☕️ Coffee Talk: Your Questions Answered
Do you really need to give up your morning cup? Or eat something before? What about a collagen? And how long does caffeine actually stay in your system?
Is there anything better than your morning cup of coffee?
That first sip and the joy it brings to the start of my day are everything.
I don’t know about you, but I look forward to it before my head even hits the pillow at night.
But, at the same time, coffee has been getting a bit of a bad rap in the wellness world due to its effects on morning cortisol levels.
It’s somewhat warranted actually.
I personally took a yearlong+ hiatus from coffee (switching to matcha instead) while going through IVF treatments and being pregnant — but as soon as those foggy newborn days hit, it was back to my beloved morning roast.
Because I’m asked about coffee a lot — and do suggest most of my clients cut their consumption down — let’s answer some of your most common questions surrounding coffee, and caffeine in general.
Individual caffeine tolerance varies… a lot.
Why can some people drink 4 cups of coffee and feel nothing, and others drink less than one cup and feel jittery?
For me personally, any more than one cup and my heart is beating out of my chest. It’s because I metabolize coffee really slow — it’s in my DNA.
When you drink coffee, the caffeine is rapidly absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract, starting in the stomach and is then metabolized (broken down) in the liver.
Depending on your genetics, body weight, certain medications, and how much food you’ve eaten prior — determines how quickly this processes happens — and how jittery or anxious you feel.
The half-life of caffeine, the time it takes for the body to eliminate half of the substance, can vary from 1.5 to 9.5 hours, with an average of about 5 hours in healthy adults. This means that up to six hours after drinking coffee, half of the caffeine you consumed is still in your body. However, caffeine may not completely clear your bloodstream until after 10 hours.
Can’t seem to wind down at the end of the day?
Need a glass of wine to settle your mind?
Tossing and turning at night?
It’s likely that second cup of coffee you had in the early afternoon my friend.
How does coffee affect my stress and cortisol levels?
The simple answer? Coffee increases cortisol and therefore stress levels.