I love coffee. The wonderful aroma of a delicious Columbian brew first thing in the morning is like magic. I take a few sips of this wonderful concoction and I’m starting to wake up. Soon the day doesn’t seem so dreary and those negative thoughts seem to drift away. Within a cup or two the ideas start to flow and this is where coffee provides its miraculous effects. Soon my mind is a creative machine. The ideas and thoughts come quickly and it’s like being in a different world.
The words start to flow on paper, the graphics start to appear on screen, and a bunch of unrelated ideas soon join together to form a new creation… to actually come to life in the form of a new article, a picture, or a grand new invention.
This is the power of Coffee and its magic ingredient… caffeine.
Soon the second cup is gone and I reach for more. I pour a third cup and keep working. Soon that is gone and without realizing it I pour another and grab a donut to keep going. Soon this creative world becomes jittery and I find it hard to focus. The ideas jump around and I try to organize my thoughts. I keep working but now things are different. It’s like a haze has come over my mental landscape. Everything becomes somewhat fuzzy.
Things all of a sudden take a downward spiral. As my blood sugar spikes and then drops, I start to feel tired and very lethargic. I start to yawn and suddenly I become very hungry. I need another donut and another cup of coffee to keep going. So I head to the kitchen and the process starts all over. But after the second donut and the fifth cup of coffee I’m really in a haze. I feel jumpy and unfocused and I’m starting to feel lethargic again.
This process continues until lunch, where the coffee is replaced by a caffeinated soda and the donut is replaced with an over-processed meal of super-sized fast food. I come back to work and suddenly find that I need a nap. I’m so tired I can hardly work.
Have you ever had this experience? For more and more people around the world this is becoming commonplace.
Too many empty, over processed, sugary calories along with too much caffeine.
The long lines at Starbucks and other coffee shops will attest to the growing addiction.
The growing waistlines will attest to the excessive amounts of calories we find ourselves ingesting.
Yet try to get off caffeine and you’ll find yourself with the worst headache of your life. If you do succeed you may find yourself lethargic and unmotivated.
Is there a way to enjoy the good effects of coffee and caffeine without the side effects?
We’ll look at some strategies in our next post…
Be sure to explore our other nutritional tuning articles 1 2 3