The Coffee Lowdown

In Monday's Instagram post I mentioned that my doctors suggest I drink no more than 1 cup of coffee a day. I think in an ideal world they would prefer that I cut caffeine out of my diet entirely, but I don't think Ray or Luca would ever forgive them if I tried. I should mention that I have anxiety and also get cystic acne. Apparently coffee doesn't help either...who knew ;). Anyway, after doing some research I figured I would share with you my findings of the pros and cons of caffeine. But, let's be honest, I do not expect you to cut it out cold turkey. I wish I could but it'll never happen.

The Pros of Caffeine 

• It can relieve fatigue (duh)
• It could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and Dementia 
• It lowers the risk of stroke for older women
• Studies say it can lead to a longer life (maybe the cystic acne isn't that bad then...)
• It can reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes
• My own experience: It keeps me regular (TMI)

The Cons of Caffeine

• It increases anxiety (the main reason I should cut it out)
• It can interact poorly with other medication you are on
• It is highly acidic= heartburn
• Can lead to stomach aches
• If you suffer from IBS or other stomach-related issues, could be a nono
• It can affect your blood sugar levels and thus elevate stress hormones which can trigger inflammation in the body (aka not good for acne, especially cystic acne). 
• It can also dehydrate your body which is bad for your skin, especially when you have acne

So what do you do with this information? I'm not really sure! I know for me I'm trying realllyy hard to limit my coffee to one cup a day. I recently asked a dermo about green tea as an alternative. While she did say it's better than coffee, it still has a lot of caffeine. I'm going to try and replace my afternoon coffee with interesting drink alternatives, like this pin detox one or this turmeric-ginger drink.