“Caffeine is a drug. It’s not a nutrient and it’s not a normal part of our diet. It doesn’t provide any nourishment”
AUT Professor of Nutrition Dr Elaine Rush, on the effects of caffeine on the human body.
Modern coffee is very high in caffeine. The caffeine found in coffee is a dehydrating neurotoxic insecticide (the same as morphine and cocaine). There can be up to 180 mg of caffeine in a flat white. A one-gram dosage of caffeine can be fatal. With modern coffee beans up to 13% pure caffeine, you can achieve a fatal dose in six coffees if you drink them within an hour.
A vicious cycle can be created when coffee stresses and overstimulates the adrenal glands, which stops long-term repair processes. As a result, you become addicted to the rush of caffeine as a replacement energy source because your adrenal glands are unable to help. (Can’t get out of bed in the mornings? Waking between 1 and 3 a.m.?) Before long, you are addicted to a vicious acidic cycle. This is why too much coffee or caffeine causes your hands to shake. Adverse reactions and toxicity from energy drinks are primarily linked to caffeine. Caffeine toxicity can mimic amphetamine poisoning, cause seizures, psychosis, cardiac arrhythmias and even death, but the most common symptoms reported include irregular heart rate, tremors, stomach upsets and dizziness.15
What’s in coffee?
The ingredients in coffee are acidic. If you do not have enough food-sourced calcium floating around your system, the PTH (parathyroid) hormone will be forced to extract it directly from your bones. Coffee leaves an acidic residue in the system. Not only that, coffee also usually contains rancid oils, irritating acids, pesticides, herbicides, and it is a diuretic that removes nutrients via the urine. The toxic chemicals acrylamide and furan are created when foods are burnt, roasted, toasted or fried at very high temperatures. Researchers have found high levels of furan in roasted coffee. Coffee food intolerances in the UK doubled between 2003 and 2007 alone. Reactions include itchy skin, depression, migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, fatigue and joint pains.16
Coffee can be a high ‘cross-reactor’ food
Cross-reactive foods (most common are coffee and dairy) are foods that set off other food reactions in the body. You may be off gluten-containing foods but still getting unpleasant reactions from what you ingest. This could likely be coffee as it can cross-react with gluten. Over 10% of coffee is a protein that cross-reacts with gluten antibodies, which can cause the same symptoms as gluten intolerance of bloating, tiredness, constipation and so on. In one study “the immune reactivity of these antibodies was tested against a range of different food proteins and antigens and the response was measured”. The control protein had “virtually no reaction” and “a-gliadin (the protein from gluten), as expected, had the largest reaction”. Instant coffee caused a reaction similar to gluten. Milk, casein and whey proteins all reacted. Coffee food intolerances in the UK doubled between 2003 and 2007 alone.
Vojdani, A., Cross-Reaction between Gliadin and Different Food and Tissue Antigens. 2013. 4(1): p. 20-32.
GOLDEN Rule 1: Be Prepared and Control your Environment
GOLDEN Rule 4: Give up what Weakens You
GOLDEN Rule 10: Consider Coffee Carefully (CCC)
GOLDEN Rule 17: Alkaline Balance is Crucial (ABC)
GOLDEN Rule 20: Find your H.A.P.P.Y. Paradigm
Coffee is the #3 drug in the world
Coffee raises blood pressure
Coffee, your liver and weight gain
Green tea is fabulous
Coffee, High Blood Pressure (Hypertension) & Heart Disease: References
Coffee Research & References
Jason wishes to deeply thank, acknowledge and recognise the effort and contribution that the PIF Foundation has provided on a voluntary basis since 2014, as we educated, motivated and inspired change that helps transform the health, vitality and longevity of people all over the world.
