At True North health center one of the guiding principles is the concept of THE PLEASURE TRAP. The main aspect of the pleasure trap and summary of the book (although, if you haven’t read it, I do highly recommend that you read it) is that in our world today we have foods that are ultra-processed, created in a laboratory, full of chemicals and artificial sweeteners that our bodies aren’t designed to handle.
We have great mechanisms for detoxification, digestion, and even self-healing, but these fake substances are overloading our system, causing accelerated aging.
These foods short circuit our reward pathways, aka neurotransmitter pathways that create uncontrollable cravings, chronic inflammation and increase in disease. We are seeing disease states that are caused by overconsumption skyrocket in the world like obesity, type 2 diabetes, hyperlipidemia and cardiovascular disease.
The world is led to believe that a bag of pharmaceutical medications is the only answer. When the true answer is to stop eating foods that our bodies weren’t designed to eat.
These foods create abnormally high spikes in our dopamine receptors and other neurotransmitters that affect our pleasure and pain identification. With anything in life what goes up, will come down and so if the dopamine spikes, it will come crashing down and people will need more and more of a substance to try to normalize the balance.
As a response to this cycle, we now crave foods that are loaded with salt, sugar, oils to feed the intense need to continue to feel the “pleasure” and avoid the “pain” withdrawal. Along these lines we start to depend on other things that drive our dopamine throughout our day, like social media, checking email or being on the computer, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, gambling, shopping, pornography, and even coffee can become addictive.
It becomes a prison that we place ourselves into. We have found the perfect way to kill off humans faster than any physical weapon, infectious disease…. The manipulation of our nervous system, specifically pleasure and pain pathways through ultra-processed, highly refined foods. We are slowly allowing humans to self-destruct.
The reason I go into all that explanation is that many people once they have had the chance to go through our in-patient health rejuvenation program, come out of it, wanting to accept and start eating in a way that normalizes their response to whole foods and their environment. They are eager to regain control of their eating patterns, and find that a great benefit is realizing what optimal health feels like and finally letting go of the pharmaceutical baggage.
The one comment I often get from patients: “I can let go of the salt, sugar and oil, the animal proteins and even the dairy…but do I really have to give the coffee up? What about green tea?”
Here Is My Download For You To Hear:
If you feel like you need coffee, you shouldn’t be drinking it. If you love the taste and know yourself and you can have one cup on the weekend or when you feel like it, but not a regular habit, then most likely drinking coffee isn’t a big hindrance on your health.
You have to know yourself and what are your triggers. If drinking coffee makes you want to smoke a cigarette and work 18 hours a day, then maybe it’s not for you. If you are drinking coffee make sure you know where your coffee’s coming from and make sure it’s mold free, shade grown, low acidity and organic. (Another big thing to know is if you are drinking decaf coffee, only choose swiss water process. If you don’t they are using chemicals added to the coffee to strip the caffeine. So you have your coffee with a side of toxins.)
What You Should Know About Coffee In General:
Coffee is notorious for having mold found on it. It is also known to be heavily sprayed with insecticides and pesticides. It is highly acidic. When coffee is roasted it does produce levels of acrylamide that is a known carcinogenic.
Also, it’s important to know that coffee is an energy vampire. It will steal your energy. Meaning, not only is it categorized as a stimulant, but it also pushes cortisol (adrenal hormone) into the system that drives your get up and go. You might think this could be a good idea but if you are stressed and your body is already struggling balancing cortisol loads on the system, this additional boost will cause only problems in the long run.
Where cortisol goes, glucose goes. When you release cortisol it’s usually in response to a stressor, so your adaptive response in the body is fight or flight! What do you need to do those things – energy. Where do you get energy? Glucose. Which is why if you have any insulin resistance, one of the best things to do to stabilize your energy in your day is to give up coffee and to work on stress resilience. (Hence why I created my stress resilience course!!)
The stimulatory effect it gives is great for alertness and concentration that it provides for some people. But even one cup in the morning, can cause caffeine crashes which have people running for sweets to drive up their energy, sleepless nights, especially in poor metabolizers of caffeine.
Drinking Green Tea
What about green tea, it has caffeine in it? Why would I recommend it?
Well for a few reasons. Green tea has many health properties and the number of great research articles to show the number of benefits it offers. The main constituents or health promoting effects are due to polyphenols, flavonoids and especially catechins, the powerhouse being epigallocatein-3-gallate, also known in short as EGCG.
Green tea’s constituent properties are preserved through how it is processed. The tea leaves are picked and then steamed and dried to retain the polyphenols and catechins.
These catechins have been studied to produce a plethora of benefits such as, protection against degenerative disease, antiproliferative activity in certain cancers, immune system modulation, reducing and preventing oxidative stress that can cause tissue damage. Green tea being high in these antioxidants can also have a great impact on the cardiovascular system, reducing risk of stroke and coronary heart disease.
Of course, nothing in this world is 100% for all people. Overdoing it on green tea and especially the extract EGCG (studies showing higher than 800mg or more), found in supplements can have its negative side effects like acting as a pro-oxidant and causing cellular damage in the liver. It also can accumulate aluminum, a heavy metal that can cause neurological inflammation.
You do have to be careful with where you source your green tea, many teas do contain multiple pesticides, fluoride, and heavy metal residues. In a study that looked at teas from around the world in 2013, they found that teas labeled organic from China did still contain levels of pesticides and around 70% of the teas had higher lead and aluminum levels.
Teas are also susceptible to mold depending on how they are grown and stored. You must also be careful with the teabags. Many companies will use bleached or chemically treated tea bags that will leach into your cup of tea. And unfortunately, we are now finding microplastics in tea bags. One of the chemicals used often in tea bags that also have been stated through the EPA to cause cancer and infertility is epichlorohydrin.
So, why do I still recommend green tea drinking, because when done right and when done in the right quantity, the benefits outweigh the potentially bad.
While caffeine is in tea, it is half as much as black tea which is roughly 20-40 mg of caffeine in one 8-ounce cup (compared to 200 mg of caffeine in 1 cup of coffee, or 60 mg of caffeine in black tea). It also contains theanine which is a very calming nutrient and has anxiolytic (reducing anxiety) properties. It helps with relaxation.
Again, I always say to my patients, know thyself. If even that little bit of caffeine makes you want to drink 20 cups or prevents a good night sleep, maybe green tea isn’t your health hack. You can make educated choices and end up with the best product and drink a cup of health when done right.
Side Note On Flavored Tea:
Usually there is no such thing as “natural” flavors or what you might think a natural flavor is (which would be actual peaches in peach flavored tea). Most natural flavoring are flavors that can mimic the taste they are looking for …but can come from anything – plants to even meats, dairy, seafood. It’s slightly grotesque to think about what sort of “essence” they are putting into teas to create different flavors. Can you imagine having that job. How do you make the essence of pig and crab taste like cherry?
Here Are Some Of The Things To Look Out For When Buying Tea:
- Check ingredients and really avoid anything that has flavorings, go with the magic of true and plain green tea in its original form. (In all transparency my favorite is jasmine pearl green tea, which does have actual jasmine flowers in it for additional flavoring, but it’s the flower that is used not chemicals or essences.)
- Only buy teas from China that you have vetted and know that they have high standards of production.
- Buy loose leaf tea instead of buying anything that has a tea bag.
- Do your own diligence and look at consumer reports from each year on the companies that are known to have used conventional tea with pesticides/herbicides / insecticides and use tea bags that are contaminated.
Some of the teas that have had good reports on their growing, processing, storing –are listed below. These are certified organic, non-GMO, and fair trade.
- Republic of tea loose tea
- Rishi loose tea
- Mountain rose herbs loose tea
- Arbor teas loose tea
- Buddha loose tea
- Numi loose tea
- Arbor Teas
My favorite after testing them all is the Arbor teas! They have exceptional quality and the tea is fabulous! ☺
Me with my matcha latte (I make my own nut milk with the Nama milk maker) – Delicious! ☺
