Caffeine: It helps us get the job done.
But what if the majority of mainstream caffeine drinks, no matter their trendy packaging or bikini-promoting influencers, are prematurely aging you?
AKA: Making you look OLDER than you are.
Yikes.
That could be a problem, considering 94% of Americans drink caffeine.
Good news though:
It's easy to switch out sub-par energy sources for ones that fuel you so can tackle and win each day...
Here are 3 ways to do just that:
1. Avoid sugar, especially in drinks
Our bodies cannot effectively process the amount of sugar present (or hidden) in the foods and drinks we consume today.
In fact: According to the American Heart Association, here are the suggested limits to how much sugar men and women should consume in a day:
- Men: 9 teaspoons (36 grams or 150 calories)
- Women: 6 teaspoons (25 grams or 150 calories)
Most people blow this figure out of the water with one drink or snack.
Unless you are 100% avoiding sugar from other foods (like those adhering to the keto diet)... you can't afford to suck down sugar in a drink.
Plus: There is NO dietary need for sugar.
Any health benefits we receive from fruit doesn't have anything to do with the sugar, but from the vitamins and antioxidants latent in the fruit - not the sugar.
Dr. Berg posted a 13-minute worth-watching video illustrating that sugar consumption sets off a fire alarm in your body - an emergency state that other systems and organs now need to bend over backwards to handle.
In short? We don't NEED sugar. But we are addicted to it, thanks to:
BIG Sugar Business - as detailed in an investigative journalism book called The Case Against Sugar.
This book explains how sugar has insidiously been slipped into almost everything (even BBQ sauces, ketchup and canned soup), though there is NO proof that sugar is good for you...
In fact:
A simple Google search will immediately tell you that excess sugar burdens your liver...
Your liver, which is responsible for a LOT, but can be distilled down to being a huge filter for your body that aids in the overall digestion/metabolism process.
If you have any experience with machines or homes, you know that when a filter gets clogged up, the entire machine can't work correctly.
Consume too much sugar, your liver compensates by becoming fatty (yikes, what a word), and thus:
Unable to work.
When one organ or system stops working correctly, it backs up other systems and organs, rendering them ineffective to some degree...
And this all boils down to aging you prematurely because you can't be full of vitality and free of toxins if you're clogged up with mounting toxins, fat, and other wastes your body can't process and thus, get rid of.
When you consume too much sugar, a condition results called glycation - a fancy word that means sugar molecules bind to proteins and other entities (such as fats) within the body, rendering them inflexible and less effective...
Kind of like if you were trying to speed walk, but now a gorilla jumps on your back, and you're supposed to keep up the speed somehow... but obviously:
You can't.
One of the major proteins that sugar molecules stick to is the skin-boosting protein we've all heard of:
Collagen.
Collagen, thus, becomes less able to do its job in keeping our skin structure in tact, supple, and elastic, and hence:
We appear more aged.
Furthermore, sugar contributes to:
- The creation of free radicals
- Oxidative damage in the body
- Inflammation in the body...
So it's not only turning your skin into a leather purse earlier than normal...
Sugar is aging your body from the inside out, all over.
Reducing sugar in the diet takes attention and effort, and one of the easiest ways to get rid of a big dose of it is by only drinking sugar free beverages.
2. Choose herbs and adaptogens for energy - not lab-derived muck
Dig into the ingredients in some of those trendy, often canned, green-washed drinks, and you'll find out that the caffeine that claims to be tea-based is actually from a lab -
- Highly processed
- Washed, rinsed, and treated with chemicals
- Higher in concentration and quickly absorbed by the body (hence: crashes)
You don't need to reach for the cheap stuff...
Nature has provided us with phenomenal and definitely underused herbs that balance the endocrine systems of our body...
- Helping us to adapt to the demands of life we inevitably encounter,
- Enabling us to be more adaptable, and thus:
- Making us more able to create, control, utilize, and reserve our energy
Consuming herbs such as ashwagandha and rhodiola rosea help your body bounce back from the hits it takes daily from, well, life.
A prematurely aging body is one that is being hit too hard, too often, with not enough stamina to bounce back and recharge, heal, and stop the slide downhill.
ONLY intaking caffeine (synthetic caffeine, or even just straight natural caffeine with zero endocrine support) just registers as a hit to the body.
Drinking caffeine WITH herbs formulated to calibrate the body's ability to be adaptable to life's demands will render you more energetic and less worn out over time.
And that's your anti aging tactic right there:
You want to be more energetic, less worn down -
So don't reach for beverages doing that to you.
3. Don't depend on caffeine drinks for hydration
Hydration comes from not only water, but minerals and electrolytes (which we lose through living, sweating, and if you're a woman, through pregnancy, childbirth, and even your monthly menstrual cycle).
When you drink something with serious ounces, it needs to hydrate you, period.
You can't afford to dehydrate yourself anymore than what the meals you digest already do. Anytime you consume food that is not HIGH in water content (think raw foods, soups, and smoothies), your body needs to contribute innate water in order to enable digestion to work the food substance down the 36-foot piping called your digestive tract.
So if you're drinking a dehydrating caffeine drink, you're setting yourself back in hydration.
Plus:
Depending on caffeine drinks for hydration can lead to collagen diminishment, which is another way of saying:
Your skin will suffer.
And your skin is a major indicator of how much you are aging.
If you're supplanting a glass of water with a carbonated can of anything, you're dehydrating yourself.
Air bubbles (carbonation) in drinks don't hydrate you; in fact, they achieve the opposite.
Best to take a small sip of an herbal energy shot, then guzzle the water you know you need.