Coffee drinkers… not like smokers. No, not at all that bad, but if you are still doing these three things while drinking your coffee, you are hurting yourself and don’t have to! There have been studies lately that have suggested that drinking coffee can be healthy. I agree, I think there is some value, so it is important to understand the things that you need to do, in order to maintain that healthy benefit!
STEP 1 – STOP using fake creamers, and move to the healthier options. In the order suggested below, but first, why should you stop the fake stuff? Read the label, and don’t ask again. 🙂
Sugar – understandable, did you ever taste this stuff? Partially Hydrogenated Soybean or cottonseed oil – GMO sourced trans fat – totally unacceptable. Trans fat kills you, period (review trans fat published research). GMO? Yes, soybeans and cottonseed are the two most commonly used GMO sourced oils in our diets. And I can guarantee you, that these guys aren’t concerned with not using GMO.
STEP 2 – Begin using one of these options, based on taste and/or health.
- Kerrygold butter and coconut oil – use a combination of grass fed butter (ha, ha… no you don’t actually feed grass to the butter, just the cows), with coconut oil. This method has been popularized by Dave Asprey on his Bulletproof website. This site was once just a guys simple blog, that has now turned into a product selling mega-store. Success deserved because of his focus on quality and sound leadership. The method he describes involves frothing the butter and oil in order to get the right consistency. His method online involves actually blending the coffee.
- Full Fat heavy cream that is organic. The reason why we move into the full fat world, is that the fat is not only healthy, but by going full fat we are avoiding all sugar, and letting the value of the coffee be the value of the coffee. Which is a question addressed below.
- Lastly, half and half… once again organic. You need to get away from the toxins that are present in the milk of a conventionally raised cow. rBST is the growth hormone implicated in negatively altering the growth patterns in children. Antibiotics, known to increase risks of cancer as well as altering the bacteria in the gut, creating the “superbug” concern. The half and half moves us a little into the world of sugar (lactose) thus not as good as the whole fat, no sugar heavy cream.
Make that simple change, and you will reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease (trans fat research) and most definitely diabetes. I see these creams in the fridge at my church in the volunteer rooms, and all I think is “how can people be doing this to themselves”? I realize that if these people understood the damage that this artificial food was doing to them, and if they could stop and think “Honor God with your body”, this is not the way God would have you treat the body that he has loaned you. You are destroying His property.
So on that, what about coffee? Well, there have been recent published articles that have suggested that a cup of coffee a day can reduce your risk of heart disease, some cancers, and more specifically diseases of the liver. But what constitutes a cup a day? For most literature, 12 oz of coffee is considered, but what we don’t see is the potential impact of decaf over caffeine.
I am a fan of never being addicted to caffeine, though I understand that in moments of life it can happen, and likely to know seriously ill effect. But, I would go further to say that consuming typical, everyday, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, Waffle House, or anything in between decaf is going to lead you down a path of further damage. This is because the process of decaffeinating is a toxic process that will hurt you more than the caffeine in most cases.
STEP 3 – cut the toxins! The best way to do this is to make the primary source of your coffee, a clean source. Organic is the next step. Buy Decaf as organic water processed decaf, or when consuming caffeine, be sure it is organic as often as possible. Coffee, much like strawberries, or celery, is one of the foods that gets hammered by pesticides, both absorbing runoff into the plant material, as well as getting it heavily soaked into the bean. These need to be purchased organic whenever possible.
If you are like me, and you really enjoy the flavor of a Starbucks coffee, then the best thing to do is to not drink their decaf, and don’t make it the place you get coffee from daily. Until they offer a truly organic cup, you need to limit it. I like to say out loud to myself, somewhere in the Starbucks buying process… “I am testing my liver”, which then reminds me to be cleaner in and around that purchase. Limiting my options to eat something else throughout that day. I figure one vice is acceptable to this body.
So, look for either the Swiss water process, or water process, or carbon dioxide process for decaf. These will steer you away from the toxins of the typical decaf process in our culture. Is it good? Yeah, decaf is good… the flavor should be no different in a well processed coffee. So mix it up, caffeine a couple days, decaf a couple days.
Thanks for caring about your health, now pass it on!
Be well and Be blessed! – Dr. E