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Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Not All Coffee Is Created Equal

By: Joel Luedke


Now, the title of this post might be one of the more obvious statements you would think we could make.  Obviously there are some much better tasting (key word) coffees compared to others but is that all there is to it?  When you really dig into it there are so many other things that go into making a great cup of coffee and it is impressive on how much of an impact it can have on your daily life.


Lets start off with a couple misnomers about coffee.  Often people talk about having to use the restroom more when drinking coffee and often that urge to go is blamed on the caffeine content.  While yes it is true that caffeine is a mild diuretic it is not strong enough to turn on that urge that quickly.  So why is that the case?  It all comes back to how coffee is produced and processed and this is where the story of mycotoxins comes into play.

What is a mycotoxin and where do they come from?  Without getting too much into the coffee producing process (because it is complicated and we don't fully follow either) it all starts with the drying and production of the beans.  If the process isn't tightly controlled and taken care of these mycotoxins (formed from fungus from a wet environment) are produced on the beans and they go from that processing early on to the production of your coffee that you take home.  When you ingest this coffee your body recognizes those toxins and immediately tries to get rid of them.  Ever had to go to the bathroom very quickly after coffee?  Yep, me too.  It's not always the caffeine's fault (intact it is only a mild diuretic) but it is the mycotoxins that your body is trying to get rid of as quickly as possible.

So what is the alternative?  Buying better coffee is a great place to start.  There are standards set throughout the world on the 'acceptable' level of these mycotoxins that can be present on the coffee.  Want to take a guess on a country that doesn't have any of these standards?  No no, not Russia, but the USA.  We actually as a country get the coffee that gets rejected from countries all around the world and we say it is ok.  No a good thing.

In a world where toxins are present everywhere and organic is a good way to go this is just one other thing that can affect your daily life.  Our co-host Kyle Boland actually had a real life experience with not up to par coffee.  Kyle was making kombucha (cold brew fermented drink) at home and did not have his better quality beans.  He followed the process as he has before and when it was time to take out the final product he was shocked to find a layer of mold on the top of his creation.  Literally a layer of mold that he could scrape off the top (which he didn't because he threw it away) that was the result of some bad coffee beans.

While sometimes paying for the good stuff hurts a little bit more than you would like it to it is good for you to do in the long run.  Those little things day to day that go unnoticed add up in the future.

Here are a couple options as well as a podcast on more of the specifics when it comes to this coffee topic that we think are worth checking out.  Keep enjoying the 'cup of joe' but do so in health.

Products: 
Caveman Coffee

Bulletproof Coffee

Podcast: Dan Cox-Caffeine, Coffee & Mycotoxins



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