I get these questions about coffee and health all the time and as a coffee drinker myself; it is smart to take a look at both the good and the bad.

Now, I’m not here to tell you that coffee is good for you. If I did, I would be telling only the good side of the story and I’m not a politician. I am here to give you the good and the bad and tell you how you can incorporate your favorite coffee or tea into your healthy meal plan.

The Ugly Side of Caffeine

Most coffee and tea contains a lot of caffeine. This is usually the primary reason people make coffee their drink of choice in the morning. Caffeine is a drug like any other and comes with a long list of side effects. Have you ever tried not having your coffee in the morning? Yeah, pass the Excedrin, right? The headache that comes on when you try and kick this habit can be brutal (just like with other drugs) and creating a dependency and addiction like this is harmful to the body.

Second, coffee is extremely acidic. Our bodies function at optimum levels when they are slightly more alkaline (the opposite of acidic). It is best for us to greatly reduce any foods that will drive our body’s pH to be more acidic and eat more foods that are alkaline (like fruits and veggies). An acidic body pH is like a magnet for all kinds of illnesses. Also, an alkaline body has a much stronger immune system, making illness much less likely.

Last but not least, the caffeine in coffee and tea is abuse to your adrenal glands. Your adrenals release your “fight or flight” hormones basically giving you a nice “boost” when needed. Unfortunately, people who drink coffee all day long are consistently beating on their adrenals. This is equivalent of whipping a tired horse even when he is exhausted. Eventually he will not move at all.

The Pretty Side of Caffeine

Coffee tastes oh so yummy and makes me feel great in the morning. (What? Is that not a good enough reason to drink it?)

Many studies have shown that coffee can help in the prevention and treatment of diseases and illnesses as varied as Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, liver disease, skin cancer, Parkinson’s disease and more. Although, I don’t believe coffee will be the cure to any of these diseases, many ancient cultures did rely on the coffee bean to cure a long list of ailments. Not to mention, small doses of caffeine can increase performance and mental focus.

Green tea is also a great drink to include with a long list of benefits. If nothing else, green tea is a wonderful source of antioxidants which are important in cancer prevention. Green tea has even been found to raise metabolism and aid in fat burning. Before you go take a green tea bath, its effects are really minor when compared to the effects of sound nutrition and exercise plans. Now that I’ve said that, don’t think you can eat junk food and just wash it down with green tea!

What is a coffee and tea drinker to do?

1. Limit your coffee and tea intake to 2 – 8 cups per day. No, not 2 of each, 2 total. Any more than that is considered as a heavy addict. (I know. I’ve been there).

2. If you are currently dependent on a lot of caffeine each day, replace 1 or 2 cups of coffee with green tea instead. Green tea has much less caffeine than coffee and will help to combat the ugly detox symptoms.

3. Do not jack up your coffee with sugar, milk, syrup and whip cream (So I guess that means no Starbucks, huh?). Use stevia or xylitol to sweeten and avoid all the empty, harmful calories. A teaspoon of half won’t hurt either. Please oh please, do not use any of those flavored creamers. They are closer to someone’s chemistry experiment than they are to real food.

4. Make sure to make your food choices healthy. Avoiding other acidic foods like sugar, artificial sweeteners and processed foods will lighten the acid load on the body.

5. Make sure the coffee you drink is organic. Conventional coffee is filled with pesticides and chemicals and should be avoided at all costs.

There is no need to give up your morning coffee but it is important to drink the right types of coffee, without the added unhealthy extras and as with most things, in moderation.

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Here are 3 healthy meal plans you can get started on right now.

Breakfast

Protein should be included in every meal throughout the day and breakfast is no exception. Make sure to include organic eggs, cottage cheese, raw nut butter or smoked fish as one component of your healthy breakfast. Carbohydrates should also be included in the form of oatmeal, sprouted grain bread, fruit and/or vegetables.

3 great sample breakfasts are:

Oatmeal with almond butter, topped with fresh berries and a bit of Stevia to sweeten.

2 hard boiled eggs, 1 slice sprouted grain toast and ½ grapefruit

Smoked salmon over sliced tomato and 1 green apple

Lunch

The same rules apply as breakfast. An easy way to ensure that you always have a healthy protein available for lunch is to pack leftovers from dinner the night before. Leftover hamburger, chicken legs or wild fish are all great to include in a salad or over vegetables.

3 great sample lunches are:

Baked Tilapia over sautéed spinach, green salad with chick peas (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by ½ cup of pineapple.

Leftover chicken legs with ½ sweet potato and broccoli.

Lean hamburger over portabella mushroom and brown rice. Cooked vegetables or a green salad. 1 orange.

Dinner

You can really be creative with dinner. Look for recipes that are quick and easy and modify them with your own healthy ingredients as needed. Again, always remember to include protein and carbohydrates.

3 great sample dinners are:

Mexican salad: Ground beef over shredded lettuce and tomato, guacamole and brown rice.

Grilled Salmon over asparagus, green salad (oil and vinegar as dressing) followed by a fresh fruit salad.

Buffalo meat balls over rice pasta with sautéed broccoli.

Snacks

You never want to let your body get too hungry. Hunger often leads to binge eating of unhealthy food and makes sticking to a healthy eating regimen much more difficult. It’s important to keep snacks handy so you never experience hunger or a blood sugar low without having a healthy option nearby.

3 great snacks are:

2 Tbsp almond butter on ½ apple

Trail mix made up of walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit (no sugar added)

Cottage cheese and pineapple

Incorporate just a few of these meals into your daily eating regimen and you will see an incredible difference in your weight loss results. Following simple and healthy meal plans like these is the first step in achieving your health and fitness goals.

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Statistics show that approximately 75% of Americans are overweight, and 40% are suffering from obesity.

We all want to be fit. We all have inside us the drive to turn our lives around, and just seriously live a healthy lifestyle. As the cliché goes “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” As much as you want to be healthy, years of unchecked diet and little to no exercise kind of grows on you too well. For some, it’s the frustration of trying out several diet and health programs and not finding results that’s pushed them to just give up.

Here are a few easy to remember facts that will teach you how to eat healthy:

1. Go organic: At the start of the organic bandwagon, these kinds of food were priced quite higher than their regular counterparts or non-organics. Also, organic food was a tad smaller than chemically boosted non-organics. But today, as more and more people are switching to organic, the prices are getting lower and the quality is getting higher.

Organic food is simply healthier than non-organics. For instance, farmers who are switching to organic are required to “clean” their soil from chemical pesticides, a months-long process. Each food item market organic goes through very strict guidelines in order to pass as organic foods.

Dietary professionals even consider organic as the backbone of the best diet plan: for its nutritional value and lack of chemical additives and genetic interference. Organic really is the best way to eat.

2. Stop the sugar: It should come as no surprise that sugar is the number one factor in most regular diets that sustains weight gain.

Thoroughly inspect the nutritional value of a food item before you buy. Don’t totally eject sugar from your diet, just minimize it.

3. Healthy and unhealthy fats learn the difference: Low fat diet recipes means recipes that contain little to no unhealthy fats. Salmon, tuna, raw nuts, avocadoes, whole eggs, these are all good and fairly easy to find sources of healthy fats that should be a staple in any healthy dieting program.

Avoiding unhealthy fats means avoiding unwanted fatty buildups in the body, therefore promoting weight loss.

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