Coffee. One of the most common drinks in the world. For me it can be a dealbreaker for the day.
If you ever read (or even tried) something around “elimination diet” you will know that coffee, or more correctly caffeine, is one of the things you should try to eliminate. The elimination will potentially make you feel better. Even small doses of caffeine can impact your health.1
BUT.. there is also evidence that coffee, in the right amounts, can be good for your health and potentially make you live longer.2 So how do we, as normal human beings, cope with such contradictions? And how much is too much?
What I believe, and this is also what Vivante is all about, is that the answer will often be “it depends”.
I studied to become a pharmacist and I am all for robust evidence in the form of randomized controlled trials and prospective studies. We need these type of studies to really understand how pharmaceutical drugs and other interventions work in isolated systems where we can control for other co-founding factors (such as body composition and age to name two out of many).
In real life however, we cannot control for those things and here is where I think there is so much more that impacts our health. As for myself for example. I did try an elimination diet and drank way less coffee than usual at least.. It felt good. On the other hand, last week, when I had this 3rd or 4th cup of coffee for the day, on my own, in a nice silent café with only my own thoughts, I felt this coffee did miracles to my mindset and mood. So... as for the toxicity of my coffee consumption; I believe there is a scientific answer (avoid caffeine above 400mg/day or 3-4 cups of brewed coffee) & there is also a broader answer that includes individual uptake and holistic impact of the moment spent when having the coffee =).
I will be writing about the small and big things that seem to be beneficial to improve global and individual health. One day an article might be about what ingredients you should put in your smoothy if you want to boost your friendly bacterial soldiers in your stomach, the other day it might be an article about how much I believe in the quote “culture eats strategy for breakfast” when it comes to making big changes in our health care systems.
I am genuinely passionate about people and health and I hope you will join me on the journey of reverting a tragic trend towards non-health in all shapes and forms!
