#42: Coffee or breakfast first? What to start your day with?
I love, love, love, love coffee. Not just the drink itself but the ritual of drinking coffee. In our family there was no family gathering without a coffee (and a cake). To me coffee means a peaceful break, meeting friends or seeing family. It means celebrating and having a blissful time.
It represents safety, happiness and belonging.
Any break (including the ones during snowboarding) were coffee breaks.
Yet in today’s, fast-living life, coffee became something different. It isn’t a drink we choose to take a break and pause for a moment with. Today we use coffee to stay awake and power through the day. We drink it to do more and do it faster, rather than slow down. It kind of lost this special meaning. When I worked in the office I drunk more than 4 cups a day to stay focused, compensating my insufficient sleep. My hands were shaking, my stress levels increased and I had my first ever burnout. These were not my best days.
On top of that in the last few years coffee has been promoted as a metabolism boosting beverage, especially when drunk on the empty stomach.
When intermittent fasting became a new trend, coffee replaced breakfast.
That may be true but….
Most of the research that have proved the benefits of intermittent fasting and drinking coffee on an empty stomach was done on men. Men’s hormones follow a 24 hour cycle while female’s hormones fluctuate in 28 days cycles. Research done on females is more complex, with less unequivocal results.
It turns out that neither drinking caffeine beverages (not just coffee) nor intermittent fasting are safe for female hormones during reproductive years, especially for those who already suffer with hormonal imbalances (intermittent fasting can be safe and effective for women when done right[1])
Caffeine disrupts female hormones, including insulin, cortisol, estrogen and progesterone.
My favourite “Half Full” mug is broken and I am heart-broken.
As Alisa Vitti (author of “Woman Code”) explains, it increases stress hormones, causes cyst formation in the breasts and ovaries and increases the risk of infertility and miscarriage (if you suffer from existing hormonal imbalances).
If you don’t know if you suffer from hormonal imbalances here are some symptoms of hormonal imbalances: PMS, severe period cramps, bloating, acne, moodiness/depression, anxiety, you have been steadily gaining weight for a few months or years, you can’t seem to lose weight even with a healthy diet and increased exercise, chronic exhaustion/fatigue, cyclical migraines, sugar cravings, breast or ovarian cysts, low sex drive, low energy, endometriosis, PCOS [2].
When Freya was 9 month old, I got desperate to lose my baby belly. For many years I was advising my female clients to never skip breakfast and avoid intermittent fasting. When it first became a new trend, specialists warned that it works for men, but not for women due to our more complex hormonal cycle. If done incorrectly, it can cause a lot of hormonal imbalances for women in their reproductive years[3]. But when I came across it once again in “Eat Smarter” book by Shawn Stevenson, who I admire for his work and knowledge, I assumed that more research was done and somehow intermittent fasting became safe for women. I needed to believe that I could control my weight loss and that I could get fast results. My fasting window was 13- a couple hours before having hours. I started my day with pint of water and one or two cups of coffee. I didn’t skip my meals as I was still breastfeeding (there are safer ways to cut calories like stop eating sugar, which always works miracles for me). I was already having my one cup of coffee a day, before breakfast. The only thing I changed was having my breakfast later than usual. Before I started it I was already very tired as Freya never slept well.
But afterwards I wasn’t tired anymore I was fatigued.
I lost some weight, but I also became extremely exhausted. I was stressed and tired all the time. I continued for about 5 months but the longer it lasted, the less weight I was losing and the lower energy I had throughout the day. As a mum, I cannot afford having no energy.
I did more research and it turns out that intermittent fasting disrupts estrogen balance (I didn’t know that at the time).
Drinking coffee at any time throughout the day does the same thing. For as long as we’re breastfeeding our estrogen is low (it is one reason why mums have lower energy). If we disrupt it even more, we are up for a big hormonal and energy trouble. Both also affect our glucose control. With sugar spikes and drops we end up feeling exhausted just a couple hours after getting up. Losing a few kilograms was not worth the price.
Today I start my day with a cup of caffeine-free rooibos tea and have my breakfast within an hour of waking up. Only after breakfast I have one cup of coffee (usually before 10am). Just that helped me balance my energy throughout the day. I stopped breastfeeding after 18,5 months and that also made a huge difference. There are still days when I need a nap during the day but that is more related to the sleep I’m getting at night. I don’t have those post caffeine sugar drops anymore. I don’t substitute my sleep with coffee but have a power nap when Freya naps. I also stopped pushing myself to do long, high intensity workouts but follow my menstrual cycle and do shorter workouts that are in sync with my hormones. It was life changing for me. If you feel like it is something that you need, check out our “FB group 5-min workouts for tired mums”.
To conclude I would like to advise you to ditch your pre-breakfast coffee and see if you’re feeling better without it.
Even if you’re not a super tired mum, you may feel some other symptoms improving. I would also try to gradually cut your coffee intake to one cup and day or quit it if you suffer with any hormonal imbalances already. Otherwise, the research is not unequivocal and argues that there can be some benefits of moderate coffee consumption ( 1-2 cups a day) for both female and male.
Yet, too much coffee is not healthy for anyone.
If you drink coffee to keep your energy up, there are better ways to do it. For me the best ones are drinking plenty water, homemade isotonic (you can find my recipe for homemade one here) or vitamin C. I also really like green smoothies made mainly with spinach and some fruits like apple, banana, pineapple and flax seeds, as I share it with Freya. This is the only way for her to have spinach. Double win.
With Love,
Karo
[1] https://www.floliving.com/intermittent-fasting/
[2] https://www.floliving.com/caffeine/
[3] https://www.floliving.com/intermittent-fasting/