The Complex Truth About Coffee and Caffeine Consumption

Caffeine's addictive nature masks its potential harm, leading many to overlook its stress-inducing effects.

### The Dark Side of Coffee: Health Risks, Addiction, and Historical Context
* ☕ A new study suggests that drinking **eight cups of coffee a day** may lower the risk of some cancers, contributing to the ongoing debate about coffee's **health benefits**.
* 🧠 However, scientists are now recognizing the intense **"caffeine crash"** that many experience, leading to **headaches and irritability**, as a potential medical condition.
* 📜 The history of coffee dates back to the 9th century when a farmer discovered its **energizing effects** on his goats, but its popularity grew slowly until it became a **social staple in Europe**.
* 🌍 The coffee industry, however, has a dark history, with **exploitation and environmental destruction** tied to its production, raising questions about the narratives surrounding its **health benefits**.
* 💰 As caffeine is a highly addictive substance, it's worth considering how much of the **positive health claims** are influenced by the **corporations profiting from coffee sales**.
* 📉 Research indicates that while caffeine may **temporarily boost alertness**, it can also **reduce blood flow to the brain**, potentially **increasing the risk of cognitive decline** and diseases like **Alzheimer's**.
* 🚨 Additionally, caffeine can elevate stress hormones, leading to **anxiety and negative health effects**, which can be mistaken for **natural personality traits**.
* 🔍 Ultimately, while coffee can be enjoyable, it's crucial to remain aware of its **potential drawbacks** and the **complex relationship between addiction and perceived benefits**.

eight cups a day can actually lower your risk for some cancers. A new study, the latest in a slew of evidence that supports the health benefits of coffee, coffee, and how much many of us drink every day. Scientists, in fact, looking at that feeling you get when the caffeine wears off, sometimes that chemical crash so intense. They're now considering it a medical condition. I ended up with a really bad headache. You wouldn't want to be around me without caffeine. What happens when caffeine is dislodged from the adenosine receptor? Unfortunate things happen, and that's what we call the caffeine crash. Even up until a few weeks ago when I quit caffeine, I could not sit down and start work unless I had C. Saying it's healthy is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Coffee all began in the 9th century when a farmer noticed his goats were getting, well, a little frisky. He saw that they were all eating a specific berry from a specific tree, so he gave it.

a try for himself. And just like that, the story of getting free energy from bitter bean juice began. But coffee didn't quite catch on immediately. Its strong, bitter taste didn't appeal to everyone at first, and it wasn't until traders in the Middle East began to rely on it to stay alert during long journeys that its popularity started to grow. Eventually, it traveled through the trade routes of the Middle East and was smuggled into India. This is where it truly began to take root as the social drink, boosting productivity and gathering people together. Here, Europeans eventually got their hands on coffee, and soon enough, coffee shops began popping up all over London. These places quickly became the go-to spots for conversation, debate, and of course, that much-needed caffeine kick. But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. European empires were raking in profits by exploiting and enslaving workers in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia. Native people were either killed or forced off their land, and entire forests were burned down, all for the sake of this so-called magic bean juice, caffeine.

is the perfect product to drive a billion-dollar industry. It's addictive. It's something you consume every day, and practically everyone can drink it. And let's not forget, it's supposedly good for you, right? But have you ever wondered how much of that good for you narrative is crafted by the very corporations making billions off your daily cup? Because there's no way these billion-dollar corporations would manipulate the data just to keep profits rolling in, right? Remember when cigarettes were marketed as good for us? Doctors in all parts of the country were asked, What cigarette do you smoke, doctor? That's right. Back in the day, doctors used to promote certain cigarette brands, claiming they were healthier and less irritating to the throat than others. Now, I'm not saying coffee and caffeine are as bad as cigarettes, but here's what's interesting: many of the big players in the coffee industry have significant ties to these same corporations that produce almost all of the same food that you eat. Now that's fresh Mountain-grown coffee from the hills of Colombia. These are the same

corporations that have been known to manipulate data to serve their interests. So, is it really so far-fetched to think that these giant corporations with billions of dollars at stake could also manipulate the data surrounding coffee's health benefits? After all, they claim coffee is almost like a superfood, loaded with antioxidants and linked to benefits like increased longevity, improved mood, physical performance, and a reduced risk of various diseases. But how much of this is genuinely true, and how much is just clever marketing designed to keep you hooked? And if there are actually so many benefits, why are some of the leading scientists on these projects some of the only people that don't consume caffeine? Most of the caffeine researchers I interviewed do not drink coffee or tea. Now, the common narrative is that 400 mg of caffeine is the safe limit, which is exactly what this ABC reporter Dr. doctors say. Caffeine, which is a drug, is safe for adults who consume up to about 400 mg a day. That's about 4 cups of

coffee ABC's Lisa Stark drank that much and took an MRI to show what it did to her brain. Here's before, and here's after. Her blood flow went down 40%, and her blood pressure shot up. And this isn't a standalone case. In this 2019 study, participants were given almost half the amount of the daily safe limit and still saw an average of a 27% reduction in blood flow to the brain. So why does this matter? Well, as leading brain doctor Daniel Damon puts it, So if you want to damage your bright, bright minds, the B is for blood flow. Low blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. How do you get low blood flow? Caffeine. Oh [__]. But if caffeine reduces blood flow to the brain, why does it make you feel smarter and give you a boost of energy? How caffeine works. Um, caffeine is in a class of drugs that we call the psychoactive stimulants, so it works through a variety of mechanisms. Um, one is a dopamine

mechanism dopamine we often think of as a reward chemical or um but dopamine is also very much an alerting neurochemical as well. And caffeine has some role it seems to play in increasing do me but its principal mode of action we believe in terms of making me more alert and keeping me awake throughout the day is on the effects of adenosine. Adenosine it's the chemical in your brain that regulates your sleep-wake cycle, helps you feel calm, and protects your brain from stress. So by blocking out this chemical could caffeine turn you into an overly anxious stressed-out person who has panic attacks for no reason. Well more on that later but for now let's take a look at some of the chemicals inside your coffee that might make you think twice. After all did you know that caffeine is actually just a pesticide? Remember how we said that the goats were eating those berries? Well it's actually the seed inside of the berry where the real magic happens. Beans richly roasted and finely ground for

great waking up Aroma with that Aroma can do a day for menu the best part of w see the real thing that we're after here is the caffeine but what exactly is caffeine caffeine is actually a natural pesticides that the plant produces to stop animals from eating it that's right that magic high that you get in the morning is actually just a chemical produced by the plant to specifically repel insects and wreak havoc on animals but here's the thing all plants produce chemicals like this to protect themselves from being eaten in fact 99 99% of the pesticides we consume are already naturally occurring within the plant themselves and here's where it gets interesting in botney the study of plants it's well known that the part of the plant with the highest concentration of these defense chemicals is actually the seed why because plants want to protect their seeds their future Offspring that's why this part of the plant is loaded with chemicals like tannins oxalates and of course caffeine these chemicals are often overlooked

because they don't just kill us outright like they do insects, so we just assume that they're harmless. People might say that these chemicals have a hormetic effect, meaning that in small doses they might actually make us stronger and healthier, but the reality is a lot more complicated than that. And what makes it so difficult to absorb many of the vitamins and minerals found in plants is that plants also contain something called anti-nutrients. This can range from phytates to lectins to oxalates to tannins to protease inhibitors to phytoestrogens, and all of these things make it very difficult for humans to absorb the vitamins and minerals out of many plants. So, this is the study from Professor Bruce Ames from Berkeley. This was published in 1989, and he showed that just the natural plants and vegetables contain 10,000 times more naturally occurring pesticides by weight than the industrial pesticides that we were using on them, and that they were orders of magnitude times more likely to cause cancer. Okay.

so while the effects of these antinutrients are still debated, we can't deny that they're actually there. And even if they do have a hormetic effect, meaning that these small doses might help our bodies build resilience, we still have to consider the real issue: what coffee does to your stress levels. Picture your typical day, full of well, stress. You've got work to handle, school to manage, and of course, those people on the road who just don't know how to drive. There's no world here, and of course, in the morning or sometime during the day, you just need that cup of coffee to help you get through it all. After all, these everyday situations can be tiring, so a little cup of joe couldn't do any harm, right? Wrong. And what if it's just not a little harm, but almost all of the harm? Seriously, what if all of your daily stress that you obviously perceive as stressful is actually being caused by coffee? See, when you drink coffee or caffeine, your body starts pumping out stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. So, this

basically puts your body into a fight or flight response. Yes, these same responses your body would have used tens of thousands of years ago when you came across something that might end your life. Maybe not the best way for your body to function when you're already dealing with these stressors of modern life. This happens because caffeine works by blocking adenosine receptors, as we mentioned earlier, receptors that are essential for relaxation. So by default, the mechanism which makes you feel alert and awake is also putting you into a heightened state of stress. Of course, with our bodies now pumping with stress hormones, it's not so surprising that this 1984 paper found that caffeine not only increased anxiety but also depression and hostility. And it's not just for a short period of time; it can be up to 18 hours before your cortisol levels start to come back down. This prolonged elevation can lead to your body storing more fat, particularly around your gut. But it doesn't just stop at getting fat and anxious; the effects of caffeine are nearly identical to the

effects of a panic attack. In his book Caffeine Blues, by Stephan Chernus, discusses how countless people have reduced or even completely cured their panic disorders simply by eliminating coffee. And just because it didn't give you panic attacks and anxiety before doesn't mean that it won't do it now. I remember a couple of years back, I would always feel anxious, and I really thought I was just an anxious person. Then COVID hit, and I started drinking more coffee, about four cups a day instead of my usual two. It eventually got to the point that I was almost having panic attacks. Normal stressors in life would bring an overwhelming sense of doom in my brain. I realized that it wasn't that big of a deal, but to the rest of my body, it was the end of the world. And then I tried something. I just stopped drinking coffee, and within two days, nearly all of my anxiety disappeared. I thought there was no way it was from coffee at first, which is why it took me so long to stop. But once I did, I realized I wasn't

even an anxious person. I was just drinking coffee. Even later, when I started to drink just a small amount, I noticed that same slight anxiety creeping back. So, if you think you're an anxious or stressed person, just stop drinking caffeine and see if it's actually who you are, because most likely, it's not. But there's just one thing that you need to be aware of. I struggled through my work for 3 hours. It was impossible to concentrate. My head was pulsing. I felt my veins in my head throbbing. It started with a hangover-like headache the moment that I got up. What I want to do now is I want to talk about the cons and the short-term cons, and then the long-term cons of not drinking coffee. The long-term cons are very minimal. The short-term cons are huge, okay? But the long-term benefits are insane. Withdrawals, yes, coffee is a drug, and when suddenly stopped, most people feel withdrawals: a pounding headache, fatigue, and an inability to concentrate. It's not a fun experience, but here's the

good news! It doesn't have to be this way. By the end of this, I'll tell you exactly how you can break free from this addictive being without suffering through the worst of these symptoms. But now you may be thinking, But I love the taste. I love waking up in the morning and having something warm. In Stephan Chernis' book, he states, Research has proven that people acquire taste and preferences based on the psychological action of caffeine. What this basically means is that the poetic aroma and great flavor of coffee that you love so much are actually tied to addiction. The only reason you find the smell and taste so appealing is because caffeine is addictive. Think back to when you were a kid. Did you ever try coffee? If you ever did, you were probably wondering why so many people drink such a bitter and disgusting bean juice all the time. But over time, you likely started adding cream and sugar, and before long, you began to enjoy that sweet taste of coffee. What you might not realize is

that your love for coffee's flavor was shaped by the caffeine itself, an addiction that slowly made you crave what you once found bitter. And the best way to come off coffee is to gradually wean off over a couple of weeks like this. This method helps your body adjust without experiencing the worst withdrawal symptoms. And here's the surprising part: once you're off coffee, all the benefits that you thought you were getting likely don't even occur. But why is this? Take this study for example. It shows that people who don't consume caffeine actually performed worse on cognitive tasks after drinking coffee. What the researchers found was that the only reason people think they perform better with coffee is because it temporarily relieves their withdrawal symptoms. So what does this mean? Essentially, if you drink a lot of coffee, it just brings you back to your baseline. But if you don't normally drink coffee and then you have some, your performance usually suffers. Even if coffee brings you back to your baseline, you're likely only operating at 80 to 90% of what

you're truly capable of. Now think of it this way: does something that reduces blood flow to your brain by 40% really seem like the ideal way to maintain long-term brain function? Now, I'm not saying I'll never drink coffee again, and of course, you're free to make your own choices, but it's important to be mindful of what this substance really is and how it impacts our lives. If you remember earlier when I talked about the plant toxins in coffee beans, you might be curious to learn more. So if you want to dive deeper into what these toxins are and why some people choose to eliminate them completely, be sure to check out this video right here. And if you got any value out of this video, be sure to drop a like and turn on the notification bell so that you don't miss any future videos.

The Disturbing Truth About Coffee

STOIUM

Coffee consumption may lower the risk of some cancers, but its addictive nature can lead to intense withdrawal symptoms.

The drink's popularity grew through Middle Eastern traders and later spread to Europe, where coffee shops became social hubs.

However, the coffee industry's success came at a cost, with exploitation and environmental destruction in the regions where it was produced.

Corporations may manipulate data to promote coffee's health benefits, raising questions about the truth behind these claims.

Leading scientists in caffeine research often do not consume the substance, despite its widespread endorsement.

Caffeine's effects on blood flow and brain function raise concerns, with low blood flow being a predictor of Alzheimer's disease, while its role in blocking adenosine may lead to increased anxiety and stress.

The Surprising Effects of Caffeine and Plant Chemicals

Caffeine, a natural pesticide produced by plants, is designed to repel animals and protect seeds.

While these defense chemicals are often overlooked, they can hinder human absorption of vitamins and minerals.

Additionally, caffeine and other plant compounds may contribute to increased stress levels by triggering the release of cortisol and adrenaline in the body.

The Impact of Caffeine on Stress and Anxiety

Caffeine triggers a fight or flight response, increasing stress levels by blocking adenosine receptors essential for relaxation.

This heightened state of stress can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and fat storage, particularly around the gut, with elevated cortisol levels lasting up to 18 hours.

The effects of caffeine can mimic a panic attack, and reducing or eliminating coffee intake has helped many people alleviate their panic disorders and anxiety.

The Impact of Caffeine on Anxiety and Withdrawal

Caffeine can contribute to anxiety and stress, and quitting it may reveal that these feelings are not inherent to one's personality.

The short-term withdrawal symptoms from stopping coffee can be severe, including headaches, fatigue, and difficulty concentrating.

The addictive nature of caffeine is linked to its psychological effects, making the taste and aroma of coffee appealing over time.

The Impact of Coffee on Caffeine Addiction

Caffeine addiction can shape one's love for coffee, making the bitter flavor crave-worthy.

Gradually weaning off coffee over a few weeks helps the body adjust and minimizes withdrawal symptoms.

Surprisingly, coffee may not provide the expected cognitive benefits, as it often just relieves withdrawal symptoms and can lead to operating at only 80-90% of one's true potential.