Phix: Drinking in Health

Coffee Talk

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

I have a confession --

I love coffee.

A cup of "joe," "java," "mud," or my personal favorite, "wakey juice," is part of my morning (and sometimes evening) ritual. And it just so happens that the Northwest is home to some pretty amazing coffee. It wakes me up and gets me going - and is a great excuse to get together and converse with friends. But when one cup leads to two, and two cups lead to three, well....then, not so fun.

Like many people, too much caffeine in coffee-form gets me all jittery and my energy eventually crashes head-first into the Land of Headaches and Moodiness, resulting in those friends of mine not wanting to converse with me anymore. Because I'm like this:



It's just that oftentimes, I'll be so into the energetic bolt that I'll go overboard, and not feel the effects until much later. For an accurate portrayal, a visual aid from Positivity Blog:



According to the Mayo Clinic, "more than 500 to 600 milligrams of caffeine a day, or about four to seven cups of coffee, can cause restlessness, anxiety, headaches and other problems." It has a great article on caffeine, and offers tips on how to curb your intake so you don't feel those crashes, like learning how much caffeine is in certain beverages (check this out) and to look at the percentage of caffeine in the medications you may be taking.

Or, here's another tip - get your phix! Like coffee, it gives me the bolt - but unlike coffee, I don't experience those famous jitters and crashes, because it gets its boost from Yerba Mate, also known as "mate," an evergreen tree that grows in tropical countries. Its leaves have been used to cure fatigue for centuries, and is an alternative to coffee in that it lends a more soothing effect. A Brazilian study also found that the antioxidants in mate can repair and improve DNA activity. Cool!

I'm not saying I'm going to eliminate coffee completely, but I will cut back on my daily consumption - probably to one cup each morning - and balance my energy intake with phix. When it comes to "wakey juice," there's definitely room for two.

Labels: caffeine, coffee, crashes, energy, phix, yerba mate

By: Amy@phix Permalink