Is Coffee still Coffee?

suchandra · January 9, 2008

Coffee is one of the most chemically treated food crops on the planet. It is heavily sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides, all known to cause health problems, including cancer and nervous system and reproductive disorders. In fact, most coffee is imported from countries that use chemicals that are banned in US.

Looks that quite a number of Vaishnavas became accustomed to drink a cup of coffee.

A mataji wrote:

"When working in a call center I started to drink coffee since everyone there did and you had all day the smell of freshly-brewed coffee in your office. However, my sleeping habit changed, instead of deep-sleep, I often dozed and around brahma-muhurta such a strong deep-sleep that I hardly could get up. In sum I needed more sleep and in the morning wasn't well rested unless again drinking coffee. Then I found out that coffee contains a neurotoxic substance that obviously changes your sleeping habit. Knowing this I could easily stop it and when going to bed now at 10 pm I wake up without alarm-clock and have no more circumorbital rings. Hare Krishna!"

Nestlé Corporation, the world's largest food manufacturer with over $65 billion in annual sales, has successfully secured a patent on genetically modified coffee.
Coffee is an $18 billion industry -- the most traded commodity in the world, second to oil. Americans drink more coffee than any other nation (350 million cups a day), with the average adult drinking more than 10 pounds a year. This demand is altering the way commercial coffee is grown.

Coffee is one of the most chemically treated food crops on the planet. It is heavily sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers, herbicides and fungicides, all known to cause health problems, including cancer and nervous system and reproductive disorders. In fact, most coffee is imported from countries that use chemicals that are banned in US.

Gourmet coffee that sells for $8-$9 a pound in the U.S. gives coffee farmers just 11-12 cents a pound. And according to a recent report, in Kenya for example, coffee harvesting is almost exclusively the domain of women and their children, while male workers spray coffee trees with toxic pesticides between 6 and 11 hours a day. Organic farmers who grow coffee on small, shaded, wildlife-friendly and pesticide-free land often can't compete in the marketplace, and their businesses often fail. They then become unable to pay for food, clothing, their children's education and health care. That's why eco-conscious companies are making a "fair trade" commitment to support smaller growers. But while Starbucks, the largest coffee distributor in the world, has slowly bought more Fair Trade coffee, it represents only about 3.7% of their total coffee purchases.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_4360.cfm

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suchandra · January 10, 2008

Looks that quite a number of Vaishnavas became accustomed to drink a cup of coffee.
A mataji wrote:

"When working in a call center I started to drink coffee since everyone there did and you had all day the smell of freshly-brewed coffee in your office. However, my sleeping habit changed, instead of deep-sleep, I often dozed and around brahma-muhurta such a strong deep-sleep that I hardly could get up. In sum I needed more sleep and in the morning wasn't well rested unless again drinking coffee.

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The hidden dangers of caffeine: How coffee causes exhaustion, fatigue and addiction

"Most a.m. coffee drinkers don't realize it, but their morning cups of coffee set their bodies up for a rollercoaster day of highs and lows, only to bottom out at the point of exhaustion. Just a few hours after consumption, when the artificial high dies down, many people may reach for more coffee or something sugary to get another lift, leading to daily fluctuations in energy and alertness, and possibly to eventual chronic adrenal exhaustion. Now, you don't have to explain your coffee addiction to me. I worked as an espresso barista for four years, so I know what it's like to drink coffee and espresso constantly. Throughout college, I drank about four espresso drinks a day, most of them doubles, and that's a conservative estimate. I only slept two or three hours most nights, but once a week or so, I would completely crash and sleep for twelve or thirteen hours straight. Since I graduated from college, I've also graduated to only drinking one cup of coffee a day and sometimes none at all. I feel much better and now I even have a somewhat normal sleeping schedule.

You probably don't drink as much coffee as I drank, but just one caffeinated drink – whether it's a soft drink, caffeinated tea or coffee – will put your body on the caffeine rollercoaster. When you consume caffeine, the drug begins its effects by initiating uncontrolled neuron firing in your brain, according to Stephen Cherniske in his book, Caffeine Blues. This excess neuron activity triggers your pituitary gland to secrete a hormone that tells your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin.

Adrenalin is what gives athletes that winning burst of energy and Good Samaritans the ability to rescue people by lifting cars. Adrenalin is also the source of our "fight-or-flight" response, which enabled our prehistoric ancestors to escape from saber-toothed tigers and other predators. By stimulating your adrenal glands to produce adrenalin, caffeine puts your body in this "fight-or-flight" state, which is useless while you're just sitting at your desk. When this adrenal high wears off later, you feel the drop in terms of fatigue, irritability, headache or confusion.

At this point, you may reach for another "hit" of caffeine, followed by another, and another and maybe even one more. If you constantly keep your body on a caffeine high, you're constantly keeping your body in "flight-or-flight" mode.

Cherniske explains your body's "perspective" of this constant state: "Imagine you lived in a country that was always under threat of attack. No matter where you went, there was a perpetual state of alert. Not only that, but your defenses were constantly being depleted and weakened. Does that sound stressful? Caffeine produces the same effect on your body, like fighting a war on multiple fronts at the same time." Cherniske calls your body's constant state of alert "caffeinism," which is characterized by fatigue, anxiety, mood swings, sleep disturbance, irritability and depression".

full article:http://www.newstarget.com/012352.html

madanbhakta · January 25, 2008

Having drunk coffee for such a long time, I am slowly getting off my addictions to hot chocolate and am drinking decaf coffee (and all its wonderful chemicals to make it decaffeinated). I still drink and eat chocolate, but I am trying to eat the stuff in moderation now. I have been having trouble sleeping for the past month though.

Even the smell of caffeinated coffee can stimulate a person. It's crazy how much of a Starbucks society we now live in. And as a result of my friend being a barista there, he developed a kidney stone from too much coffee.

Now I just need to exercise and emphasise those greens...