About a year ago, when I first started working as the general manager in a deli/café, I decided I needed to do a coffee tasting. Coffee is a huge part of the business and as I hadn’t had any coffee for at least 4-5 years, I wanted to get an understanding of what it is that we sell. So I tried a decaf espresso, which was full-on.
FROM HIDEOUS TO REALLY TASTY
I hated it. Espresso, which is pure and neat in its extraction of the coffee, has nothing to disguise it and my reaction was immediate, as if my taste buds were saying to me: “What are you doing – are you crazy? This is hideous!”.
I then tried the espresso with some soya milk and this was not so invasive but still full on… I only managed to have a couple of sips of each and that was it. Then, an hour later, a headache appeared and my stomach started to feel weird.
The one thing that really shocked me though was the quick change from “What the heck are you doing, this is hideous” to (after a disguised, milky, soya flat white and a few sips of that) going “Hmmm… this is actually really tasty”.
How quickly it started to grow on me! It reminded me of when I first started to drink alcohol and started smoking. They were both naturally hideous and my body didn’t want to do either, but I overrode what I really felt so I could fit in, be accepted and look cool!
UPPING THE COFFEE ANTE – I GET SEDUCED…
My ‘romance’ with coffee didn’t end there – recently I had to choose a new blend of coffee for our customers.
So the coffee tasting began… I was having a look at the crèma, which looked perfect, and the smell was alive with lots of different scents – liquorice, almond and chocolate jumped out at me!
At that point I was slowly getting seduced all over again and I thought: “I’ll try it – I need to know what the coffee I have chosen for the deli tastes like.” Isn’t it interesting how the mind will quickly justify an action to make it OK to do! This was the start of the override again…
There were two types of blends so I had a couple of sips of each espresso and then another couple of sips of two flat whites.
By the end of the second espresso I could start to feel the change in my body… and by the end of the second flat white I was starting to like it, enjoying the flavours… I stopped there, knowing which blend was going to work best for the deli and the customers…
FEELING THE IMPACT OF COFFEE – THE HARD WAY
But for me, it was too late – by the end of the second flat white I was really starting to feel ‘off the wall’ and super-racy! “Oh my goodness! What have I just done?!” I’m thinking. It felt like I was on drugs big time… really bad speed, or something like that! My head felt really strange – like it was going to pop or explode. My heart was going super-fast, and I was completely off the wall in my behaviour – all the deli assistants were laughing at me, as they could all see the change in me.
It lasted for quite some time – we’d started the coffee tasting at 10.30am and I was still feeling traces of it at 8pm that night – and the following two days I had these really intense, full-on headaches that were hideous. I could see how people can get hooked – if I’d had another coffee, all those symptoms would have disappeared instantly.
This week I had another trip to the roastery, but this time I decided that I would spit the tasting – my body thanked me for this!
I LOVE MAKING COFFEES, BUT WHY WOULD I BE ANYTHING ELSE BUT ME?
I started making coffees when I was 15. I love making coffees, and I still do.
I love the smell of coffee and I still do, but I don’t like what it does to my body so I don’t drink it any more. It’s like some foods and how they taste and what they do to my body: I have decided to leave them out of my diet because I don’t like how I feel after I’ve eaten them, even if they taste amazing at the time – it’s not worth it!
However, this most recent coffee tasting experience really confirmed for me that I just don’t want to feel like that anymore. It also confirmed for me what happens when I let my mind override and ‘explain away’ what I’m really feeling in my body and know is right for me.
I feel so AMAZING when I’m just me – without anything else influencing me – and I know now: NOTHING ELSE is acceptable!
I’m at a point in my life where what I have chosen is SERIOUSLY AWESOME and I feel SERIOUSLY AMAZING for it. I feel so clear, on to it, light and consistent. I have so much respect for my body and myself that I am not prepared to compromise any more.
Inspired by the Awesome work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
By Natalie Hawthorne, London, UK
832 Comments
Thanks for this inspiring blog, Natalie. I can relate this to when I used to play a lot of video games. I would stay up late, wake up exhausted and end up late for college or work – say to myself “I’m not staying up that late ever again on a school night” and then do the exact same thing… that same night! If I logged back on and played more – the feelings of exhaustion would dull, because I was distracted. It’s amazing what the mind will do to not feel the body – at the grand expense of the body. Much like how you loved coffee, but did’t like the feeling you had in your body – I used to love gaming but I know it stopped me from feeling my body, so I have taken it out of my ‘diet’.
Wow that is so interesting the hooking and addictive nature that can run us and seriously override what our bodies are telling us. In more ways than we realise. Thanks Cheryl
Lovely to read this and everyone’s comments and be reminded how our bodies do attempt to talk to us. I remember feeling that I was honouring my body when I changed to soya decaff, and then the day when my body reacted to that. I actually convinced myself it was that particular coffee outlet and went on to use a different one! Fortunately my body still gave me the feedback, it didn’t want any brand.
Kathie thanks for sharing, and there are so many brands out there – fortunately you didn’t need to go through them all and you listened to your body!
Susan what a great learning for you and interesting that your body was so straight up about it.
Fantastic blog. I really appreciate your honesty and dedication, Natalie. I can so relate to the mind over-riding what the body is feeling: I can remember my first alcoholic drink, coffee, blue cheese and cigarette and how horrible they all were to me, yet I went on to indulge in them all. Either to be part of the group or to look big and not a baby. I have been inspired by listening to the common sense presented by Universal Medicine about listening to and honouring one’s body. I no longer indulge in these things as I have felt that they do not support my body. I feel so wonderful for the change that my choses have brought about for me in my life.
Thanks for sharing Jonathan, I too used to indulge – so easily getting caught in food and drink as a way of checking out. The taste and combinations you could have with different things. I remember completely convinced that wine and food were a marriage if you got the right combination, and yip they sure do taste great. All these justifications that are at play when indulging in what taste great to sustain the checked out way of being I was in.
Wow its amazing when you look at us as a society and how we override our feelings on such a massive scale. What you are saying Jonathan and Natalie highlights the lies we can tell ourselves and how detrimental this can be if we ignore these very obvious messages.
This is so revealing, Natalie, about the way we become quickly and easily seduced by the taste. I haven’t drunk coffee for 35 years, having felt the impact of it on my body at that time, but I now recognise the same pattern with other substances, for instance cream, butter, sugar and sweet things, and soft, comfort foods! Gradually clearing these things from my diet brings me a greater clarity about what my body likes and does not like, but my mind can still override it, even though I do feel the huge benefit when I do listen to it.
So very true Joan that the pattern can be with other substances and the seduction that happens is same.
Thank you Natalie for sharing this blog. I never really drank coffee, but when I did I used to suffer with headaches. I have had very rarely decafs and you’re so right it’s so easy to override the body when it’s truly saying no and you cover it up with soya milk. I generally cannot even take the smell of coffee, I found it so strong. For me it’s watching that override why do I slip and have that decaf?
Anita that is exactly what we need to do – keep a strong eye in the override as it easily takes over as it is used to having full control with no regard to what the body feels. Great to start catching it when it happens but even better is to look underneath that and see what is driving the override.
Natalie, what I am coming to learn is the override kicks in with food as well, when there is a lack of self worth. Not honouring myself when I should, or not taking my regular breaks as I deserve it, not appreciating myself and how far I have come or indulging in comfort.
I know this one Amita, when I have at times not listened to my body and over worked or have not been appreciating myself I am far more likely to go to foods that are for comfort rather than nutrition.
Great blog Natalie. Like a lot of people coffee was the last thing I gave up, and like Kevin says ‘its only decaff and soya’, so letting go of that one was quite hard. Eventually I did and I know I will never go back to it. What it has also helped with is to look at other foods that don’t serve me in truth and to start letting them go as well. It is a work in progress but one well worth taking.
Tim thanks for sharing and totally worth it and then some!!
Beautifully expressed and another clear example of how our heads chatter way over our bodies’ signals if we do not stop to pay attention. I’m on holiday in Sicily, Italy at the moment and the smell of the oven baked pizzas are something else – even though the smell tempts me and my head says go on just a little – the strength from within is easy, a simple, no way – because I know that I would feel the effects for days afterwards and that is not worth the few minutes pleasure for my taste buds.
It really is a few minutes of pleasure and hours if not days that has the consequence running in your body.
Thank you for this great blog Natalie. I can really relate, I loved coffee. On reflection I feel I loved the ritual more than the coffee. Grinding the beans filling my Turkish coffee pot placing it on the stove and waiting for its distinctive aroma to fill the air. It really is seductive. It was the staring role of my mornings for many years. When I look back at that time now I realise how racy and agitated I always was. I very often had heart palpitations and sweaty palms. At the time I put this down to the break neck speeds I used to cycle. I realise now that coffee had me so wired that I could only cycle at this speed. I have since given up drinking coffee and really don’t miss it. I still have my morning ritual but now I am brewing fragrant lovely light teas. I had a decaf over a year ago and it felt so dense, sticky and heavy in my body. I remember one of my first feelings when I gave up coffee was how refreshed I felt when I woke in the morning. Previously I was always groggy and needed a coffee ‘fix’ to get me going. I love your final words – “I’m at a point in my life where what I have chosen is SERIOUSLY AWESOME and I feel SERIOUSLY AMAZING for it. I feel so clear, on to it, light and consistent. I have so much respect for my body and myself that I am not prepared to compromise any more”. Awesome me too. Thanks for the great blog.
I have also remembered that I first started drinking coffee as a teenager. My father was quite proud of me as it was seen as an acquired taste. I was suffering from a hangover at the time, hence why I needed it. Little children don’t want to drink coffee, it tastes awful. Amazing how we override what we intrinsically know to be socially accepted or grow with a rite of passage.
The sophistication that is being put on coffee and then that being increased by the process and higher quality of beans and blends of roast, creates the illusion it is justified to be drinking it. Just like when I went on trips to the vineyards and the in depth process that has.
I love what you have presented here Natalie, essentially no matter how good something tastes, how good it smells or how alluring it looks, nothing in this world is better than feeling truly you and truly amazing.
Absolutely and the first few times you feel like you are sacrificing something but once you feel that constant amazing you – you realise there is nothing at all you are sacrificing or being short changed on.
Helen that is totally crazy! Where is the world at when statements like that are being published and obviously encouraged.
Thanks Natalie for sharing about the insidious nature of addiction and how the mind can trick you into overriding what the body is clearly telling you. I have never particularly liked coffee (or anything coffee flavoured) but remember I worked in an office for a few months where they made really strong coffee and how I got in the habit of drinking it with loads of milk to water it down because I wanted to fit it. When I changed jobs I recognised the affects on my body after one small coffee and made the choice to stop but was much slower to feel how I was equally affected by tea which had always been my beverage of choice and only finally gave it up when I decided to give up dairy.
The other day I read that a research has suggested that coffee might be helpful with reducing the symptoms of tinnitus although they admitted that previously it had been thought to exacerbate them?! How crazy is that?
Yes I totally agree Rachel that we were all to look at the exhaustion as opposed to keep going with the solution of a ‘pick me up’ which is usually brushed off with ‘it tastes so good’ with all the supreme blends that are coming out. It has now become an in-depth process with many factors involved for the perfect extraction… creating a story and reasoning of why it is worth having. Again all these hidden distractions from the real reason why people are having it and the exhaustion everyone is living in. What is causing the exhaustion? It’s a double whammy because you go for the coffee for the ‘pick me up’ and then your body crashes after it – this has twice the exhaustion of what it was in the first place from the chemical affects the coffee has had on the body. All a little crazy if you ask me! Vicious cycle that I was hooked into once.
This is such a good point, and it is sad but true that a large percentage of the world are stuck in this vicious cycle with caffeine and have lost track of what is actually going on in their bodies. Thank you for writing about this important topic, Natalie.
It’s really interesting to hear about your experiences when drinking coffee. I always liked the smell too, but could never drink it as it made me literally feel sick. There was one time when I was travelling in Hungary and the group I was with was offered a ‘special’ Hungarian espresso. They said it was a great coffee and if you were tired it was a great pick you up. Well, I tried the small coffee and in moments my vision went funny like I was seeing things through a haze of rainbow colours, my heart began to race, my head went all light and floaty and I started to feel sick. It’s quite bizarre that there is a whole industry world wide selling this ‘drug’ with such strong side effects and that we ignore the effects in our body, or stop feeling it through the need of a false pick me up when exhausted. Perhaps it might be wise if we looked at the exhaustion in our lives?
A great blog Natalie. I was a coffee addict. I used to drink 6 cups a day and each cup had 2 teaspoons of heaped strong coffee in it, and like Kevin, I could have a cup just before going to bed and sleep. Giving it up was hard. We were going away on holiday and knowing that the place we were going to did not have great coffee, I made sure I brought my own supply to keep me going. Unfortunately for me I was staying with family and they liked my coffee as well. My supply ran out with still two weeks left of the holiday. I felt like a druggy going cold turkey. I got horrible headaches and was grumpy, snappy and miserable with everyone. The rest of my holiday was ruined and I wasted time going to every type of shop looking for a strong coffee fix, but with no luck. When I got back home and had my first coffee, the effect was so revealing. My heart started to pound and I became irritable and agitated and the effect lasted for hours. My body was telling me loudly and clearly that coffee was not good for me. It was then that I finally decided to stop drinking coffee.
Wow Debra what an amazing experience to feel the massive impact it had on your body. I’m sure like me you would never go back to feeling like that by choosing something that stimulates the body.
I used to love the flavour of sweet creamy coffee since I was a child. I loved coffee ice cream and coffee yoghurt. When I got older I actually ended up working in a Starbucks for a short period of time, where they would give all the employees a pound of coffee a week!
But even at that point I was already noticing what happened to my body when I drank it. The jitteriness, and agitation were one thing but what was much worse was the crash.
It got to the point that after having any kind of caffeine I would sink into a deep depression that would last for days and be accompanied by a temper that I’d either try to suppress or I would take out on people around me. So I knew that I just had to stop.
It was one of the first things that I listened to my body about and realised that it simply was no good for me. I am so glad I did!
Naren the depression you experienced is such a distructive place to be in and making that realisation that coffee was a key contributor to this was awesome. How fantastic that something that dominated your life has not since you made that choice.
Thank you Natalie. A great article, it shows how our bodies know and signal clearly when something is harmful for us and that there is then a choice to honour this feeling or to override it.
It is interesting the honouring – because like most I over road it for quiet some time so when I started to make those changes, of a different choice and honouring myself, I started to feel different about myself. Like I was actually worth making those loving choices for. Now I love it, nurturing how I feel and me.
Love the way you have exposed the insidious nature of how coffee can grow on us when diluted from its strongest form and how we delude ourselves when our bodies shout out loudly that something isn’t right for us. And often in the name of fitting in with the crowd and avoiding ridicule. There is nothing more ridiculous than not honouring the truth. ‘It’s doing crazy things to my body!’ I gave up coffee 25 years ago, because I realised it kept me wide awake all night. A moment on the lips, a night-time of insomnia. A no brainer. And ever since, I sleep like a baby. Always.
I love it Cathy – a moment on your lips, a night-time of insomnia… most definitely a no brainer and i’m sure your body loves you for this.
Natalie – I so relate to what you say about the addictive nature of coffee and how if we override the fact that it doesn’t taste nice, you learn to like it. I first dropped decaf some years back, and felt much better without it. I went back to it after quite a bit of time, and then found it very very hard to drop. A short while ago I was feeling much better in my body, and finally managed to drop it again. This time it was easy, as I knew I didn’t want it, and it started to taste simply horrible. This is where it gets crazy. After a while I started to eat some things that didn’t feel so good in my body, and then I had a coffee, and now it has started to taste good again, and I am back to having the odd cup. Crazy. So it is clear, the real taste of coffee is horrible, and if we honour our bodies in how we live, and what we eat, we get to taste that true taste. It only tastes good when we really need the coffee, and the comfort it brings and/or have dulled our ability to discern its real taste.
Crazy as you say Carherine. I really relate to the last part you said about the numbing and dulling of our awareness – when your in need of it to keep you going it becomes something that you love the taste of…interesting how we can twist it all around so we don’t have to look at the real cause of why we are exhausted in the first place.
Awesome Natalie, thank you. I never drank coffee, I really hated the taste, but recently when I started working at a coffee shop we had a taster session for the new drinks and I tried one of the the iced coffees, and on the first sip thought thats gross but like you said it grew on me and I found myself wanting more. Luckily, I also have no desire to drink coffee and have to be scrapped of the walls because of the effect it has on my body!
Rebecca I love it – I don’t wanna be scrapping myself of the walls either!
Ariana that is so true about sugar and the hooking affect it has on us. It can be spruced up with all these other amazing flavours but at the end of the day it is eating away at our bodies… For me I have never really been huge on sugar, it’s in a lot of foods you wouldn’t expect. My transition was onto quality honey in foods that I made and even now I find that makes my body go into raceyness and the nervous systems starts to go crazy. So the choice is steadily loving myself and not choosing to go into [by way of in take] stimulate my body to take me away from my Amazingness I feel when it’s me.
I never liked strong coffee – I worked for a company based in Yugolsavia (as it was then) and they had hideously strong black coffee first thing in the morning with some incredibly strong liqueur – I didn’t like the taste of that at all! In the UK I drank ordinary coffee because it was what everybody else did first thing in the morning and at tea break and after lunch but I avoided drinking it at night because it kept me awake. Feeling that caffeine was bad for my health generally, I went on to decaff, then barley cup and eventually herbal teas. I must admit the decaff didn’t taste very nice and the barley cup wasn’t so great either and in the end I had just herbal teas or hot water with a slice of lemon. I now enjoy buying lovely herbal teas to drink, but mostly just have hot or cold water. Reading the comments above, it’s amazing how our social requirements are given more importance and allow us to override our body’s very clear messages.
Thanks for sharing Carrmel and yes there are some amazing herbal teas available these days.
I have never really drank coffee as I always found it strong. The only time I remember having coffee was when my mum would make a latte so the coffee flavour is reduced. Very rare did I have coffee or decaf coffee, never really had the desire. I have also found the smell too strong too. I would rather prefer a light herbal tea, there are so many available now.
Great blog Natalie! My experience with coffee is that I hated it as a kid and didn’t really drink it in uni. I was brought up on tea. I first had coffee when I became a medical rep and all meetings were in Starbucks or hotels and everyone drank these amazing creamy fluffy concoctions of coffee. I was pretty high from being a professional all of a sudden and at the time was indulging in all sorts of other stimulants, so my heart going nuts was very much accepted and overlooked. I put on lots of weight during this time and sometimes had to take more than my one usual acid reflux tablet per day. When I was living in Thailand I was working such long hours doing a physical job and I absolutely could not get through the day without my 2 coffees… No way! When I was home from Thailand, I was working in the quietist cafe in North Wales, I was literally twiddling my thumbs all day and the day was long – I was missing my BF, wanted to be back in the tropics and was depressed – drinking coffee had almost no impact on me then. When I quit that job and was getting ready to go back, drinking coffee sent me absolutely sideways – like you say it’s like being on drugs, or worse!! So when I was down or tired, it was like a pick me up but when I was naturally high, it made me seriously frantic and helped me ruin the actual good times! Now I haven’t drank coffee for ages but did accidentally have a couple of sips of a normal tea latte (was supposed to be caffeine free soya latte!). It only took 2 sips of the foam before I realised and 5 minutes later I had a banging headache, my head was spinning, couldn’t concentrate… It was so horrid yet this is what I was made to drink as a young child…. And they wonder why kids are a “nightmare”…. In comes ADHD amongst many others! All thanks to caffeine.
Rachel great point about children and ADHD as it’s not just caffeine. Sugar has a huge role on this as well.
Natalie this is a great exposé of how we get hooked and override what actually happens to our bodies with these drugs alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, chocolate and sugar. I remember my last soya decaf as it had the same impact on my body as straight expresso – the heart beating and anxiousness for three hours after drinking it. I couldn’t believe I felt that way after decaf and didn’t have another one for a few weeks then tried again, same thing happened. What stunned me was that I had been drinking decaf for years with what I thought was no major affect on my body, it just goes to show you how much we override so much so that we are no longer aware of how much stress we are putting on our bodies, numbing. And when we are in this place we can defend our drug of choice till the cows come home because we honestly believe it is causing us no harm! It is extraordinary. I couldn’t be happier to be free of all of these drugs, it feels better than any hit!
So true how we defend the drug of choice till the cows come home – when your in it numb to what it is doing to you – you see no differently. Extraordinary as you put Vanessa.
Over the last few days, I have been drinking decaf coffees but feeling the same raciness you describe for hours afterwards, my mind has been blaming the barrister for making me caffeinated coffees but today I triple checked with the barrister and the same thing happened! It feels just like I have been drinking full strength coffee. Yuck, it’s time to go.
I have had the same experience – a racing heart and serious discomfort from decaf! I couldn’t believe it and tried again some time later. Same effect.
It’s amazing how such ‘legal’ drugs are acceptable when actually they do so much harm, I guess the reality is people don’t actually want to feel, as you saying the subtle numbing, the hook, taking the edge of things… as with alcohol, but then it all becomes acceptable because it is legal, we promote it, buy into it and all that too brings, but really when it comes to our body and our being, there is absolutely no difference, legal or not.
Wow Ariana you must have needed those two weeks to let it all clear out of your system and I can imagine it was pretty full on. Isn’t it great how we come to realise that our bodies deserve more love and care – that what we do put in them does actually affect our way of being.
Ariana, it just goes to show that coffee is an addictive drug with associated withdrawals. I continue to let my mind override what my body is saying and dull myself with decaffeinated coffee. Reading your comment has made me reconsider just how harming my so called ‘guilt free’ decaf coffees are.
Ariana, when I gave up caffeine I thought I should understand the symptoms and googled caffeine withdrawal, – I had all 10 symptoms and was also struck with flu like symptoms. It was like the worst hangover I have experienced. And it took months to titre myself away from the insidious stimulant.
It took a few goes to complete but finally got there. I still have the occasional decaf but certainly feel better without them. Thanks for sharing, all I know is life is clearer and more connected without coffee – but it still smells really yummy to smell fresh coffee in a cafe! Part of life’s rich olfactory tapestry.
Andrew it is such an intense process cutting out caffeine and the withdrawals are full on. So the easy way to get over this is to have another coffee as you know that this will instantly to relieve it. But as you say it is worth perserving and sticking with it, and I totally agree that without caffeine there is most definitely a stronger, stiller connection with self.
Wow Ariana, you must have had withdrawal symptoms from the coffee. It goes to show that coffee is a strong drug.
So true Gyl and these drugs, alcohol and coffee are some of the ones we have the most issues with. There consumption is endemic as are their effects. But because we need to use them because of how exhausted we are, it’s hard to see the harm that we are causing ourselves.
Absolutely Gyl, it has been said that sugar, caffeine and alcohol would not pass current standards for food and drink to be ingested if they were discovered and introduced now – but I have a feeling that they would still find their way onto the shelves whilst there is a market for the effects they deliver.
Well said Gyl, any addiction to anything whether it is legal or not is just plain horrid. Its like a nasty insatiable monster that can never ever be satisfied no matter how much you feed it and it will always keep you on the back foot thinking you need more and that you aren’t enough without it. As I said nasty…..
Great blog Natalie. Coffee is such a drug! Years ago I lived in America and one of the jobs I did was to pick up these sacks of coffee from an importer in New York and take them to a coffee house up State where the beans were roasted. This was the best coffee from all round the world and man did I get a taste for it. It got to the point I could drink strong coffee before bed and still sleep. In the morning, if for some reason I didn’t have a coffee first thing I would get a blinding headache (although this took me a while to connect the lack of caffeine to the headache).
Anyway ten years ago to present time. Stopped gluten and dairy first, then let the more illegal drugs go, then stopped the booze, then harder still gave up the ciggies, although had many times when I had the sneaky one. Finally the coffee, my beloved soy decafe late was the hardest of all. How could this be wrong? It’s only decafe it’s legal and a Costa or Starbucks everywhere I turn around. For me it was the absolute comfort of this beverage, the subtle numbing, the taking the edge off effect. Possibly in its subtleness the most insidious of all my vices as it carries the energy of these big companies, Starbucks and Costa the biggest pushers of them all. After a session with Micheal Benhayon and a little push from some other friends of whom at this point I shan’t name, I am finally drug free.
Thanks for sharing Kevin, now that you mention it Coffee was my last drug to stop as well… such an accepted drug that is totally hooking! As you say the subtleties are deeply ingrained that you have to shake off and let go of.
Hi Kevin I can relate to coffee being difficult to let go of, the whole ritual of going to the cafes, chatting with friends over a cup of coffee and the stop moment in my busy life, so it was not just the coffee but all the little things that seem to accompany the drinking of coffee that I felt I was giving up.
Beautifully expressed Kev. Love your honesty. Thank you
A great account of your amazing enfolding Kevin, giving up all these poisons one after the other. I love your honesty and the matter-of-fact way you write.
Natalie, great blog and thank you for sharing, I can relate to this very well.
Hi Natalie, awesome sharing here, I am so with you on this one. I have never been a huge coffee drinker, I think the first time I tried it was my late teens when I lived in Italy and got hooked on strong expressos – maybe I thought it was cool at the time, I do remember bringing back a traditional Italian oven top coffee maker, thick and strong. After that I kind of drank coffee on and off, though I do remember lately, adding soya, flavours and syrup just to add a bit of a sugar hit in there too – and lately as I write this, I don’t even feel it was about the coffee, it was just a social thing, something to do to fill up space. A lot of the time it was like an automatic ‘oh what will we do, let’s go for a coffee, and maybe a cake’, and the culture attached to that, without even really stopping and feeling do I even want one.
After feeling nauseous one day I decided to listen to my body and my purse strings and lay off the coffee. I remember so clearly one day meeting a friend and thinking okay I’ll have a coffee, I’ve not had one in ages, and that was my last ever fully caffeinated coffee! When I left the shop and went food shopping I felt completely away with it, as you said like being on drugs, awful, I felt so high, so jittery, so anxious, just completely away with it, it felt AWFUL. It was so strongly felt in my body, there was absolutely no way I was going to make myself feel that way again, from that day I never touched another caffeinated coffee again.
I dabbled in decaf on and off for a while, but as you say even the first sip tasted disgusting. I too overrode what I felt and got lured in by a few more sips, but every time I went back it still tasted awful – why do we override what we feel? Anyway I gave this up also, I simply said why am I drinking this, it tastes disgusting, it doesn’t make me feel good and my tummy doesn’t feel good, but the big thing that felt so clear to me is, yes this may be decaf, but actually it is no different to putting caffeine in my body – I still feel racy, anxious and my body clearly doesn’t like it, and I’ve never been tempted since…. nor will I ever go back!
Gyl isn’t it interesting how the decaf coffee after a while you get to feel the subtleties how it is actually really intense. I too can remember having a funny tummy after the decaf along with the jitters etc. I wasn’t as bad as with the caffeinated but after a while of that and starting to realise that actually the decaf did the same but my body was so far gone that it seemed like nothing or a lot less than the caffeinated at the time. Really interesting how we can be checked out to what is really going on with our bodies and you choose not to feel the impact of drugs.
I remember that my body told me loud and clear when I was pregnant. Within 24 hours I couldn’t stand the smell of coffee, the thought of drinking it repulsed me. I knew I was pregnant. I couldn’t stand it while breast feeding either. Did I listen? No, I returned to coffee drinking ‘to fit in’ once the excuse of being pregnant or breast feeding had passed. Very revealing and alarming how we allow ourselves to deny the truth of what our body is telling us just ‘to fit in’.
Alarming indeed Mary, the override to ‘Fit in’ to a way that is disregarding of the body and self but because that is now the ‘norm’ and everyone is doing it..
Could the override come from a need? When we are exhausted and tell ourselves we need to function we need to take caffeine. If it comes with comforting dairy, all the better. It feels like choosing the lesser evil – hurting our body rather than feeling exhausted which would be unbearable when there is work to do.
Repulsion is great word for it – this brings back my memories of smoking for the first time, that was repulsive. But pushed on through for all the reasons that aren’t true or loving and smoked for a good 15yrs.. crazy when I look back at it and at the time having no idea, so it seems but we really do know.
Thanks Alison and knowing and feeling what I do know now – there is no going back!
I remember as a child I could never understand why people drank coffee, it smelt bitter and tasted bitter. I love your experiment and how you got to feel how coffee is really no different to alcohol in how it affects our body.
Your last sentence is so true…. “I’m at a point in my life where what I have chosen is SERIOUSLY AWESOME and I feel SERIOUSLY AMAZING for it. I feel so clear, on to it, light and consistent. I have so much respect for my body and myself that I am not prepared to compromise any more.”
Natalie, thank you for sharing this and I absolutely get everything you are saying about coffee. From my own experience the last time I had a caffeinated coffee was 7 years ago when I had a cup at 9.30am and was on a high until around 4pm that afternoon. Before this I had been drinking decaf occasionally so the impact was big but great learning because I got to feel exactly what it did in my body. Also having worked for a well known coffee chain I would often witness how other people change once they start drinking coffee. It affects them in a similar way to alcohol, especially women. Quite often as they moved onto their second or third cup they would get louder and it appeared they lost any sense of themselves or those around them. The fact many other ingredients are added to a coffee i.e. lots of milk, sugar, flavoured syrups, cream and chocolate or sprinkles, to make it palatable, could be a sign that this is not the best choice for us even if we ignore or deny the effects it has on our bodies.
Julia that is so true about all the extras that are added to disguise the flavour and how it affects people. It’s become the norm to keep having them on a daily basis and usually more than one a day.
The problem is that it smells so good, if we are not present or just after a quick fix, it is easy to get fooled!
I found for myself I still love the smell of freshly roasted coffee but have no desire whatsoever to drink it. That is completely gone from my body.
It was my experience Julie, that after a cup of coffee (AND it was decaffeinated, something I never do, it had the same affect on me as alcohol. For sure, I’m not doing that again, lesson learned.
Yes isn’t interesting that when we start to become aware of what it is that is happening to our bodies when we have something we can see the resemblance in the effects of if taking you aware from your body and your connection to inner being.
Hi Natalie, I love your blog; how awesome you are your own scientist, finding out what is harming your body and listening to that. The honesty here is so refreshing – better than any cup of coffee. 🙂 And the evidence is crystal clear – no double blind folded experiments needed here. 🙂 And as you said, if you had taken more coffee, it would have appeared as if the body would have stopped giving you the message through instant pain and discomfort. But the body doesn’t actually stop telling us, but with continuing to drink the coffee, we arrogantly choose to disconnect from our bodies to such an extend that we cannot ‘hear’ or feel anymore what it’s saying at that time. But the pain often comes back down the track a bit further with a diagnosis of some sort as the body again and again has to deal with toxins it isn’t made to deal with.
This reminds me of a time in my younger years when I used to observe men in my life drink beer – it always struck me that the first sip out of the beer bottle they had to literally force down their throat accompanied with lots of grunt like noises (the ones they do it in beer ads, loud ‘satisfied’ AAHHH’s, followed by wiping the mouth with the back of their hand in a large gesture!). It was the same for me when I tried to drink beer, it felt like I had to literally bite the first sip of beer off and could not swallow it straight away. But I would keep going anyway, my head overriding what my body was clearly telling me – that it doesn’t want to let this stuff in. I wanted to ‘fit in’ and ‘join in’ to be accepted, at the expense of my body. The body is always communicating with us if we want to listen, and when I woke up the next day I felt hazy and dull and heavy – as my body, especially my liver, was still trying to deal with and process the poison I chose to ingest the day before – ignoring the veto my body clearly had given to me.
It’s very exposing of our intelligence when we choose to put things into our bodies we totally know are harmful to ‘it’, as if ‘it’ was something separate from ‘us’. And yet at the same time we would not dream of putting the wrong petrol into our cars, for fear of damaging the motor which we know could end up being very expensive. When are we going to treat our bodies with ‘at least’ this same respect with the food/drink we put into it?
Great point Esther about how we would never dream of putting in the wrong petrol to avoid damaging the car and extra expenses, but we tend to ignore the fact that we only have one body and sometimes money can’t buy a cure. For me I decided ok, if I only have the one body then it’s up to me to look after it and love it.
Natalie. Your Analogy and using the wrong fuel in one’s car, also putting the wrong fuel in our bodies, is so true. Both need great care, and looking after.
How true Esther,and it’s ongoing. I am having Chai tea at the moment but some cafes don’t have decaf chai’s and at this stage it’s so hard to not accept. I have connected the experience of having it with the enjoyable cafe ambiance, the great amount of extra admin homework I get done there, the whole experience of being in a cafe enjoying a tea. Ive tried to justify it with all these excuses…but the truth is that I am kidding myself, and more than that, I am over-riding the truth my body is telling me, and denying myself the true experience of the real me…Who would I be if I listened and responded to my true feelings? What amazingness would I experience feeling the real me. I feel I’m too afraid to experience the true, and powerful, glorious me in case I don’t fit in anymore! And in case I end up with MORE responsibility! Ridiculous unnecessary, debilitating struggle.
Wow, Natalie I thought reading this article would be a breeze! Now there is much to ponder and take steps to change. Hmmm I do enjoy a peppermint tea…maybe this can be my first step towards ME. Thank you so much Natalie and Esther for the inspiration and realisation.
It is quite amazing – when we are not poisoned our body identifies coffee as a poison. When we are poisoned already, then coffee is the salvation. The poison that makes being poisoned more bearable.
What a special substance!
Hi Natalie, what a beautiful blog. What really touched me in this blog is that as you said we often override our first feeling of not liking something, like you with the espresso, and then starting to enjoy it after a few sips… which is strange. As you said this often also happens with alcohol and smoking. I never liked the taste of the three of them but in my teenage years I slowly started to try them out and started to ‘like’ it. What I also remember of that period is the pressure of the group/society and wanting to belong was a big reason I kept trying drinking and inhaling something that in the first instance I did not like at all. A feeling of everyone drinks this made me feel (falsely) satisfied.
Luckily my parents inspired me to live a more self-loving life which made me able to feel that I was beautiful just being me and did not need to drink alcohol, coffee or smoke cigarettes to belong somewhere.
Thank you for sharing because this thing around coffee is great to talk about and bring more awareness to!
Lieke, awesome point about the pressure around with social acceptance. It is so full on. I remember when I stopped drinking coffee and alcohol that people were always trying to get me to drink it with them, to make them feel better about the fact they are doing it. This was more with alcohol but very much the focus with friends and family.
Great blog on the effects of coffee – isn’t it amazing how much we can choose to override how our bodies feel?! I know I’ve used it in the past to ‘get through the day’ and in doing that, not look at why I’m so tired in the first place. Thanks for sharing – it’s inspiring to read how much you respect your body, and how that supports you back.
I totally agree Melissa, needing to look at why we are exhausted in the first place is a great place to start.
I can really relate to what you have shared Natalie. I gave up coffee a couple of years ago and have felt much better for it, however now & then I’d have a cup of decaf till I decided to stop at the end of last year. About 2 months ago I caught up with my brother at a cafe and overrode my decision and ordered a small decaf with soy. Big mistake… like your reactions with coffee, I had the same with decaf – shaky, dizziness and feeling vacant (maybe that’s normal). It lasted a couple of hours so I had a green apple and the effects subsided. It was similar to the effects of a sugar hit although it lasted longer. And it was decaf! Two lessons for me – no more decaf and don’t override my feelings or otherwise I’ll cop it fast!
That’s it Rod, we have to keep an eye on that override – it’s a moment of choice.
Hi Rod, I love how you caught when you over-rid what you felt and thanks for sharing the strong effects it had on you! It just reminds me to keep listening to what I feel, whether it’s a shout or a whisper.
You are discovering how delicate and sensitive you are Rod, and always were. 🙂
Great sharing Rod, I have had similar experiences in the past, where before I could have a decaf without noticing the effects it would now have an extreme reaction in my body as it did the last time I overrode my senses and had one. There is such an allure to coffee with the smell and the marketing, yet quite simply if we look rationally at the facts, coffee is not at all good for our bodies, lacking as it does any nutritional value and with a vast range of side effects, some of which are quite extreme.
Hi Rod, I had exactly the same experience too, with a decaf soya latte. Never again will I be caught out by that. For me, it’s honouring how I feel and not get caught up with what others’ are doing, and if it’s OK for them, it’s OK for me, as I have found this is certainly not the case, and disregarding of myself.
Thanks Rod, it is amazing how subtle the ‘hook’ of caffeine can be, from coffee, tea, green tea, even de-caf is not caffeine free just low caffeine…the hooks are still there. I completely relate to the bargaining that goes on to justify why it’s only a little bit.
It’s not until you go caffeine free and try to go back that you notice just how damaging it can be.
That seems to be the key, we will tolerate, if not easily accept some small negative impact for years and find numerous ways to mask that impact. It is truly a deep form of denial.
Yes Joel a very deep and insidious form of denial. When this is questioned we tend to run even further away and pretend we can’t hear what is being asked. Like a little kid with there fingers are in their ears and start singing. They know what is being asked but the consciously choose to avoid it. It’s like that with our own bodies.
Thanks for sharing your blog. I too haven’t had coffee in about 4 years and was recently in hospital and quite constipated from the medication I was on, so I decided to have a coffee, as in the past it had always had a laxative effect on my body. So I decided I wouldn’t just have a weak coffee from the hospital, but to wait for a visitor and ask them to get me a latte with soya milk. If I was going to have one, I might as well have a good tasting one. It did taste good, I so enjoyed every sip and the smell. I had forgotten how much I used to be into it, and I had forgotten its effects on my body. I had the coffee in the morning, and I was still awake at 3am the next morning. My body was racing and my mind was on overdrive. It was not worth it. I just don’t know how I survived drinking it in the past.
Rosie I love how you shared that if you were going to have a coffee then it had to be a good one – all the reasonings of why it is a great idea. Isn’t it crazy how easily we are seduced and we can justify why it is needed or ok to go there! It is incredible after not having something for so long that your body loudly and clearly shares the effects it has on it. What would we do without that honest reflection… one that you have listened and been open to.
I know! that whole “good” coffee thing. I recall having very specific cafés that friends and I would go to, to get the “right” coffee. There was a whole language and ritual to it. Finally my body mounted an intervention and said stop by giving me such severe palpitations that I could barely function.
Good bye special cafés, the fancy language, the rituals and the barrista preferences. My body had the final word and I have listened to it ever since. Thank you body!
It’s true. I imagine it’s much like finding the right drug dealer for your ‘fix’!
When I lived in Italy – I literally lived on coffee. Black shots at every opportunity, and yes, from the ‘right’ place.
It’s no wonder really that I was able to disregard my body so much during this time, replacing food with coffee, I was so ‘high’ I could not even feel what my body was telling me because it was racing so fast on the inside.
It should be illegal to live on the amount of coffee I did – let alone attempt to drive or ride a push bike- but that’s another story!
Beautifully expressed Rachel. In the past I liked the coffee and going into a cafe as well, but as you say, nothing is more important than about being ME. And if the body doesn’t like it, then there is nothing to decide, the body knows what is good and what is not good.
Yep, I know this well Rachel. Here in Melbourne we are known for our coffee and cafe’s and I was sold to it all, the culture is very thick. It did take me a while to break the habit, the morning or anytime of day ritual of going for ‘coffee’. Interesting what we override to keep up a habit!
Like you Rosie, I don’t know how I could have drunk coffee before. I only ever used to have one cup of coffee in the morning because if I drank it later in the day I could not sleep. For some reason I stopped for a week and when I started drinking coffee again I could not believe the effect that it had on my body – my heart started beating faster, my hands were shaking and my nervous system became wired. I couldn’t understand how I had not noticed these effects before – it was obvious that it was not good for my body so I gave up drinking it.
Fantastic blog Natalie. Recently a Doctor recommended I have a coffee every day to improve my blood pressure. I was shocked by this statement, but what is more amazing is that coffee and caffeine are so accepted in society that the addictiveness and impact on the body goes un-noticed. Thank you for this real life sharing!
Yes it is amazing as you say Heather, the ‘addictiveness’ that goes un-noticed… When I was in the heart of my drinking coffee years, consuming between 4-5 cups a day I too was totally un-aware of it. It’s interesting when people are ordering coffee for their morning pick me up they can sense or admit that they need it to get them going but won’t look at why they are exhausted. That’s the hooking of it!
That’s what I notice at work people are generally coming in for 2 or even 3 cups a day to keep them going. On occasion they ask for an extra shot which is on top of the double shot in one coffee because they need even more of a boost.
Back in 1985 in France I was 15 years old and we use to gather in bars and pubs on Sunday afternoon to catch up with friends. We were going for the cheapest item on the menu which was coffee and strangely enough it use to sit well with a cigarette (well not just one but possibly 10). We were sipping one espresso after another all day long and the impact it had on our body was huge. Sleepless nights and completely stressed and anxious all day long day after day…
It is incredible how the need for more coffee takes us up this sliding scale, and we don’t really notice that we are drinking the extra cup, the extra shot, the extra sugar….
For me it was the larger and larger sized cappuccinos, followed by a dull ache in my belly, all morning until the next caul at lunchtime. Years later I discovered I was lactose intolerant…well the belly ache mades sense after learning about that.
I never put two and two together regarding coffee and my anxiousness until my heart did it for me. One coffee started to produce intense palpitations that were distressing enough that I switched to decaf. Then decaf from the cafe started to do the same, so I made my own decaf. That was OK for a while, then it did the same. So I gave up altogether. That was close to 5 years ago. The smell used to tempt me…it was so hard to be around any cafe without yearning for just one, but now I can smell it and nothing is triggered in me…no craving at all in the woman who was once so addicted that my morning coffee was my only reason for getting out of bed.
Yes I remember the days when I couldn’t do a thing until I’d had my morning tea. It was my ‘on’ switch that got me going in the morning – the caffeine, the teaspoon of sugar and the warming milk.
And then meeting friends for coffee and after 1 cup feeling an energy high and then shortly after feeling really tired, so having another cup to keep me going.
Excluding gluten and dairy from my diet was a breeze, but caffeine … Now that was another matter. Even though I only had 3 to 4 caffeine drinks a day I was well and truly addicted.
Cutting back didn’t work so in the end I just had to go cold turkey and experience the nausea and migrain headache for 5 days. But well worth it now not having the highs and lows of caffeine in my system.
Great sharing Alison and really exposes caffeine for the drug that it is. It’s so intriguing how we humans could possibly be attracted to the high and lows of the caffeine-fix cycle over the constancy that a body free of stimulants offers.
I remember you Stevie saying to me years ago – what goes up, must come down – and that really stuck in my head and in one of my stints of giving up caffeine before I chose to to no longer have it, I remember hearing that and going yes, why would I just spike my body for it to come back to this spot again. It does not really make sense.
Alison it’s interesting to read of your experience of caffeine as an ‘on switch.’ I often hear people saying they cannot start their day before they’ve had their coffee. Hello warning sign… We wouldn’t dream of giving a coffee to a baby or a child yet they wake up full of beans everyday, no ‘on switch’ needed there. Exposing just how far away from our naturalness society has gone.
Alison I agree it is so worth the headaches, nausea and feeling extremely tired for those days when you stop. It’s a bit like coming of some hard drugs that you have been taking for a while or years and you get the withdrawl. No difference really an addiction that has a hold over you and you don’t feel you can function with out it.
Interestingly I know people who continue to drink coffee to avoid the withdrawal headache. Hence coffee addiction can become a vicious cycle.
Yes Alison the migraines and headache for the period after stopping caffeine seem minor when you get past them all and start to feel more clarity and less race in the body. It also gives you a chance to stop and feel the exhaustion that you have been living that got you to the point of needing coffee. As well as the the coffee adding to the exhaustion with the ups and downs and your body working over time. So YES absolutely worth every second of it and with out them you wouldn’t think it was that bad for you, it simply confirms how far away to our natural rhythm coffee really is or else the body wouldn’t react in such a way?
I can relate to this also Alison, I was able to let go of gluten and dairy relatively easily, but my morning english breakfast tea, no way, even when I was getting the shakes after having drunk the tea. I had become so sensitive to the caffeine, I even went to missing a day in between so my body had time to recuperate. But the impact on my body ended up being so overt that I did relent in the end. Looking back on the experience now, I am gobsmacked at how indignant I was, how much I wouldn’t listen to my body, crazy!!
Life feels so much more enjoyable without the highs and lows doesn’t it Alison. It is hard to think back what it was like when we used to be fuelled with caffeine. Still to this day I am super appreciative of myself that I know I am worth living a quality of life that is balanced and harmonious than be driven by an addiction that takes over my whole body.
Yes, it is amazing what amount of poison the human body can sustain and even give the illusion that it is not even poison.
Thank you for a beautiful description of what coffee does. It saved me from trying!
I like your sense of humour Christoph. I see the coffee addiction on a daily basis. Outside my workplace, 3 young charming boys have opened a little coffee cart. It is a buzz of activity where students congregate to get their fix, perhaps grab a muffin, catch up with friends, a break from studying. It is now an integral part of college life to walk around with a cup of coffee.
That is so true Christoph ” it is amazing what amount of poison the human body can sustain and even give the illusion that it is not even poison.”
Absolutely true Natalie. I have worked with people who do this very thing, relying on their morning coffee to pick them up when in reality they are exhausted and driving their bodies too hard. Is it not a case of ignoring the signs as it is easier to have a quick fix than to look honestly at your life and take responsibility.
I so remember going for the quick fix but what I still remember clearly is with any of the drugs or poison that I was addicted to, no matter what quantity the thought of stopping seemed like a struggle and long drawn out process. The little ‘monster’ inside craving its fix, once I started to see it for what it truly was the actual action in not choosing it again was a lot easier. Also the dedicated self-loving choices I was making supported this significantly.
I have always had a limit of 2 or 3 cups a day which irked me as I loved the taste of coffee but what I really needed was the caffeine and the comfort from the milk. I could have had decaf or drank it black but I didn’t. It is funny how the obvious (I need caffeine and comfort) could stay ignored for decades and I only dropped it when I had something better than caffeine and comfort which I learned from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
I totally agree with what you say here Natalie about coffee drinkers… “they can sense or admit that they need it to get them going but won’t look at why they are exhausted”. ‘I love my coffee’ is a phrase I often hear but in truth they’re severely depleted and need it to get them going. Could it be that society has deemed it unacceptable to admit we’re tired because if we do we also have to get really honest about what led us there in the first place, exposing a way of living that doesn’t ultimately work for our bodies? Coffee therefore becomes the solution and the exhaustion continues.
When you are in it you don’t think you are addicted. You just think you like coffee, the flavour, the warming effect or in my case it was a nice, warm, milky drink before bedtime! It is only when I cut down and then cut out coffee that I realised what it was doing to me. Now the thought of having that raciness in my body feels horrible.
Fiona that is exactly what it is like, you have no idea when you’re going for it and having coffee and you block out that the first time you tried it tasted really full on and how it made you feel weird. So when you do actually cut down and the stop you actually realise the impact that it has on your body and how you feel.
Jane that is a really good point the ‘blindness’ you talk about. Its like we chose to turn a blind eye to it because it all tastes amazing but we really know it’s not doing our bodies any favours.
How true Natalie and Jane, how often do we turn this blind eye to many others things we know are doing our bodies no good.
I agree. When I finally stopped my morning ritual of a strong black coffee to get me going I felt absolutely awful and had a shocking headache for about 4 or 5 days. That in itself tells us something is not right. And I feel we turn a blind eye because, like alcohol it is socially acceptable to go for a coffee, a way of ‘connecting’ with people. But don’t we have to ask what type of connection can it truly be if we are putting our bodies into an altered state?
And yet Michelle, it is often the withdrawal symptoms from going without coffee and the tiredness that is initially felt that makes it so hard for many people to stop drinking coffee.
I would guess that most of those scientists doing research on ‘the benefits of coffee’ are addicted to the stuff themselves and quite unconsciously are creating research results that justify their habits.
Paul it does seem rather interesting when you read the distorted so called scientific facts that coffee is a health benefit when all you need to do is honestly feel your body after having a cup and what it it does to you and there is your scientific proof. It would seem indeed that they are trying to justify their habit with these ridiculous claims that are so one sided.
I don’t even remember feeling exhausted when I was a coffee drinker or feeling picked up by drinking it. I think the ‘coffee blindness’ extends to ‘exhaustion blindness’ too. We have normalised racing around and doing too much in nervous energy. In doing so we have lost the marker of how it feels to be still and vital inside.
I agree, it does go unnoticed as to how harsh coffee actually is in the body. When I first gave it up 8 years ago, I had one as a ‘treat’ on mothers day a month later- I couldn’t even finish it, I felt dreadful and racy and ill- I have never been near one since, and don’t miss it, yet I am surrounded by people who drink it daily as a much needed thing, like I used to, its not questioned, just sought after.
Oh my goodness Heather! That is some medicine you have been prescribed. And what are you meant to do about the sleeplessness?
A glass of wine?
You are so right that caffeine is utterly normalised. This week I saw a little girl of 9 who loves coffee and drinks it with mum and dad. That is starting pretty darned young.
It really has become the ‘normal’ thing to do and to start at 9 years of age is starting to become a common thing. At work I have a family that comes in and there eldest 9 or 10yr old is drinking decafe coffee and I can just relate to it when I started to drink coffee, smoke cigarettes and have alcohol I felt like the coolest grown up ever. Insane really that this is what children associate with being a grown up is.
It is actually really shocking what we think our body likes or enjoys, when in fact it is just our mind that has chosen to override what the body is feeling ~ for some bizarre reason.
I can so relate to everything that Natalie has shared here and have experienced the ‘slippery slope’ when having coffee once or twice when I felt I ‘needed’ it to get through. I can unequivocally say now that my body NEVER needs coffee, and never enjoys any of its ingestion, therefore it is never included in my intake. Pure, and simple!
What! Coffee recommended by a doctor…that’s just ridiculous. It’s so interesting the things that we justify as being medicinal and ‘needed’ yet the effect on the body is disastrous. Somehow, studies come out telling us all the benefits of such things as coffee and chocolate, yet the body knows truth and when someone ingests either of these substances the truth is the body reacts and is altered which is far from supportive and therefore in no way a true form of medicine.