The most popular belief out there is that coffee/caffeine is a diuretic and thus the amount of hydration we lose contributes to advanced aging.........well perhaps if you drank 3 or more cups, went to a Bikram yoga class and never drank water or ate fresh foods that already contain water this might be a really big issue.
Anything less than a gallon a day of water for me and my forehead lines begin to appear and I get cranky and hungry. I am the exception. It is popularly advised we should drink half of our weight in ounces of water each day. Note that it's important not to throw off your electrolytes so it might be a good idea to increase your water intake gradually. Throw some coconut water into your diet while you're at it to help balance out those electrolytes.
Moving along..... the biggest culprit behind caffeine is something rarely ever discussed: Magnesium deficiency. Magnesium is the number one mineral that our body needs and caffeine actually robs us of magnesium. 50% of our Magnesium is stored in our bones. Furthermore coffee and other beverages that usually contain caffeine are highly acidic. Acidity forces our blood to try to balance the pH (acid) in the body. The body does this by leaching the calcium from our bones. Magnesium needs calcium. Confused yet? Parlez vous osteoporosis and arthritis?
Does this mean we should give up coffee or caffeine? Nah. Coffee is actually quite beneficial. For starters it has soluble fiber (why people poo after drinking coffee), it's great for antioxidants and much more.
There are high rates of side effects or signs of allergies from caffeine:
-Sleeplessness
-Stress
-Anxiety
-Paranoia .......wait those are also all of the signs of a MAGNESIUM Deficiency.
Are you connecting any dots yet?
The best way to get Magnesium is in our unfiltered TAP water. Most bottled water is robbed of Magnesium and full of other plastic problems like endocrine disruptors. Many of the bottled waters out there are distilled (SmartWater) or Reverse Osmosis, which robs valuable minerals from our bodies throwing our cells way out of whack! Magnesium is also very difficult to absorb in food.
I personally take
Calm Plus Calcium. It makes me sleep like a baby......when I actually have time to sleep.
To read more about the science of Magnesium check out
this LINK. Just understand Magnesium is vital. So get SUM today (but chat with a licensed practioner before making any dietary changes)! You can't just take a supplement without knowing it might throw something else in the body off, which happens far too often.
Thanks for reading!
Mary Schook