Today, I thought I'd talk a bit about something Americans hold near and dear, and it isn't Obama, death, or taxes. I thought I'd write about this because of something someone told me yesterday, about someone I know pretty well, who is having a bit of a rough time communicating with his staff, particularly as it gets later in the day. His top staff people are ready to bail on him, because he's an addict, and he doesn't realize it. His addiction makes him jittery, irritable, forgetful, profane, and tempermental, just to throw a few adjectives out there. His problem isn't alcohol, pain killers, or cocaine. If you asked 99 out of 100 people they would tell you it isn't a drug, but it IS. What I'm talking about is caffeine, most readily available at almost every corner in the country. If you drink a great deal of coffee, the chances are pretty good that you could be a caffeine addict yourself, and that's not a good thing. When coffee first entered the culture, it was served in 6 ounce cups, and that was considered a "cup of coffee." People had a "cup of coffee," or two. Medical people had more than that, but the problem began a decade or two back, when the sizes of portions really started to explode. Now, in most 7/11's, for instance, the smallest cup for coffee is 16 ounces, which amounts to 2 and 2/3 cups of coffee, and the "normal" size is 20-22 ounces, which is roughly 3 and a 1/2 cups. That volume corresponds to about 350 mg of caffeine. If you stopped there, you would minimize the damage, but the problem is that millions of people have more than one 22 ounce serving, which means that we are now talking about ingesting 700 mg of caffeine, just from coffee. That isn't good, and at that level, you risk heart disease, stroke, pyschological disorders, and many types of gastrointestinal disease. That isn't the end of the list, by a long shot. There's also fatigue, depression, muscle tension in your neck, shoulders, jaw, hands, legs, insomnia, bruxism (grinding your teeth), anxiety and...the list could go on, ad infinitum. This is definitely not stuff they want to hear at Starbucks, or Seattle's Roast, or 7/11. But it's true, and it happens every day. The gentlemen I was talking about at the start of this post is never seen without a large coffee in tow. He's an addict, and he may need medical help to detoxify him. Hopefully, that can be done before his whole office walks away, but sometimes, interventions aren't successful. Green tea is a much better alternative, and you don't need it in a 32 ounce container. Many people who are caffeine addicts go to the doctor, presenting all these problems I listed, but they don't tell the doctor about their coffee consumption, or exactly how much coffee they are sucking down their gullets. Then, they end up getting drugs for what ails them, and combine them with the caffeine. This only serves to make their problems worse. If you're going to drink coffee, keep the amount reasonable, and drink a good amount of water. And make sure you take a pharmaceutical grade fish oil, to make sure that you are getting all the omega-3 fatty acids you need, which will help to keep you balanced. My best advice would be to quit drinking anything with caffeine in it. I did. It IS a drug, and a powerful one, at that. It has a bigger downside than most people realize, in spite of all the good publicity it gets.
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