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5 Energizing Alternatives to Coffee

AHA Publisher — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 07:10:59 +0000

Erin Young via Dr. Axe – Love the buzz from your steamy mug of coffee but hate the slump after your spike in energy? We have found five delicious alternatives to coffee that will keep you energized throughout the day and deliver amazing health benefits. But first, let’s talk more about coffee and why you may want to consider making a switch. The Dark Side of Coffee The recommended daily maximum of coffee is three to four cups, which is 400 milligrams of caffeine, and for the average person, drinking coffee can be healthy in moderation. But drinking more than the daily recommended level of coffee (or any at all, for those sensitive to caffeine) may result in some adverse health effects that are consistent with a caffeine overdose. Those effects can include: Weight gain: Caffeine in coffee can increase the level of your stress hormone cortisol, and elevated cortisol may cause weight gain. Low energy: Caffeine stimulates the body’s adrenal system, which boosts energy for a short time but then crashes it to leave you fatigued. Mineral deficiency: Caffeine affects iron absorption in your stomach. It also reduces your kidneys’ ability to store calcium, zinc, magnesium and other important minerals. Disrupted sleep: Caffeine stays in your nervous system for four to six hours, so even if you feel fatigued when you go to bed, the caffeine can still disrupt your sleep. Sound scary, or does the idea of having to power through your day without caffeine sound even scarier? Well, fear not! Next are five great alternatives to coffee that will help you keep your coffee cravings in check but your energy levels soaring! 5 Healthy Alternatives to Coffee 1. Matcha Green Tea Powder Matcha green tea powder is the whole green tea leaf stone ground into a fine powder. To drink matcha, dissolve the powder into water to create a tea packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Matcha is an excellent alternative to coffee. A two-gram serving of matcha (a little more than half a teaspoon) contains enough caffeine to give you an energy boost, but the amount is only a fifth of the caffeine in a standard cup of coffee. Additionally, the caffeine in matcha is delivered slowly to your body over a period of six to eight hours. As a result, matcha delivers long-lasting energy that does not leave you with the “jitters,” energy slumps or sleepless nights. Matcha also contains the highest natural concentration of the amino acid L-theanine. L-theanine promotes alpha waves in the brain, which enhance concentration and boost dopamine to improve memory. There are many more incredible matcha health benefits, including its ability to support the immune system, boost weight loss and deliver cancer-fighting antioxidants. 2. Water Did you know that one of the primary signs of dehydration is fatigue? If you feel tired, have a headache or find it hard to focus, then you may actually be dehydrated. The majority of people make the mistake of drinking water only when they feel thirsty. Thirst, however, is one of the last symptoms that appears as a result of dehydration — and usually only after fatigue the fatigue sets in. When lacking adequate hydration, science has proven that your body will not perform at its best. One study of athletes found that low levels of hydration significantly affected their capacity for exercise. To help you drink enough water (the daily recommended amount for adults is about two liters, or half a gallon), keep a bottle with you at all times, and try infusing it with natural flavor from fresh produce, like watermelon, cucumber or ginger. 3. Green Smoothie or Green Vegetable Juices Introducing more greens into your diet can dramatically boost your energy levels because of all the nutrients and antioxidants they contain. If you’re not a fan of tons of large salads or plates full of broccoli, a green vegetable juice or smoothie is an easy way to boost your vegetable intake. Just half a cup of spinach in your smoothie is a rich source of iron that can protect against anemia, a condition that is relatively common among women and another cause of fatigue.A daily green juice can also protect your cardiovascular health. One study showed that consuming 300 milliliters of green juice daily for six weeks reduced bad LDL cholesterol by 9 percent. When making your green juice or smoothies, make sure that 95 percent of the blend contains vegetables rather than fruit to keep the total sugar level low. For a bonus energy kick, you can also add in a superfood supplement like spirulina, barley greens or matcha green tea powder — all of which make healthy alternatives to coffee. 4. Yerba Mate If you’ve traveled to Brazil or Argentina, you likely know how wild South Americans are about yerba mate. The herbal beverage is made from the leaves of the yerba mate plant that has been picked and dried in a similar way to tea leaves. The drink is then produced by steeping the leaves in hot water. The taste of yerba mate is similar to brewed green tea leaves, and it’s also said to deliver a buzz like coffee but with added focus, fewer jitters and less of an impact on sleep. One serving of yerba mate contains around three-fourths the caffeine of a cup of coffee, but it also delivers amino acids and nutrients. You can also try other herbal teas, such as guayusa, ginger, chamomile and more. 5. Protein-Based Smoothie Protein is critical in providing energy to your body, and published studies show that protein boosts alertness and concentration by exciting the brain chemical orexin into production mode. To help supply your body with sustained energy, try adding a protein-based smoothie into your day. Green vegetables have minimal amounts of protein, so to really boost the protein power, try adding in chia seeds, nut butter, hemp or a high-quality powder supplement, like collagen or protein powder made from bone broth. Conclusion Coffee in itself is not unhealthy when consumed in moderation, but there are healthy, energizing alternatives to coffee out there. Introducing a selection of alternative drinks into your diet can deliver some surprising health benefits. Staying hydrated with water and fueling your body with protein can ensure sustainable energy levels all day. Matcha green tea powder is a perfect coffee alternative that delivers an energy boost as well as and health benefits. Erin Young is a heath food writer and a tea expert. She owns two tea companies: Evergreen Matcha in the USA and Zen Green Matcha Tea in Australia. She partners with sustainable tea farms in Kyoto, Japan, to source her premium matcha green tea powder. To read the original article click here.

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Common Drugs that Steal Your Body’s Nutrients

AHA Publisher — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:00:49 +0000

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS – The following is an adapted excerpt from my new book “Ancient Remedies: Secrets to Healing with Herbs, Essential Oils, CBD, and the Most Powerful Natural Medicine in History“ (Little, Brown Spark) Have a fever? Take an antibiotic. High cholesterol? Use a statin. In pain? Pop an opioid. Feeling blue? Try an antidepressant. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 74 percent of doctor’s visits end with a scribbled prescription. It’s so common, many of us never think to question modern healthcare’s singular focus on medication. As a result, these lab-created drugs have stealthily taken over our lives. The Kaiser Family Foundation recently reported that 50 percent of Americans ages 30 to 49 are currently taking prescription medication, as are 75 percent of those in their 50s, and nearly 90 percent of those age 65 and older. More shocking, a third of people in their 50s — and more than half of those 65 and older — take four or more prescription drugs regularly. Our culture has come to equate healing with drugs, so much so that many of us expect our doctors to give us medication, and we often feel disregarded or mistreated when we leave an appointment empty-handed. Antibiotics are a tragic example. If you’ve ever had a chronic cough, or your child has had an ear infection, chances are your doctor prescribed one of these bacteria-killing drugs — and you might have been grateful to receive it. But here’s the thing: We now know that these medications aren’t effective at treating chronic coughs, ear infections and many other common ailments for which they’re routinely prescribed. Worse, antibiotics can be far more dangerous than we’ve been led to believe. We’ve known for a long time that they wipe out billions of healthy bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract — microbes that play a vital role in helping us digest food, fight inflammation, and maintain a healthy mood and strong immune system. But did you know that taking antibiotics repeatedly might actually increase your risk of cancer? An analysis of a large medical records database, published in the European Journal of Cancer, found that the more courses of antibiotics a patient took in the prior year, the greater their risk of esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, lung, prostate and breast cancers. Healthcare professionals in the United States write roughly 260 million prescriptions for antibiotics every year. Although the cancer risk from antibiotics is small, the drugs are jeopardizing millions of people’s health. As appalling, at least 30 percent of those millions of prescriptions are completely unnecessary, according to the CDC, because they’re prescribed for conditions that don’t respond to antibiotics. (I believe that closer to 90 percent are unnecessary, since our bodies are capable of fighting most bacterial infections on their own; and if you need extra help, a number of herbs are effective antimicrobials, with few, if any, side effects.) Those needless rounds of medication not only harm the health of people who take them, but they also contribute to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of lethal microbes. At least two million people in the U.S. are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year, and 23,000 die because the bacteria have learned to outwit even our most powerful medications. Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent public health threats facing the world today. If you have a life-threatening infection, taking antibiotics makes sense. In all other instances, I agree with the sentiment of Francis Bacon, an early champion of the scientific revolution, who noted in the 16th century, “Sometimes the remedy is worse than the disease.” Antibiotics are the tip of the iceberg — and few people understand the true scope or seriousness of synthetic pills’ risks. You probably don’t know, for instance, that long-term use of most medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, can cause serious nutrient deficiencies. Proton pump inhibitors, which are routinely prescribed for acid reflux, limit the body’s ability to absorb vitamins B12 and C as well as iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc and beta-carotene. They also raise your risk of dying from heart disease, chronic kidney disease and gastrointestinal cancer. Likewise, some diuretic drugs for high blood pressure deplete your body of calcium, magnesium, thiamin, zinc, potassium, folate and iron. These nutrients are absolutely essential for the healthy functioning of your brain, heart and muscles. And those widely used types of drugs are just two examples, among dozens, of pharmaceuticals that can cause dire nutritional deficiencies. Check out this chart on commonly prescribed medications and the dangerous nutrient deficiencies they can cause. I took an oath when I became a doctor, as all physicians do. That oath was “First do no harm.” But how can any doctor be true to that oath if we rely exclusively on pharmaceuticals? As Sir William Osler, a revered Canadian physician in the 1800s, said, “The person who takes medicine must recover twice; once from the disease and once from the medicine.” What I’ve shared is just a glimpse of the vast pharmaceutical-fueled tragedy that’s quietly unfolding across the country. But there’s a deeper truth that makes our dependence on pharmaceuticals even worse: For years, Western medicine has disregarded, ignored, maligned, and sometimes intentionally buried information about safer ancient alternatives. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

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