and talk to me about it.

I've been up and down with coffee for a few years, and it's an interesting topic to talk about, and often like an entry into paying attention to how your food and bevarage choices make you feel.

Get in touch or leave a comment below, always love to hear from you!

Go well xx