Quite a while ago, I got asked what my own personal health regime is and I found this question quite hard to answer because I don’t just practise naturopathy as a profession, my whole life is lived with my health in mind - my mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health that is.
But I realised one thing I purposefully do every day (and I guess I can call it a part of my health regime)... I don’t drink coffee before 9:30 in the morning.
I'm sure you're thinking,
But Shavit, HOW DO YOU WAKE UP WITHOUT COFFEE!?!?!
Well, the body is (unsurprisingly) geared at waking itself up...
Our family friendly hormone names cortisol rises in the morning to wake us up. This is the hormone that makes us feel alert and awake.
Between 9:30-11am the body has a natural drop in cortisol. This is the hormone that makes us alert and awake. So having coffee within that time wont overstimulate cortisol and will help you keep your stress levels in check. Even if coffee doesn’t “do anything for you”, your cortisol levels still rise and drop throughout the day.
Having coffee before that slight drop in cortisol is somewhat of a waste of the coffee effects, limiting its effectiveness and can create more stress in your body.
A fun little tidbit I found while doing some extra reading on my weird coffee times:
Other times when your cortisol levels are high (ie, don't drink coffee then) are between 12-1pm and 5:30-6:30pm. I usually stick to one cup a day and tend to drink coffee in the morning.
Personally, I think that it is better to stop drinking coffee first this to "wake you up". You are overriding the body's natural function of waking up and it will stop being able to do so as well which means you are more reliant on the coffee...
What do you think about this?
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