Coffee....Is it really that bad?

topic posted Sat, July 29, 2006 - 6:53 AM by  offlineJohnDillinge...
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I recently went through a 28 day metabolic detoxification program, and I experienced significant changes of dietary habit in the process. Shortly after the detox ended I ingested some coffee to experiment with the percieved physiological effects. I honestly didn't like it at all. I was trembling, scatter brained, palpitating, etc. However I fed the old addiction I guess, and a week and half later I am back drinking 2 plus cups a day. I work in a fast paced environment ( a kitchen) and although I went a whole month without any caffeine, I again see it as a quick fix. I think that the habitual consumption of anything os bad, but I was curious to other's opinions about the physiological effects of coffee. I have read some many conflicting studies I don't quite know where it stands. Any thoughts?
posted by:
JohnDillingerDiedForYou
New York
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  • Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

    Sat, July 29, 2006 - 6:14 PM
    According to Honore de Balzac:

    Finally, I have discovered a horrible, rather brutal method that I recommend only to men of excessive vigor, men with thick black hair and skin covered with liver spots, men with big square hands and legs shaped like bowling pins. It is a question of using finely pulverized, dense coffee, cold and anhydrous, consumed on an empty stomach. This coffee falls into your stomach, a sack whose velvety interior is lined with tapestries of suckers and papillae. The coffee finds nothing else in the sack, and so it attacks these delicate and voluptuous linings; it acts like a food and demands digestive juices; it wrings and twists the stomach for these juices, appealing as a pythoness appeals to her god; it brutalizes these beautiful stomach linings as a wagon master abuses ponies; the plexus becomes inflamed; sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination's orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink - for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.

    (from "The Pleasures and Pains of Coffee")
    • Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

      Sat, July 29, 2006 - 7:59 PM
      wow!
      • Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

        Fri, October 6, 2006 - 10:28 PM
        Hi, I'm Gary from Wellington in New Zealand.
        I wrote a couple of articles some time ago about about the downside of teasd, coffee etc. Have a read and let me have your comments. Better still, have a go at the detoxification process and see how you fare.

        Here are the links to the articles:
        www.survivalsuit.co.nz/Newsle...ee.html
        www.survivalsuit.co.nz/Newsle...t2.html

        I have written a number of follwup articles on this and related matters here:
        www.healthandlifestyle.co.nz/

        Gary
        • xav
          xav
          offline 4

          Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

          Sat, October 7, 2006 - 3:55 PM
          Like most things, I think it vaires from person to person, how they react to what they ingest. I've read alot about this subject, and there were recent studies, summarized in the LA Times a few weeks ago, that point to benefits from both coffee and green tea ( 4-5 cups/day). One interesting result, and one that I've heard before, is the positive effects of caffeinated coffee, on memory, especially as you age. Personally I enjoy the effects of 4 bags of green tea consumed over a 3 hour period versus a venti americano from Starbucks (my old preference). I'm a more relaxed "alert" person, as opposed to a jittery, scattered, hyper person. That's my "three-cents". ;-)

          -Xavier
          • Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

            Sun, October 8, 2006 - 6:05 AM
            Thanks guys! Very interesting site Gary, your doing some great work!
            • Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

              Tue, October 10, 2006 - 7:02 PM
              Gidday Xavier,
              If you take even a relatively small dose of caffeine at about the same time every day, then your biorythms get set into the expectation of it coming; hence part of the process of addiction. I doubt if there is much difference, if any at all between memory perfrmance between a group of caffeine consumers and people lke my 75yr old Mum who have never touched the stuff. Most of the research about this matter is taineted by commercial interests, who have their particluar cup of tea to push.

              If you want to improve memory, or prevent it going, then eating colourful fruit or berries daily is a better measure. The good old apple is a good start. Try some NZ Kiwi fruit. I usually eat several a day ($1-2/kg over here).

              Btw, I usually have a couple of cups of tea daily, but I am wary of getting hooked on the stuff!
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    Re: Coffee....Is it really that bad?

    Sun, January 20, 2008 - 2:43 PM
    Coffee is good. It has helped me start my day for a very long time. Just go easy on the cream and sugar, except on special days. Also I imagine that if you have a heart situation it might not be a good idea.

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