Coffee is wonderful. But I highly suggest stopping it if your aim is to heal your gut. Coffee can insult the gut lining and prevent it from healing and sealing.
I gave up coffee for a year (and caffeine for 6 months) while healing my gut. I knew I was finally healed, a year later, when I enjoy my first latte ever and felt great.
While it’s possible to enjoy coffee again one day, here’s why you should take a pause to address IBS.
Coffee is hard to quit, as it’s physically and psychologically addictive.
If you’re constipated, it may get things moving. If your adrenals are exhausted, you’ll crave a coffee pick me up to get started in the morning.
In both cases, coffee could be making things worse. Drinking it may be a crutch, but giving it up could help solve the underlying problem.
Not to mention, coffee (some studies show 26 to 45 percent are contaminated) can contain molds, pesticides and mycotoxins. Make sure your coffee is tested to be free of these toxins. I like this brand.
Here are a few reasons to part with your beloved brew for a while and what to drink instead.
Heal your adrenals
Fatigued adrenals will make you crave coffee and sugar like crazy. Caffeine stimulates the release of adrenal hormones from an exhausted gland. Coffee may make you feel good as you squeeze out the last drops of cortisol, but it will perpetuate the cycle of adrenal exhaustion.
With digestive dysfunction, the adrenals are working overtime to pump out cortisol to decrease gut inflammation. Cortisol is also released to stabilize blood sugar. If you have IBS or are stressed, your adrenals likely need support. Coffee can actually drive or increase stress and anxiety in this case.
Stopping coffee is crucial for adrenal recovery. It may be hard and feel bad in the short term but your mood and energy will have a better chance to rebound.
Heal heal leaky gut
If your gut is inflamed, due to food sensitivities, pathogens, overgrowths or stress, it can cause leaky gut. Leaky gut, can lead to multiple digestive issues, including multiple food sensitivities, allergies, head aches, joint pain, brain fog and fatigue.
Coffee irritates the intestinal lining and can perpetuate leaky gut. You best chance to patch a leaky gut is to give up coffee, among other changes.
Healing h pylori or prevent ulcers
Coffee is highly acidic and that acidity can also damage an inflamed stomach. Bacterial infections of the stomach can cause inflammation of the lining.
H. pylori is a bacterial infection of the stomach lining that causes the protective lining to wear away. In this case the acid in coffee can aggravate or cause ulcers.
To prevent diarrhea
Coffee is a bowel stimulant that speeds up intestinal transit time. If diarrhea is a concern, quitting coffee is a must. Quitting coffee alone may not be enough to solve the problem, as there may be other underlying causes for diarrhea, such as parasites or SIBO, but it won’t add fuel to the fire.
If constipation is an issue you may want to speed up transit time. The natural bowel stimulants below are a better choice as they don’t contribute to leaky gut or adrenal fatigue.
Buffered vitamin C, lemon water (to stimulate bile flow), Triphala , magnesium citrate and the stronger version, magnesium oxide are better ways to gently move the bowels.
To calm stress and anxiety
Because coffee is a stimulant, it activates the nervous system, which contributes a “fight or flight” state which raises cortisol and drives the body into chronic stress.
Coffee my make you feel clear headed and energized, but will keep your body from calming down. It can cause jitteriness, anxiety, insomnia and irregular heart beat.
Keep you from absorbing minerals
Coffee lowers levels of calming minerals such as calcium and magnesium. It does this by blocking your body’s ability to absorb magnesium from foods or in supplement form.
Symptoms of magnesium deficiency are anxiety, agitation, muscle spasms, tremors, twitches and irregular heart beat. Symptoms that are aggravated by caffeine consumption.
Also, the diuretic effect of coffee causes the loss of 10 mg of calcium per cup of coffee.
It acidifies your body
The high acid in coffee will contribute to heart burn and reflux and have a negative cascading effect on metabolism, hormone balance, mineral absorption, bladder health, blood pressure and inflammation.
So if coffee is out, what should you drink instead? Replace it with something that comforts or energizes you, so you don’t miss it as much.
Tea is hot, comforting and caffeinated. The caffeine in tea can help move bowels. It also has many healing properties to speed your healing process and address pathogens. It has more antioxidants than coffee.
You can lower your coffee consumption slowly. Reduce by half and replace it with tea. Keep reducing and replacing slowly until you are drinking only tea.
9 teas and their healing benefits
I discovered the tea straw in Argentina, which makes drinking loose leaf tea a breeze. Just put one teaspoon in a cup, add hot water and sip it through this easy to clean, metal straw. The straw filters out tea leaf debris.
Buying loose leaf tea in bulk can be cheaper, better quality, fresher, open up a wider selection and you can control the strength (how much you put in your cup).
Argentinian tea straws are inexpensive and available here.
Herbal teas:
Antimicrobial teas
Pau d’ arco
This is an amazing herbal (caffeine-free) tea that is commonly used to fight candida. There are two chemicals in this teas: lapachol and beta-lapachone, which target and kill fungus, as well as bacteria, viruses and parasites. This anti-microbial tea also has anti-inflammatory properties.
It’s mild tasting, needs to be brewed for 15 minutes and is a gentle way to rebalance your microbiome, if yeast overgrowth or sugar cravings are an issue. It’s good to drink this tea every time you have pathogen-driven sugar cravings to calm the desire. It’s available here.
Matula tea
Matula tea is a very expensive, medicinal tea that is used to effectively treat h. pylori. It’s also great for addressing candida.
Adaptogenic teas
Tulsi
Tulsi tea is an adaptogenic tea, which means it helps your body cope better with stress. It supports adrenals and helps melt belly fat caused by adrenal dysfunction. This is my favorite brand.
Hemp tea
Hemp tea helps ease anxiety and depression, aids in better sleep and lowers inflammation. You can boost the benefit and strength of this tea by adding hemp oil drops.
Detox and digestive teas
Cumin Coriander & Fennel tea
This is an ancient Ayurvedic herbal tea formulation for improving digestion, thus enhancing nutrient absorption and easing gas and bloating. Fennel is famous for addressing bloat and calming the intestines, but coriander and cumin also aid digestion and calm anxiety. This tea is great for relieving bloat.
You can find it here.
Ginger tea
Ginger tea has been used medicinally for year to fight nausea and stimulate digestion. It is also a prokinetic, meaning that it stimulates the cleansing wave of the small intestine. This tea helps address SIBO-related motility issues. You can buy bagged ginger tea or make your own tea from freshly grated ginger.
Peppermint tea
Peppermint tea help regulate digestion by relaxing spasms of intestinal muscles. It can also help sooth an upset stomach. Peppermint is lightly antimicrobial and also helps with gastric nausea.
Senna tea
Senna tea is a powerful bowel mover and can be used instead of coffee for addressing stubborn constipation.
Dandelion tea
Dandelion tea is an amazing supporting for the liver and thus a great detox tea. It helps stimulate bile flow, which breaks down fats, carbs and protein. Dandelion leaf is typically bitter but my favorite dandelion tea has vanilla added to make it smooth and slightly sweet.
Nettle tea
Nettle tea is also an amazing liver detoxifier. It’s good for urinary tract health (great for interstitial cystitis sufferers), helps with arthritic pain and is full of polyphenols, which feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
You can find a loose leaf blend of nettle and dandelion here.
Caffeinated teas
Caffeinated teas like black and green teas contain the amino acid l-theanine, which can help lower stress by increasing levels of mood lifting, gut regulating neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.
Green tea
Green tea still contains a good amount of caffeine, but doesn’t make you jittery. It gives a calm energy and supports brain health.
I look forward to my matcha latte every morning.
Green tea has so many health benefits. It fights h. pylori, aids in weight loss, detoxes the liver and fights cancer. The high level of catechins prevent cell damage. It’s also full of polyphenols which feed and support the biome.
Green tea is the best option (in my opinion) for replacing coffee and has many health benefits. Matcha is green tea leaves ground into a powder. Add 1/2 a teaspoon to hot water and a creamer of choice (I use nut milk). So yummy.
Mate
Mate is ultra popular in Argentina. People drink it all day long. It caffeinated, but energizes without jitters. Mate is typical consumed loose leaf through a tea straw but also come in tea bags.
Pu’er tea
This anti-inflammatory tea comes from China, where it’s called red tea. It is actually a fermented black tea. It is popularly know for aiding in weight loss but mainly because it helps detox the body and suppresses the synthesis and storage of fatty acids.
Pu’er’s high antioxidant content and ability to fight free radical helps prevent cancer, is good for heart health and boosts immunity with its vitamin C. It also contains GABA which increases melatonin production, leading to better sleep at night.
Black tea and chai
Black tea fight candida and yeast. Especially if you add the benefit of anti-microbial chai spices like cinnamon, clove and ginger . Chai is wonderful for taming sugar cravings due to its sweet flavors.
What to put in your tea:
If you tolerate fructose, raw local honey or antimicrobial Manuka honey will help boost your biome and immune system. Manuka honey is used to battle h pylori.
Lemon is a great addition to tea. Lemon juice and rind have alkalinizing, liver supporting, detoxifying and diuretic properties. It will boost the vitamin and antioxidants in each sip.
Collagen is a tasteless, protein powder used to repair gut lining. Adding a tablespoon to green or black tea with a bit of coconut oil will create a gut healing tonic. It will help balance blood sugar and repair gut lining damaged by pathogens, inflammation and coffee consumption.
I love putting home made or store bought nut or seed milk in my green or black tea. For nut sensitivities, coconut milk or Tigernut milk work well.
Angela Privin is proof that IBS is NOT an incurable disease or a disease at all. IBS is a body out of balance. It’s an invitation for change. After solving her own IBS mystery more than a decade ago Angela trained as a health coach to help others.
Angela uses both science and intuition to help people figure out what’s out of balance in their body. She works with lab tests, dietary changes, supplementation and nervous system rebalancing. Get help rebalancing your digestive system and solving your IBS mystery here.
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