Our Collective Addiction

Coffee. Our morning ritual. Our 9 to 5 fuel. Our sleep-less saviour. Our collective addiction. Our gut destroyer? No, no! How could there be anything wrong with something we have every morning, I hear you ask? 

Well, to understand the detrimental effects of coffee, you have to understand its impact on your nervous system. As you know, the main active ingredient in coffee is caffeine. And we all know too much caffeine is bad, but do we really know why? Keep reading friends. Caffeine creates its “rush of awakeness” by stimulating your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin and cortisol. These hormones are our stress hormones. They are normally produced when your body needs a kick into action to get you out of danger. 

As part of our “danger response”, both adrenalin and cortisol send blood and nutrient flow to our brains, so we have a clear mind. They also send blood to our muscles and our heart so we can run away if we need to. Basically the body is on high alert, ready to respond in the blink of an eye. Which is all well and good if you have a coffee and then need to outrun a mountain lion. But 99.99% of us have a coffee and then sit down to do some emails in a wildcat free office. 

So as you’re sitting there typing, your caffeinated body is channelling energy to your brain, heart and muscles and away from your resting organs. And as a result, your immune and digestive systems are getting ignored on the daily. All it takes is a simple cup of coffee to inhibit your body’s repair and maintenance functions. And when we try to eat in this state of “panic and danger”, well, there’s no blood or nutrient flow to the gut, and so our digestive function operates at approximately 50% of its capacity. Not ideal.  That’s when sore tummies become the norm, and bloating and gas become our least favourite friends.

The gut needs to be fully firing to produce enough acid in the stomach, bile in the liver and digestive enzymes in the pancreas. Only then, do we have the components necessary to digest our food properly. We also need blood flowing to the lining of our digestive system so we can properly absorb nutrients from our food and ensure we’re getting all the goodness out of that very green, green smoothie. 

So, when we put our bodies into a state of stress, from a coffee or a mountain lion, the body decides that digestion is not an essential, and directs your energy elsewhere. But what happens when we put our bodies in this state of stress for long periods of time - like a twice a day flat white addiction? Well, this poses problems for the health of our digestive system and over time this equals gut dysbiosis (an imbalance in the microbes that inhabit your digestive system) and intestinal permeability (when the cells that line your gut no longer function optimally).

Unfortunately, even just one coffee in the morning is a problem for your nervous system and gut, especially if you tend towards being anxious. 

Eeek. So, the next question people always ask is: Is decaf a better option?  

By all means use decaf coffee as a way of getting off the hard stuff, but only as an interim measure. See, there are other properties in coffee (not just the caffeine) that are irritating to the lining of the gut, which is why your morning coffee will often stimulate your bowels to move. This may seem like a good thing, but in the long term it stops your body understanding how to pass a bowel motion without stimulation. Coffee is also heating and drying to the digestive tract and the body as a whole. It acts as a diuretic, meaning it stimulates the kidneys to pass more fluid than they would otherwise normally do, which can leave you dehydrated at the cellular level. So best to wean yourself off completely, if you’re looking for some gut love. 

Don’t just go running into the warm arms of milky tea!  If you’re an obsessive black tea or green tea drinker, rest assured you are still addicted to the caffeine rush. You should also look to reduce your tea intake as a way to help nourish your tummy and increase your uptake of nutrients.  Black tea contains tannins that interfere with your absorption of iron in particular. However, herbal teas like ginger, peppermint, chamomile and licorice are good gut buddies! 

So it turns out your daily wake up boost is not so friendly and innocent. And while this might not be the best news you’ve ever heard, if you’re serious about changing your gut health, it’s a really good idea to knock your coffee habit on its head for a period of time. Do an experiment. See how your body functions without this stimulant in your life. Watch to see if your gut is happier because of it. Maybe you’ll prove me wrong, and your body truly thrives from its daily fix. But at least give your body a break for a period of time, so you can optimise the flow of blood and nutrients to your gut, and really help to heal your digestive system. Good luck!