IS A COFFEE BREAK GOOD FOR YOU?

Hello there fellow coffee lovers – Is it time for a coffee break?

Before you get all shaky thinking I am going to take your beloved coffee away, stick around, as I too, am an avid coffee lover! So I’ve got your back, despite me needing a coffee break every now and then.

There is nothing better than the fresh smell of roasted coffee beans, the smile of a friendly barista, and that first sip of creamy, warm goodness in the morning. And let’s face it, if you simply love the taste of coffee, no nutritious, creamy golden latte replaces the distinct flavour of the beloved coffee bean. There really is no comparison.

It is no secret that Australian’s looovvveeee their coffee and we have built a very inviting culture (and social media accounts) around our beloved lattes.

Fav coffee hub in Byron – 100 Mile Table. Check it out :)

But are we doing harm with our “daily coffee ritual” ? Well, the answer is, it really does depend on the individual and their circumstance.

Let’s take a look at an example comparison.

Meet Sally. Sally is a mum. Her sleep has been disrupted over several months, she has just started back at work, her husband works away and she juggles the responsibility of the kids, the house, and has little down time for herself.

She NEEDS a coffee or two or three every day to feel human.

Then meet Mick. He is a self funded retiree, who lives by the beach, every morning he strolls along the beach with his best mate, Boris the dog. He comes home to a freshly prepared breakfast that his lovely wife has ready for him. Next off, he goes down to the local golf club to catch up with mates for a hit and a mid morning coffee.

Mick enjoys his morning coffee but if he misses it, it’s no biggy he still functions the same as if he had had a coffee.

Whether you are a Sally or a Mick there are some important considerations to know before deciding if it is time to take a break from coffee.

Consideration Number 1: Coffee Metabolism

– People metabolise coffee differently. Fast metabolisers response to the effects of caffeine will be shorter lived while slow metabolisers will have a more prolonged effect. They are the people who when they drink coffee in the afternoon are still revved up and cannot sleep
– To find out if you are a slow or fast metaboliser you can get this type of genetic info from a company called 23andme. But most people inherently feel if they are fast or slow metabolisers.

Consideration Number 2: Coffee and the adrenal system

– Beyond how you metabolise coffee, where you are at in your stage of life matters.
– In particular the health of your adrenal system (aka your stress response network)
– If you are sleep deprived, exercising intensely or a lot or both, exhausted after workouts, not getting enough recovery, you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, you wake up feeling tired in the mornings, you feel dizzy when you stand up quick, you feel exhausted in the afternoons, or you feel jittery or wired after coffee these are all symptoms of problems with the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Axis (you stress response system) and coffee is probably a BAD IDEA. (Despite it seemingly like a dam good idea – because hey your tired right?)

Consideration Number 3: Are you currently adding to the stress

– When you are burning the candle at both ends, coffee feels like your only friend. If you drink coffee and then later in the day your energy crashes, and you see this as a sign to refuel with another coffee, this is a classic sign that the coffee is messy with your adrenals.
– What most people don’t realise is that when they are in this situation and they are drinking more coffee, more regularly (because they are tired) it actually makes you more tired and it’s only when you stop that you realise, “Crap, it was actually making me more tired than awake.” This won’t happen after a few days, but rather a few weeks and with healing the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal Dysfunction.

Consideration Number 4: How it should affect you

– If things are going well with you and your friend coffee, you should feel a natural lift and improvement in mental clarity. You should’t notice any highs or lows in how it affects your energy. If this is your case – you have the green light. Lucky buggers!

Consideration Number 5: Coffee can cross react

– Coffee can cross react with gluten so if you are celiac or have non-celiac gluten sensitivity there is a possibility you may be reacting to coffee.

Consideration Number 6: What else is in your coffee

– If coffee is a vehicle for a truck load of added sugar, artificial flavours and processed milk then this daily habit might need some revising

Consideration Number 7: The minority

– If you are the small percentage of annoying persons that can have up to 4 coffees a day, sleep well, have great energy throughout the day, can exercise and improve and have no jitteriness after coffee then who am I to argue.

Consideration 8: The benefits

– Quality coffee is loaded with phytonutrients and antioxidants and has shown benefits in reducing risk of diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers, Parkisons and cancer.

So if you are a Mick, and can relate to the positive effects of your morning coffee and feel great for the rest of the day, I see no reason to give up the beloved coffee ritual.

However, if you are more of a Sally, or are going through a time in life that you can relate to feeling you are burning the candle at both ends, or are dealing with an illness, you need to come to terms that coffee isn’t your friend right now! It’s time to take a break! I didn’t say forever, just right now.

Easier said than done. Here are some tips:

– Don’t stop cold turkey. If you are drinking more than a cup of coffee per day, gradually reduce your intake over days to one cup. Then try alternate days or half shots. Then have a weekday free break and treat yourself of weekends only. Then try a week free break. Or if things are serious, try have a month off.
– Despite having some challenging days soon enough you will start to feel less tired and regain your energy levels.
– Substitute your routine with delicious calming and soothing herbal teas or some other delicious beverages like kombucha so you still feel loved
– Regaining your energy might require some additional work with a practitioner to get your adrenal system back on track
– As a general rule, if you start feeling like you NEED a coffee to energise you, that is probably the exact time that you shouldn’t have one. – Stressing an already stressed system is only going to further lead you down a dark hole and make it harder to climb out of.

Remember that nothing is forever, it’s just for now, a small sacrifice, to get things back on track.

Love Chantel.

8 MOST IMPORTANT HEALTH LESSONS LEARNT SO FAR

I am here to share with you the most significant health related lessons I’ve discovered so far. I say so far as I am only 26 so in some ways I guess the significance is yet to be determined but in other ways I feel really lucky that I have found out these lessons so early on. Hence why I want to share with you all. So what exactly have I learnt after being at university for 4 years, working with health professionals and being introduced to a world of fitness and nutrition? Well quite a lot – I started out with 10 points however by the time I had written the first three I realised that this was going to be a BIG one. So I settled for eight.

1. The “experts” are not always experts

I find this statement sad but true most of the time. We place a huge amount of trust and confidence in people practising a professional service be it a doctor, a pharmacist, personal trainer, dietician or naturopath. We usually go to these people with the confidence they have more knowledge than ourselves and wikipaedia and that they can fix us. But don’t be fooled; just because someone has a title and a profession it doesn’t give them the ability to know more about you than YOU. Trust what you feel and seek answers. But be educated and equipped to identify the good from the bad. Like any profession, a degree does not define the persons entire ability and expertise. There is a spectrum of poor, average and excellent in each field. If you are lucky enough to find excellence, expect results. Don’t settle for poor, no results misinformation. Remember why you went there in the first place. And for the “experts”, myself included, we are in a position of power. People come to us for advice or a service in an attempt to improve their current state. This takes courage. And we have a huge responsibility to deliver current and results based information and services. This is only achieved through continued education and a genuine interest in your field and an acknowledgment that every client and every situation is unique. What a gratifying, rewarding job we have!!!

2. Evidence and studies do not over power living results

Evidence and studies can be flawed. Companies who have a vested interest in the results can manipulate what information makes it into the headlines. Take for example this Ancel Key fellow that found some population groups who ate a diet high in saturated fat had more heart disease. However he forgot to include the other populations that actually ate saturated fat and had better overall health. Decades later and we are still demonising saturated fat based on some pretty flawed studies and so called evidence. Its the promotion and careful selection of evidence and studies presented to the general population by certain bureaucracies that has largely contributed to our overall poor health.

The best example I can think of is this guy….. Mark Sisson… Look at his body below.

If you don’t know this man look him up he has a wealth of knowledge and experience. Would you say this man is at risk of heart disease, diabetes, is suffering from arthritis or any other “old age” symptoms. Well what if I tell you he is 60, he is eating loads of saturated fat, loads of eggs (high in cholesterol), he doesn’t eat grains, vegetables oils or refined sugars. He enjoys sprinting on the beach, lifting some weights and paddle boarding and tight rope walking. Pain and medication free at 60- this is an absolute rarity!

The physical evidence of this man standing before me is enough for me to want to read his blog and listen to what he has to say about health. Does he look like he is at risk of dying of a heart attack?

The medical world is completely controlled and driven by studies, which of course I get, but maybe they need to consider the whole picture and revisit some of the evidence that now have new, better designed studies. Saturated fat does not lead to heart disease- this theory has been disproven. But what about the living results? The evidence that half of all heart attack patients actually have below normal cholesterol levels or that cholesterol is actually sent to repair damage in vessels walls but at times there is so much oxidation and inflammation presents (due to refined carbs and “heart healthy” vegetable oils) that it cant do its jobs and gets wrongly accused of clogging up the arteries. And that cholesterol is synthesised in the body as a natural process dependent on our intake, thats is, if you don’t eat enough our body produces more . Do you honestly think that our body would produce something that would kill us?
 

3. Education is never ending and ever changing

As I mentioned above there is a huge importance on committing to a continuous, life long journey of self education if you want to stay at the top of your field and healthy. There is so much information available and accessible on the internet. I think the secret is to find a few people you believe in and trust and follow their sites otherwise things can get really overwhelming and confusing.

The problem with nutrition and healthy eating is there is very little or no education given to you during school or university (pharmacy degree/medicine degree). So unless you have a reason to start educating yourself most people have NO idea what good nutrition is.

I felt quite betrayed when I realised that a lot of what I had been told, been taught had practised was not entirely true or wrong. I still do feel this.

Our current health crisis will not improve until bigger corporations are willing to admit that they got their nutritional advice wrong.
Thankfully people like you and me don’t need to wait for this – we can admit to ourselves when we are wrong and continue to educate ourselves and make our own changes to achieve overall health.

4. Food is the most powerful and inexpensive medicine

I never thought to look at my food and consider that it could be causing my rash, my pimples, my moodiness, my cellulite, my diarrhoea, my tiredness. I spent hundreds of dollars trying to address these things not even knowing the influence food can have on our bodies. Thank god I found out or I could be seriously broke and still fat and ugly (kidding I wasn’t so bad). I am not alone with this story.

The theme behind, “An apple a day, keeps the doctor away,” may need to be given more weight and maybe a revamp, maybe we could consider “a cup of bone broth, keeps the doctor away.”

The point is, I like many didn’t even consider the fact that the food I was eating could cause or contribute to so many health issues. People today still look to medicine and supplements before addressing nutrition problems.

Why is this? Lack of education? People like an easy option? People have been mislead? A combination of all of these factors I think. I feel the role of the dietician or nutritionist is going to be BIG in the not to distant future as people are beginning to seek more answers as frustrations build with the lack of result in current treatments.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine; instead he will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, nutrition and the cause and prevention of disease.”

Hmmm, wouldn’t that be a nice prescription.

5. The sun is not the devil we make it out to be

I don’t know about you but there is something unique about feeling the suns rays shine through you that is energising and soothing for one’s soul (most of my blogs are written when I’m outside feeling energised from nature). A morning walk along the beach with fresh ocean breeze and sunshine is definitely a big part of what people are missing in their quest for health and happiness.

The campaigning of slip, slop, slap in Australia along with the busy nature of our society has meant our time spent in the sun is almost non existent. And much to our healths detriment. We are now a nation that is experiencing vitamin D deficiencies, which in itself is a precursor for a host of medical conditions and higher rates of cancers.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not promoting you lie out in the sun for hours until you look like a prune or a tomato as I’m sure you would all agree that this doesn’t look or feel healthy.  

But yes I am promoting some healthy sun exposure. And by healthy I mean choose the times of the day that are less intense, like early morning or late afternoons and a duration that doesn’t expose yourself to visible UV damage.

6. Sacrifice is hard but worth it

In this context when I am referring to sacrifice, I’m not referring to sacrificing your bread or pasta (although I acknowledge that this is hard and job well done for doing this) I’m talking about making sacrifices for a healthier more enjoyable life.

For some this may mean leaving an unfulfilled relationship or a meaningless job and for others it could be up and leaving all that is familiar for greener pastures. Whatever the situation, when the driving force for the decision centres around following your heart, your health is bound to be thankful.

Too often people stay in unhealthy environments out of fear of what well come of their decision. I’m confident that if this is you, making the sacrifice to leave what is familiar and comfortable for something that “just feels right” will be worth it.

7. Stress will kill you

If you think this is a exaggerated title then think again. Because chronic stress can lead to adrenal fatigue and this is not a fun place to be in and unless you can turn it around this can kill you.

Life itself is such a beautiful gift. Living it seems to be the problem. We all have responsibilities in our lives be it work, money, relationships, family. These responsibilities will influence us negatively or positively. For some it might be the daily worry of not having enough money to pay the phone bill and for others it may be facing up to work everyday doing something that you hate. I get that there are so many different situations that challenge and pressure people everyday. So you need to have some coping mechanisms to deal with stress:

Recognise what is causing it, then make the steps to eliminate it day by day.

Take time out to do something that you enjoy or that relaxes you. Be kind to yourself there is so much pressure out there, so you deserve a 40 minute massage/walk/coffee break.

Be nice to people especially your loved ones (you might find they will be nicer back to you)
Be grateful for what you have, there are always situations worse than yours.
Don’t take everything so seriously…
So unless you plan on escaping to a beautiful tropical island where work and traffic are not a part of the vocabulary, I suggest you get a coping strategy in place for managing your stress. This is so important for your health.
Last but not least…

8. Love conquers all… oh and is good for our health

What does love have to do with health you ask?
Love is hard to find.. Love makes you do things you didn’t believe you could. Love reveals the real you. And love fills your heart so big you want to be the best you, you can be.
So don’t give up on it, its out there and worth waiting for.

With love
Your Chantel