I am writing this article to talk about my own personal preferences on caffeine, how it has had an effect on my health, and what I believe about caffeine in regards to its effect on the overall health and other people.
The first thing that I want to remind all of you of is the fact that caffeine is a drug. It is a very well accepted drug that helps promote alertness, keeps college students awake long enough to finish midterm papers, and assists people in getting really enthusiastic about otherwise mundane topics. Nevertheless, it IS a stimulant. However, because it is done by almost everybody, it does not have a lot of the negative stigmas attached to it that other drugs do. Next, I would like to say that I love caffeine. Without caffeine, I can honestly say that I would not be where I am today. I have had countless workouts that would have not happened had it not been for caffeine. As I was saying before, regarding college, I would not have finished a lot of my papers on time. Lastly, I probably would not have had all of the ideas that I have had up until this point with Man Flow Yoga. That being said, I am going to give the same advice regarding caffeine that I would with anything else in life: moderation.
Caffeine intake everyday in small amounts is perfectly acceptable. Tea is a great way to take in caffeine, provide a nice energy boost, and help rid your body of toxins. Coffee, on the other hand, is a very potent source of caffeine. If we were to consider caffeine in terms of alcohol, then tea would be an average beer that you casually have with dinner, and coffee would be Jack Daniel’s, or another fine brand of whiskey that you have as a desert post-dinner. One beer I can do everyday without any significant threats to my health. (In fact, even the American Council on Exercise, the most recognized personal training certifier in the United States, recommends a beer a day.) Having a couple shots of Jack everyday, conversely, may start to have an adverse effect. Getting back to caffeine, tea has an insubstantial enough amount of caffeine that if you have it on a consistent basis and then one morning, for whatever reason, you end up in a situation where you are unable to have it, you are still able to function without it. Having coffee every day does not allow this same luxury. We all know those people (and probably half of the people reading this right now are guilty of this) who have said the words, “Please fuck off until I have had my morning coffee.” Therefore, coffee is much more addictive than tea can be. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my body to be reliant on anything, so I try to keep my coffee orders to less than two weekly.
That all said, if you drink coffee everyday and you love it, then please continue to drink coffee. There are hundreds of studies promoting the health benefits of daily coffee consumption (even up to 3-4 cups of coffee) that also state that users of that much coffee daily do not encounter any more health risks than do the people who do not consume coffee daily. Tea is a great way to get your caffeine in moderation on a daily basis, and I personally have noticed minimal difference between a day with and a day without tea. Energy drinks are crap; lot of unnecessary ingredients that actually do more harm then good. Skip the energy drink and have some coffee, tea, or a non-sugar based drink packed with B12 or B6 vitamins if you need the energy boost. I am not writing anything in this article regarding the other most popular form of caffeine [soda/pop/coke] because it is a beverage of such low quality that it is not even worth my time discussing. In my opinion, you should not even bother with it unless you are using it to help dilute the taste of your hard liquor of choice. (And then even at that point, just mix it with juice, tonic or water).
In conclusion, it is my opinion that tea everyday is perfectly healthy, the occasional coffee (once or twice a week) is a nice, moderate level of intake of caffeine, and soda is barely worth its status in a mixer in one of my staples at the bars (whiskey and coke).
By the way – t-shirts are back on sale! Send me an email at [email protected] to order yours. I have limited quantities of 100% cotton, v-neck, modern fit t-shirts in an indigo/navy color bearing a large Man Flow Yoga logo on the front and back. The back says “Getting yolked with” just above the MFY logo. Check out a pic below!
Cheers! (To your health)