America's No. 1 Drug Problem - Coffee

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AMERICA’S NO. 1 DRUG PROBLEM - COFFEE

JoAnn Guest

Nov 27, 2004 20:02 PST

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AMERICA’S NO. 1 DRUG PROBLEM - COFFEE

http://www.amazingdiet.org/

 

 

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/

 

 

Page updated 01/13/2004

_________________

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

DietaryTi-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Genes

 

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

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