Just how do you resist that craving for coffee? (1)

As usual, when I teach diet and nutrition,
wherever, whenever it is,
I would often ask my students
to try cut down or wean off caffeinated drinks, especially coffee,
in the mind of holistic well-being.

Obviously I will always get a lot of objections!
-- simply, coffee has become a culture nowadays
deep rooted in many people's day-to-day life,
be it to sustain their long days,
to perk up in the morning,
or simply just to enjoy the taste and aroma...

Coffee is no longer just a beverage.
It's an item that cross-links
in between our health, lifestyle and economy.
Hence it's not an easy issue to resolve.

Let's analyse coffee from a few perspectives
to get a bigger picture of what we are putting into our gut,
before we talk about weaning off or reducing coffee intake.


Perspective 1:
Coffee drink as a herbal extract

Coffee drink though brewed from roasted seeds of a plant,
it is, strictly speaking, an extract from a very potent herb.

Herb is defined as any plant part that contains
certain potent compounds that will
interfere/influence with the balance of the bodily system.

If administered adequately,
it restores the balance of one's bodily system,
by giving the drinker alertness boosting, anti-oxidative benefits, liver protection etc

If abused,
it can upset the balance of the bodily system,
by giving the drinker osteoporosis, insomnia, dehydration etc..

As I often teach in my nutrition class,
there is nothing bad or good about a herb.
It's always the person who administer and manage the herb
that is the issue
-- due to the lack of nutrition management knowledge/skill...

Because coffee is a kind of herb,
it should be administered intermittently in low dosage.

I personally didn't do precise dosage titration research for coffee
but in a casual conversation with a senior TCM healer,
we came to a general agreement that,
with such a high potency in coffee,
it is recommended to be taken one cup every 7-10 days
to achieve favourable benefits without side effects.

I remember when I mentioned that in classes..
students were almost "traumatized"!!  (LOL)

This is only one perspective to convince coffee-holics or daily coffee drinkers
to reduce coffee intake.

In the next post, we will analyse coffee
from the perspective of anti-nutrient.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com

#coffee

{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}