Coffee and other drugs *

Processed and ultra processed foods are consumed by everyone in the developed world . It is very difficult to avoid them as our culture normalized them and the corporate interests protect the profits they make from these items. (Coffee is known to be one of the highest profit commodities, "served fresh and delicious" all over the world)

Coffee needs to be roasted, grinded and cooked in order to be consumed - a great example of a processed food. As most people know, coffee is a stimulant but most of us don't pause to think what does it stimulate?

Coffee doesn't have any magical ingredient, it simply triggers a release of hormones, namely adrenaline, endorphin and dopamine. This powerful response makes us alert and happy, just like most drugs do.

But the hormones triggered, just like all of the hormones in the human body are finite commodities. Just like we can't produce unlimited amounts of sperm or human eggs, our body can not "pump" endless amounts of endorphins - these hormones are supposed to be produced in natural amounts for about 100 years that we are designed to live.

So triggering increased release and then increased production of said hormones is not a sustainable process. Our bodies respond with "normalizing" the release and so (like with any other drug) we see people using additional chips of coffee in order to produce the same effect.

Sugar acts the same way and unlike fructose (natural sugar found in fruits) we are encouraged to consume and we're served stronger varieties to keep us high and keep us coming back for more. A teaspoon of refined (white) sugar is equal to 10 teaspoons of fruit in the amount of glucose it contains. A teaspoon of high fructose corn syrup is a hundred (!!) reasons worth of fructose. No wonder our bodies can not keep up producing insulin - they have to make a 100 times more and soon enough, in 5 or 10 years there is not enough insulin production left to satisfy the needs.

Same happens with adrenaline, endorphins or dopamine... our natural ability to produce them can not last the years we consume coffee or refined sugar every day...

So the answer is sustainable consumption, moderation. It is unreasonable that we stop all coffee, all sweets. But we are so adaptable that having a cup of two per week or a cheesecake and an apple pie every week is not likely to create any permanent damage.

Alcohol is the same in the sense of how much a body can tolerate before getting permanently damaged. We can take a few servings per week for years and like with any other drug, we will not see major issues. The key is ability to delay gratification, to live a life that is rich in every way so we don't feel the need to over indulge in substance abuse.