Caffeine - The Natural Poison

Where is caffeine hiding?

One day, my mother looked at me and said, “Are you tweezing your eyebrows?”  My immediate response was, “of course not!” She fired back, “well, your eyebrows are thinning.” 

I looked closely in the mirror the next day and sure enough, I was losing my eyebrows.  After a few bits of research I knew that there was something wrong with my thyroid gland.  I also knew exactly what was causing the dysfunction in my gland – caffeine!

Our family gave up caffeine for several years and we experienced a great level of energy and mental clarity.  We fell off that wagon and took up caffeinated tea again, and this time I was consuming roughly three times the caffeine before I gave it up.  The day I looked at myself in the mirror and confirmed my mom’s accusations, I quit drinking caffeinated drinks cold turkey.  My eyebrows started growing out again.

Caffeine can be found, not only in coffee, but in many foods we consume everyday; some are obvious: soda, energy drinks, weight loss pills and tea.  The not-so-obvious places to find caffeine are: chocolate, pastries, decaf coffee, non-cola sodas like Mountain Dew or Root Beer, chocolate or coffee flavored ice cream, over the counter drugs like pain relievers, energy water, breath fresheners, SumSeeds energized sunflower seeds, Morning Spark instant oatmeal, perky jerky and many others.

Over 50 different plants have caffeine in them.  The caffeine is the plant’s defense mechanism against insects. In essence, caffeine is a poison intended to kill bugs.

In recent years there have been many articles published advertising the “benefits” of caffeine.  You must be aware that the sources of this information may be benefiting from the sales of caffeine.  There is an overwhelming amount of true scientific research which proves that consumption of caffeine is damaging to the body.

Caffeine causes an increase of cortisol in the body.  Cortisol is commonly known as the stress hormone.  When we consume caffeine on a daily basis, we basically put our bodies in a constant state of stress.  An increase in cortisol damages cells, especially in the brain.

Kicking the caffeine habit is a major feat.  I personally know people who have quit smoking, but can't quit coffee.  If you are determined to increase your energy and your mental clarity, I highly recommend that you wean off the caffeine by:

• Cutting  your caffeine intake in half everyday until you are consuming none.  Switch to decaf coffee, or green tea as you are decreasing your consumption. Yogi brand green tea has 21mgs of caffeine compared to 90mg in an 8oz cup of coffee.
• Replacing coffee with Celestial Seasonings Roastaroma tea.  It tastes a bit like coffee and it contains no caffeine.
• If you still need a jolt of energy, try dry skin brushing.  Watch the video below to see a tutorial.
• If you experience headaches as you are weaning from caffeine, you might try taking some valerian root.

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