It is not good practice to recommend a lesser evil in life. Coffee is such
an insidious addiction however that it certainly is better to find a less
harmful substitute that provides the same effects.
This column has stressed that coffee is a poison with many harmful effects
and drinking coffee-even one cup a day- shortens our lives and lowers the
quality of our lives with bad health in general. It is NOT just the
caffeine in coffee at all, but the many other ingredients especially
contained in the coffee oil. Drinking decaf gives you half of the
deleterious effects and none of the energy so that is really an irrational
choice. The worst kind of coffee you can drink is the kind that tastes the
best- French press and the unfiltered frill flavor rich coffee because the
oils are retained.
Coffee addiction is, in fact, a physical addiction with withdrawal
symptoms when stopped no different from addiction to narcotics. The
addiction is simply milder and the withdrawal symptoms more tolerable.
Starbucks just opened a third store here, Dunkin Donuts has three shops,
Port City Java is all over town, there are countless independent coffee
shops and every fast food chain sells endless cups. Add every restaurant
in town as well.
You cannot ask people to give this up as they enjoy it too much. Coffee
really does provide energy at work, it makes you feel great for a few
hours, it's cheap, it's everywhere, it tastes good and comes in different
flavors, it's legal, everyone else is doing it, and it's The National
Pastime along with alcohol. Of course the real way to have lots of energy
and feel great all the time is to eat well, take good supplements,
exercise, lose weight, don't have bad habits and just live a good
lifestyle.
Coffee is not the only caffeine based drink for energy. (We will not
discuss ephedra and ephedrine today as they are much stronger and only one
molecule away from actual prescription amphetamine.) There are two other
herbs that contain caffeine, that are just as enjoyable as coffee but only
half as harmful. These are guarana and yerba mate. Both are traditional
drinks in much of Central and South America.
The guarana is sold both as tablets, guarana tea bags or those overpriced
"energy drinks" you see in every convenience store now. If you cough up
$1.99 (the usual price) for an eight ounce can, be sure it says "guarana
berry extract" in the ingredients or don't buy it. Pepsi will soon offer a
carbonated guarana soft drink as they do in Brazil. See "
http://www.guarana.com/"
for more info.
The yerba mate is not sold in tablet or capsule form or in any energy
drinks I've seen. You buy yerba mate as loose tea or in tea bags. It has a
typical herbal tea taste. The makers of yerba mate teas will have you
believe this is some kind of "native tonic" that is good for you with lots
of vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants and other good things; that it is
"nutritious and stimulating- a healthful alternative to coffee". The
supposed benefits, including mental clarity (true), sustains energy levels
(true), brightens mood (true), aids weight loss (nope), improves digestion
(nope), boosts immune system (nope) and helps relieve allergies (nope). It
is even called "the drink of the gods". Not quite. You can buy guarana
tablets in health food stores or on the internet. You can get either tea
in health food stores but rarely in chain groceries. Keep a box of tea at
your desk as work so you can break the coffee habit. It seems that that
these two teas are not as addictive and habituating at all. You will
probably not feel the need to drink several cups a day, seven days a week
like you do with coffee. Coffee drinkers seem to never take a break, but
with these two herbal teas you probably won't find this at all. Please
always remember that caffeine (methyl xanthine) is an alkaloid that is not
good for us and I'm not promoting the use of it at all, but merely as a
better alternative to coffee.