Java Junkie?

 About That Coffee…

I’ve mentioned that I grew up not drinking milk and still never do. So why has my bone density “off the chart” for a 20-year old even though I’m mid-forties? I’ve been tested multiple times now using different tests. I don’t know, but these are my guesses. They’re based on what the literature says about what affects bone density:

1. I do regular weight bearing exercise (I’m hit or miss with weights, but I do a ton of yoga)
2. I don’t drink soda
3. I have strong vitamin D levels (it’s a hormone as much or more than a vitamin) from both sunshine and supplements / sea vegetables
4. I get a lot of highly bioavailable calcium from greens (by the way, chia seed has five times more calcium useable by your body, than dairy does)

Here’s another thing I don’t do, though, that may have a major impact:
5.  I don’t drink coffee.
Yeah, sorry. The coffee thing really has to go, too.
In my cancer studies, I became acquainted  with Dr. Rashid Buttar, bestselling author of 9 Steps to Keep the Doctor Away. He’s about the most colorful doc I’ve worked with so far. (That’s saying a lot because I work with a lot of docs. Dr. Tom Lodi is one-of-a-kind, and he’s not afraid to express his horror at the fact that his profession has degenerated into almost exclusively drug pushers, and refuses to participate.)
Dr. Buttar says in his book that he’d rather have his patients drink a glass of red wine every few days than a cup of coffee in the morning. (Keep in mind he has never tasted alcohol, himself.)
You want caffeine, he says? Get caffeine pills from the drugstore. (He writes this facetiously, and I repeat it with the same intent. Caffeine is a terrible idea. But the point is, if the vehicle you drink to get your caffeine fix is packed with carcinogens, there’s a more direct and less toxic way to deliver that stimulant to your bloodstream.)
Coffee, he says, contains 208 different acids.
Your body has to expend a lot of energy and resources to neutralize acids. It takes 20 pounds of alkaline to neutralize 1 pound of acid, according to one of the reigning experts on pH balance in health and nutrition, Dr. Robert O. Young.
And, Dr. Buttar points out, when you shift your body towards acidic—and coffee likely deserves to make a Top Ten list for Most Acidic Foods—you predispose yourself to all the diseases everyone dreads. Because acidic environments are the perfect disease climates.
Osteoporosis. Cancer. Arthritis. Degenerative nerve diseases. Heart disease.
Arthritis for regular coffee drinkers is pretty much inevitable—but earlier rather than later.
So coffee drinkers are wondering, what do I replace coffee with? There is a brewed dark chocolate drink you can make, that is out in health food stores now. It’s called Crio Bru. Rooibos tea and Yerba Mate are caffeine-free and caffeinated choices with hearty flavors that coffee drinkers tend to like.
Another substitute to try is grain coffee–it isn’t actual coffee but  a ground mixture of  things like nuts, grains, dried fruits, and natural flavors that can be put together in any number of combinations and then  put into a regular drip coffee maker.  It can look and taste similar to coffee, and is sold under brands like Teeccino, found at Whole  Foods.
Don’t give up if the first substitute you try doesn’t do it for you. Something will. Don’t quit till you’ve kicked the java demon to the curb for good.