America's No. 1 Drug Problem - Coffee]

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>AMERICA’S NO. 1 DRUG PROBLEM - COFFEE

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==========================================================AMERICA’S NO. 1 DRUG

PROBLEM - COFFEE

>http://www.amazingdiet.org/

>

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>Caffeine is the world’s most popular stimulant. The drug four out of

>five Americans take on any given day.

>Most of the caffeine we consume comes from coffee.

>

>The United States buys nearly one-half of the world supply of coffee

>beans. It is said that a food service operation can stand or fall on its

>reputation of the coffee it serves. Every mid-morning and mid-afternoon

>working day millions of office and factory workers abandon jobs for an

>employer-paid “coffee break.”

>

>Over 15,000,000 Americans are hooked on coffee; and most of them don’t

>even know it, so insidious is its addictive onslaught. The child or

>adult may unknowingly ingest several hundred milligrams of caffeine

>daily.

>

>Like narcotics, alcohol or cigarettes, coffee and caffeinated beverages

>are addictive, destructive drugs which each year predispose millions of

>Americans to crippling illnesses and sometimes fatal diseases.

>

>Coffee and tea are the two most popular beverages in America. Less than

>9 percent of the population drink neither coffee nor tea.

>

>Coffee is America’s No. 1 drug problem.

>

>CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL

>Caffeine withdrawal can occur from just missing one cup of coffee in the

>morning. Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal are headaches, irritability,

>inability to work effectively, nervousness, restlessness and lethargy.

>

>A steady user of caffeine may, at times, experience tight headaches in

>the back of the neck area and be quick to anger or irritation.

>

>CAFFEINE ACTS AS A STIMULANT

>Caffeine is a toxic stimulant. Body reactions are speeded up.

>This is not a natural thing for the body.

>What it does is activate The Fight or Flight Response.

>

>Executive Fitness Newsletter, October 13, 1984, stated: “It’s important

>to remember that the caffeine in coffee is a powerful substance.

>

>It can stimulate the central nervous system, increase heartbeat and

>metabolic rate, increase the secretion of stomach acid, and step up

>secretion of stomach acid, and step up kidney and bladder action. It’s

>also well known for its annoying ability to affect sleep.”

>

>The article goes on to say that in higher doses, caffeine can cause

>“coffee nerves” with a wide assortment of symptoms “including anxiety,

>irritability, headaches, light-headedness, nausea and diarrhea.”

>

>Coffee can cause a temporary increase in blood sugar, but it is quickly

>followed by a decrease, and stimulates the release of " adrenalin " ,

>which causes body tissues to be broken down into sugar and fat.

>

>Too much insulin is produced, and the blood sugar falls to a low level.

>

>

>CAFFEINE IS A POISON

>Caffeine, which is the main chemical in coffee, is a powerful poison!

>

>A drop of caffeine injected into the skin of an animal will produce

>death within a few minutes.

>

>An infinitely small amount injected into the brain will cause

>convulsions.

>

>The amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee is quite small. Yet we drink

>coffee because of the effect of the caffeine,

>just as we smoke because of the effect of the nicotine.

>

>Both are drugs, both are habit-forming! Both are poisons

>

>

>COFFEE-DRINKING & STOMACH ULCERS

>Two modern disorders: The general public usually associates with coffee

>drinking — ulcers and heart trouble. J.A. Roth and A.C. Ivy, whose

>animal experiments on coffee are famous, state in Gastroenterology,

>November, 1948:

>

>“Caffeine produces gastro-duodenal ulcers in animals to

>whom the drug is given in a beeswax container so that their stomachs are

>absorbing caffeine continually.

>

>Also, caffeine produces very definite changes in the blood vessels of

>animals, which are similar to changes produced by prolonged resentment

>hostility and anxiety.”

>

>COFFEE LINKED TO HIP FRACTURES

>The Providence Journal wrote in October 1, 1990: “People who drink more

>than two cups of coffee or four cups of tea a day could be increasing

>their risk of hip fracture in old age, according to a new study.

>

>“The study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of

>Epidemiology, is the first to link caffeine consumption with hip

>fractures that occur in older people whose bones have weakened.

>

>A hip fracture often marks an elderly person’s final decline into

>dependency or death.

>“Dr. Douglas P. Kiel, a professor of medicine at Brown University, and

>his colleagues looked at how much coffee or tea 3,170 people reported

>drinking over 14 years.

>

>Then they looked to see which ones fractured their hips, a sign that

>bones had become brittle. They found that heavy

>caffeine drinkers were 53 percent more likely to suffer hip fractures.

>

>“Caffeine has long been suspected of draining calcium from the bones,

>because people who consume it have higher levels of calcium in their

>urine.

>

>Loss of calcium leads to osteoporosis, the brittle-bone condition

>that afflicts many elderly people, and results in an estimated 250,000

>hip fractures each year.”

>

>INFERTILITY

>Trying to become pregnant? Then you should stop drinking caffinated

>drinks. Among 104 women who drank just one cup of caffinated coffee a

>day were half as likely to become pregnant during any given menstrual

>cycle as those who drank less, accoding to a 1988 study by Allen Wilcox

>of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research

>Triangle Park, North Carolina.

>

>Most of the studies conducted since then have also found that caffeine

>impairs fertility, but usually only at three or more cups of regular

>coffee a day.

>

>But the research is only as good or bad-as the women’s memories. For

>example, scientists at Johns Hopkins University found that among 2,500

>women who were trying to become pregnant, consuming more than 300

>milligrams of caffeine a day reduced their chances of succeeding in any

>given month by 17 percent.

>

>But those results were based on the amount of coffee and soft drinks

>the women could remember having consumed as many

>as ten years earlier.

>

>Even so, “it’s probably prudent for women who are trying to become

>pregnant, and especially for those having trouble, to cut back on

>caffeine,” says Mark Klebanoff of the National Institute of Child Health

>and Human Development in Bethesda, Maryland.

>

>DOES COFFEE CAUSE CANCER?

>There is mounting evidence suggesting that if you want to avoid certain

>cancers, you are well-advised to kick the coffee habit.

>

>Roasting coffee produces tars and has the same characteristic as coal

>tar.

>

>- One study revealed that not only was coffee drinking associated with

>increased risk of bladder cancer, but the drinking of non-diet cola

>drinks also was linked to this problem.

>

>- Coffee drinking increases the risk of birth defects.

>

>- Coffee drinking increases blood pressure, increasing the risk of heart

>disease.

>

>It is commonly thought that the drinking of coffee, soft drinks, and

>other caffinated drinks is a minor matter as far as our health is

>concerned. But is it?

>

>We cannot estimate its effect on mind and emotions, discrimination and

>judgment. And then there is the harmful effects of the stimulation on

>the heart and other vital organs.

>

>Coffee and other caffeine beverages are poor substitutes for water.

>

>The body need fluids, but not stimulating drugs.

>

>Giving up the coffee habit is relatively easy to do for most folks —

>once a commitment has been made. Since caffeine is a less toxic drug

>than alcohol and street drugs, the majority of coffee drinkers can give

>up the habit without the sort of difficulties that both alcoholics and

>drug addicts typically experience.

>

>While it is true that caffeine has been around a long time,

>that is not necessarily its best enforsement.

>Russian roulette has been around for some time, too!

>

>When giving up caffeine eat and drink nothing that does not contribute

>in some way to good nutrition for the body. Any food or drink that

>contains neither vitamins, minerals or enzymes should automatically be

>crossed off the list.

>

>While breaking “the coffee habit” be sure to drink plenty of fresh

>juices and pure water.

>

>“Just how widespread is coffee drinking?

>

>The average American drinks over twenty-six gallons of coffee per year,

>but perhaps more germane to the discussion is caffeine itself.

>

>Coffee has over three hundred chemicals; caffeine is only one of them.”

>

>

>- Carol Simontacchi, The Crazy Makers

>By Katy Chamberlin

>

>Katy Chamberlin' Books New

>

>References:

>

>1. Charles F. Wetherall, Kicking The Coffee Habit, Wetherall Publ. Co.

>MN.

>2. Andrew Weil, M.D. & Winifred Rosen, Chocolate To Morphine, Houghton

>Mifflin Co., Boston, Mass.

>3. Carol Simontacchi, The Crazy Makers, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, NY.

>4. Nutrition Action, newsletter published by Center for Science in the

>Public Interest, 1755 S. Street, N.W., WA, D.C.

>5. Winston Craig, Ph.D., What’s This About Caffeine, Cocoa, And

>Chocolate?, Wildwood Echoes,

>Fall, 1981.

>6. Mervyn G. Hardinge, M.D., A Philosophy of Health, Loma Linda

>University, CA.

>

>http://www.amazingdiet.org/

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