“See you for a coffee?” or “Coffee break?” or even “And now, finally, a good coffee”. How many times do you say, or hear, these phrases during the day? The drink as black as the night with its unmistakable aroma knows no crisis, but like its popularity another phrase is gaining ground: “Coffee is bad“.
True or false? Stay with us and you will learn what the effects of coffee are on your body and how you can best use this ancient drink (did you know that it is second only to water?).
Effects of coffee: what happens when the cup meets your lips
Determined and frank like coffee, we too will go to the point and explain, in a very short time, the effects of coffee.
Said in these terms, caffeine is just a tough girl who immediately inspires sympathy. And we bet his sympathy increases if we tell you that it is also contained in tea and chocolate, right?
The point is that precisely because of its popularity among foods and the ease with which we take coffee every day that it has created a real caffeine intoxication.
Effects of coffee: let’s dive into the cup!
Did you get the ticket? How why? We are about to go on a tour inside your body and we will see together the effects of coffee in the various organs:
- Stomach and Intestine: our combustion engines, our imaginary tour could only start from them! While coffee, taken at specific times, can help digestion as it stimulates salivation and the production of gastric juices, on the other hand (especially if taken every day, several times a day) it seriously damages the walls of the stomach! The biggest damage we have when we drink coffee on an empty stomach, for example in the morning as soon as we get up.In addition, the daily consumption of coffee can lead over time to develop real stomach problems such as acidity, gastritis, reflux and, going a little further, we enter the intestine where caffeine can lead to colitis, alternate alvus and malabsorption. It goes without saying that if you suffer from these disorders, the first advice is to stop drinking coffee.
- Heart and Circulation: we remain in the central part of our body and move towards the one who, in Chinese medicine, is defined as the Emperor: the heart. Coffee, due to its stimulating properties, can lead to the development of hypertension, palpitations and tachycardia over time. Here, too, the discourse is also valid in reverse; if you already suffer from these disorders we recommend that you remove the cup from your lips as soon as possible.
- Osteo-articular system: this is perhaps an aspect that you had never considered. Those annoying headaches, the neck that blocks you or the pains in the shoulders that just don’t want to abandon you could be due to coffee. The adrenaline produced by coffee stimulates the sympathetic nervous system (we raise our hands on this scientific name!) To remain active at all times. This takes the form of always tense muscle bands which, in turn, put tension on the tendons.
- Nervous system: Let’s move to the upper floors and see what coffee does on the central nervous system. Coffee, especially taken in the second part of the day, can have negative effects on the quality of sleep, causing sleepless nights and Morpheus further and further away. It also has a negative impact on the trigeminal nerve, a cranial nerve, connected with the eyes, teeth and jaw, at the level of which it can generate pain and spasms.
- Hormonal system: Let’s go back down (what a roller coaster!) Because you need to know that the effects of coffee can also upset the hormonal system. The responsible, as you have already understood, is always her, the caffeine, which acts as a dilator of the vessels. This can lead to being more nervous and for menopausal women to have more frequent and intense hot flashes!
Our imaginary tour has arrived at its destination, and if you are a coffee lover, your mood may not be the best. But rest assured because we have prepared a respectable refreshment area, where we will give you other explanations and … a very tasty alternative!
Effects of coffee: “Yet I feel so energetic”
It will have happened to you several times, when the energies are on the ground and the eyelids become heavy, to have a coffee and return to the lion of all time (or so it seems to you). In reality this new energy is, unfortunately, just a super hero parenthesis of the same consistency as a soap bubble.
In reality when you are tired your energies are almost at zero, like a car in reserve. Now, keep thinking about a car with the gasoline needle on the red: what would happen if you hit the accelerator to the maximum? That’s right, you would also burn the last reserves. If, on the other hand, you go slowly towards the nearest petrol station you can fill up and transform yourself from a slowed down car to a speeding Ferrari.
When you are tired and have coffee it is as if you press the gas pedal when your body asks you only for time to recover energy. The adrenaline produced by caffeine induces an acceleration of the metabolism so that you consume more and more quickly even the last reserves.
Furthermore, not only are you asking too much of your body in terms of energy but your organs will also tire more because they don’t have energy available to do their homework. And here the headaches, migraines, acidity begin …
To make coffee your secret weapon …
After reading the effects of coffee and understanding the false myth of “when you are down, a cup pulls you up”, we want to reveal three precautions, to be able to drink coffee and turn it into your secret weapon.
- Coffee should be taken when you are still halfway through the energy reservoir
- It has to be targeted: take it on those days you know are going to be tough
- Maximum two cups a day for 5 days and then stop for another 5!
And now the trick of the tricks …
You can avoid the effects of coffee with… Peppina coffee!
The name is enough to start in your mind the song of the Zecchino d’Oro that made Peppina famous to all of us. But do you know what the Peppina coffee contains and why you don’t drink it in the morning?
During the First World War the habit of drinking coffee in the morning spread among the soldiers; this would give them the chance (or the illusion) to be as alert and snappy as a cheetah. And it will be them, the soldiers, once they return home to spread this habit.
But coffee was stuff for the rich and so in the following years another drink spread among the common people that only looked like coffee but inside contained much more than roasted and ground beans: dried chicory and rye. When it is said that necessity sharpens ingenuity!
This mix in addition to the particularly bitter taste, had the ability to be a very strong purifier, if taken in abundance, so as to be considered a real laxative.
This explains why Peppina coffee is not drunk in the morning, as the famous song says!
As the saying goes, time brings advice, and over the years chicory coffee has also evolved to become an excellent alternative to traditional coffee. From the past its taste has definitely improved, the bitterness has become an aftertaste in which notes of licorice and caramel are also perceived. It is also gluten-free, making it the drink suitable for everyone in one fell swoop.
Now you too will know what to answer to the dilemma “coffee is bad” and you will also have the story of Peppina to make your friends understand that there are very tasty alternatives!
