Are you one of those people who can’t get going in the morning without a cup of coffee? A whopping 68% of Americans surveyed start their day with a cup of joe. What most people are unaware of are the long term side effects that come from flooding their system with caffeine on a daily basis. Some people enjoy the taste, but the majority of those polled admitted that they use it as a crutch to get through the day. The irony here is that over the long haul, you might actually be making it harder on yourself to get through the day. Let me explain.

There is no doubt that coffee will give you more energy. The problem is that the energy comes in rapid fashion. And what typically happens when something elevates quickly? It will also fall quickly. Unfortunately, caffeine is not time-released. This is referred to as the ‘crash’.

To help make sense of this, here is a crash course on insulin/blood sugar and how it affects your body. You wake up in the morning and feel flat. So you put on a pot of coffee.  Within 10 minutes your energy and alertness are at a 10. You are on top of the world. You head out to start your day and for the first little while you are extremely focused and productive. An hour or so later you start to feel groggy and much less alert. Naturally you want to get that surge of energy back, so you grab another cup of coffee and you’re back to square one. This is due to an increase in blood sugar. And just like you did the first time, eventually you will have to crash.

Here is the reason you feel lethargic.

Let’s start with the sugar you might be adding to your coffee. When you ingest sugar, insulin is secreted from your pancreas to take a lot of that sugar out of the blood, and as a result, your blood sugar drops. You have two small glands the size of peanuts that rest on top of your kidneys called adrenal glands. When you drink any form of caffeine be it coffee, colas or energy drinks, these glands see it as a form of stress being placed on them and their job is to respond. So when you ingest caffeine, these glands will release stress hormones into the blood stream. Namely cortisol and adrenaline.

Adrenaline is a feel good hormone. When you produce enough of it you feel as though you are ready for anything. The main issue with adrenaline is that it goes to different storage areas in your body. It can be stored as glycogen (carbohydrate stores) or it can be stored in your fat cells which end up breaking it down into individual glucose (sugar) molecules, which enter your bloodstream. That’s where the problem lies. Now you’re tapping into your energy reserves, which increases your blood sugar. (The reason is that it’s preparing your body to fight/flight so you can use that sugar for immediate energy.)

This quick spike in blood sugar only lasts for a short period of time because your insulin’s job is to manage blood sugar. So it clears the sugar out of the blood as a matter of safety. Once your insulin removes the sugar from your blood, you crash, and the cycle repeats itself again with the more coffee you drink. The reason you are so tired is because your adrenal glands no longer function optimally due to the repeated stress placed upon them.

Next week I will discuss some caffeine alternatives and give you tips on how to remove coffee from your life entirely.