Pollan abstained from caffeine for three months and wrote all about it in his book, along with an illuminating history of coffee. Hormone imbalances are why women in their reproductive years experience problems like PMS, acne, bloating, infertility, heavy or irregular cycles, and other hormone issues.”Ĭaffeine also spikes cortisol (the stress hormone) production in women, Vitti says, and this also leads to multiple issues.Īfter learning all of this, I began to accept that coffee might have me trapped in a vicious cycle.Īs writer Michael Pollan explains in his book, This Is Your Mind on Plants, the main reason that morning cup of coffee feels like throwing open a sunny window to the day has less to do with caffeine’s stimulant nature, and more to do with how that first taste is actually relieving our first withdrawal symptoms. Add all this together with the synthetic estrogens we’re exposed to in the environment, and you’re set up for progesterone deficiency, estrogen dominance, and symptom-causing hormone imbalances. “Overexposure to sugar and insulin can also contribute to fat storage and weight gain, and that can make estrogen dominance even worse. Blood sugar surges and so does insulin, and those spikes interfere with ovulation, which messes up progesterone production and contributes to one of the most common, and most troublesome, hormone imbalances: estrogen dominance.” “The problem is when blood sugar rises too high, as is the case when we eat a lot of sugar or, according to this new study, when we have coffee before breakfast. It also sets off a cascade of hormone imbalances that have a big impact on a woman. In the short term, when we begin the day with a spike, it sends us on a rollercoaster of moods and cravings for the rest of the day, Vitti says. Unstable blood sugar is detrimental for a long list of reasons. She writes on Flo Living that drinking coffee before breakfast (as I usually did) can “sabotage your blood sugar.” Vitti’s been saying this for years, but her assertion is now backed by research published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Vitti’s main argument against caffeine has to do with blood sugar. While I followed many of the recommendations in her book, and was happy with the outcomes, I let the caffeine warning fall on deaf ears because I absolutely did not want to give it up.Īs the months passed, Vitti’s advice showed me how delicate a balance eating and drinking can be, and this pushed me toward suspicion when it came to the psychoactive beans that had started all my days for the past 27 years. In her lectures and on her website, she advises women to quit caffeine. Her life’s work is helping women sync with the four phases of their monthly cycle.
The most influential voice was Alisa Vitti, founder of Flo Living, and author of Woman Code. It was an afternoon of pure bliss, and coffee and writing (productivity, actually) remained neatly zippered together in my mind for more than two decades after.īut I started to doubt the benefit of my relationship with coffee earlier this year after investing a lot of time into learning about women’s health. Little Stella slapped on her snap bracelets, stuffed the pages of her notebook-paper novel into what was no doubt a sparkly folder, and proudly walked downtown.
We were visiting my grandparents in Ohio, and there was a place a few blocks down the street. My first solo outing as a kid was actually to a coffee shop. But ever since, I have loved - no, worshipped - coffee. In my parents’ defense, they brew coffee so weak you can see through it.
0 kommentar(er)
