As a Nutritional Therapist, I have been told more than once that I have a gentle way of working with clients. I don’t force people to swallow diets and supplements. I know that we are all where we are health-wise for a variety of reasons that go far beyond food itself and it can take time for changes to be instituted. I understand that people use food for mental and emotional reasons and taking away a specific food can be akin to major psychological shock. On my intake forms, one of the questions is, “Is there a food you are not willing to give up at all?” This gives me an idea of ​​how fast or slow we should go when making dietary changes. Chocolate, candy, and alcohol are just some of the obvious ones. But by far the most prevalent item is…yes, you guessed it…coffee.

I always encourage my clients to minimize excess coffee in their diet. It can stress the adrenal glands, liver, kidneys, and stomach and can cause the excretion of vital vitamins and minerals as the body tries to get rid of the caffeine. It can also contribute to blood sugar irregularities (see #5 below). I could go on and on about its negative health effects. But I will never tell anyone that they have to give up coffee. If I did, most of the people I see would never go back!

However, it never ceases to amaze me when people stray. When they come back for a follow-up and say they’ve given up coffee and feeling great, I always feel like saying, “Umm…could you show me how to do that?”

This is perhaps not the best way to start my adventure in nutrition blogging by admitting that I am a coffee drinker. It’s a habit that started long before I changed my own diet, one that dates back to those all-night study sessions in college. It is also a habit reinforced by my love for coffees. I like hanging out with friends there, I like working there, I like listening to music there, and now, I think I like blogging there too. And I know a lot of people who feel the same.

So I have a funny feeling that a lot of people will identify with this blog because I know more people are NOT going to quit coffee than are. So this blog is for you, my fellow coffee drinkers who sneer, smile, and roll your eyes at the seemingly endless barrage of articles on how to quit coffee and think, “Yeah, right.” Because I’m there with you.

And God knows I’ve tried to quit coffee. I have tried switching to tea and tried coffee substitutes. None of that has worked. I even left it for 30 days once. It didn’t make any difference. Zippo. I was looking forward to it both on the 1st and the 30th. I will never forget that first sip of coffee on the morning of the 31st. I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

Of course, there’s a big difference between drinking one cup of coffee a day and saying drinking 3 pots. I know some of my nutritional therapist friends disagree with me on this, but so be it. Of all the toxic things we can put in our bodies, I don’t think a cup of coffee a day is at the top of that list. I am much more concerned with people cutting sugar, chemicals, and all kinds of processed foods from their diet. These are the real culprits behind our national health epidemics. So if you’re eating mostly nutrient-dense, locally grown food sources, including lots of good, healthy fats from grass-fed animals, and if drinking a cup of coffee a day is your only nutritional vice, trust me, you’re way ahead of the game. of the game.

With that being said, if you really love coffee and there is NO WAY you are going to give it up, here are 6 tips that can turn a truly addictive habit into a mild vice:

#1 Choose organic

Conventional coffee is heavily sprayed with pesticides. There are a plethora of organic options out there. At least do this. Better yet, support companies that promote fair trade practices. And stay away from flavored coffees that are often loaded with artificial flavorings.

#2 Get out the sugar!

OK, I realize this is difficult for a lot of people. It was for me. Until I did this, I never realized that what I really wanted in my coffee was sugar rather than caffeine. And once I got rid of the sugar, my palette became more suited to different types of roasts and regional variations. In fact, I began to enjoy the taste of coffee instead of the taste of sugar. Try adding only cream (preferably raw if you can get it) instead of sugar. That helped me get the sugar out once and for all. The fat in the cream will cut the bitterness of the coffee. The cream also has a natural sweetness that can help you get rid of the refined white stuff. Lastly, DO NOT use those flavored custard/cream concoctions! They are made with hydrogenated vegetable oils, corn syrup, and a host of other chemicals. Now, some of you might be saying, “Cream?! What about low-fat milk? Isn’t that healthier?” No. As Bill Cosby once said: “Show me the cow that produces skim milk and then I’ll drink it.” Low-fat milk and all kinds of low-fat products are not healthy foods. But that’s another blog topic for another blog day.

#3 Buy whole beans and grind them at home.

Coffee beans, like everything else, will start to break down and turn rancid once the internal contents are exposed to oxygen and moisture. To see this process with the naked eye, he opens an apple and watches what happens. The white meat starts to turn brown pretty quickly. This is due to its exposure to oxygen and humidity, the enemies of freshness. They are also enemies of antioxidants, those things you hear about that create stability and health in living systems and prevent disease. I am skeptical about the antioxidant health benefits that are mentioned in coffee. But if true, those antioxidants will start to oxidize immediately after grinding, which is fine if you drink the coffee soon after. However, after a few days, freshly ground coffee doesn’t taste as fresh anymore. And if you take out the sugar, you can start to taste this pretty easily.

#4 Keep it to ONE cup per day.

For starters, a cup isn’t a twenty-plus-ounce Starbucks mega-large French vanilla frappuccino with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. It also doesn’t look like a giant caramel coffee coolatta from Dunkin Donuts. It’s eight ounces. Your liver can handle that. I know more than a few people who drink coffee all day: five, ten, fifteen cups. If you’re one of those, don’t even think about reducing to a cup right away. Reduce it slowly. If you’re drinking ten cups, get it down to eight in a week. Then lower it down to five, and so on. Other strategies to reduce caffeine content include a second brew with the same beans and including half a decaffeinated coffee (Swiss mater method only) in each cup.

#5 Drink coffee after a meal.

For most people, that would be breakfast, and it’s definitely best to wait until you have some food in your system before reaching for that cup of coffee. Caffeine causes your body to release sugar into your bloodstream, which in turn causes your pancreas to release insulin (another good reason to cut out sugar!). On an empty stomach, this can cause a sharp drop in blood sugar which can then lead to more sugar cravings. Guess what will help increase that sugar besides sugar? Caffeine. Also, the caffeine in coffee can suppress your appetite and make you go longer without feeling hungry. This leads to more episodes of low blood sugar and more cravings for coffee and sugar. Having food in your stomach will help modulate this blood sugar response and keep those cravings at bay.

#6 Enjoy it to the fullest!

Yes it’s correct. We live in a world where we are made to feel guilty about food: don’t eat this, don’t eat that, this food will kill you, that food will kill you. Of course, much of that is true, but you can take any food, create negative thoughts around it, and actually make it less healthy to eat with those stressful thoughts. After all, stress also depletes the body of nutrients. So don’t feel guilty, have a cup a day of home-ground organic coffee with cream. Enjoy it! I do every day.