I’d like you to imagine how a regular work day starts for most of us. It probably seems something like this: getting up early in the morning, preparing for work and pouring yourself a cup of coffee to energize you and help you keep that feeling through the day. Just the smell of freshly grounded coffee arouses your senses, isn’t that right?
Well, now it is about time to learn something more about drinking coffee on an empty stomach, face some real facts and maybe in the future make some different decisions from the very start of the day which will determinate its flow. Nobody says that drinking coffee would do no good, however starting your day with a cup of coffee will have negative effects on your health.
The best alternative would be to have something to eat before drinking your coffee, or including the cup of coffee as a part of your breakfast. Therefore, for all those coffee addicts who won’t be satisfied with only one cup, sometimes a cup of coffee in the afternoon, between meals or as a replacement of a snack is an alternative which is always a good choice.
We are here to share with you three reasons why drinking coffee on an empty stomach is destroying your health:
- Stomach Acid Increases
If you start your day with a cup of coffee, your whole body’s acidity will increase and therefore you may experience some problems, such as heartburn or indigestion throughout the whole day. High acidity in your digestive system and throughout the other organs of your body is many a times linked to disease.
In this case it can eventually be a reason for some abdominal problems such as: stomach ulcers, acid reflux disease or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). To avoid the problem of causing high acidity, have your breakfast first and your coffee afterwards. Also another way is to buy high quality coffee which may be a bit more expensive, but for sure have lower acidity. Therefore choosing quality over quantity is always a better idea.
- Lowered Hormones
Once you cut drinking coffee on an empty stomach you will see how you will experience a sudden rise in your mood. The reason for this is because drinking caffeine on an empty stomach stops the production of serotonin, which is the hormone that produces happiness, pleasure and well being.
That hormone is produced during the night mostly and in the morning is on the highest level. So when your first thing in the morning is coffee, you automatically lower the level of serotonin. When the level of serotonin is low, the result is depression. Therefore, the most wise this to do is to avoid caffeine in the morning because the hormone imbalances coffee causes will lead to feelings closely connected to depression, which are: stress and anxiety, and will be elaborated below.
- Anxiety Issues
Making your heart beat faster, coffee also goes hand in hand with exacerbated anxiety and stress. Once you drink it on an empty stomach the problem gets even worse, just because you have not got any food in the digestive system prior to drinking coffee.
Food has a calming effect on our body and it is known that digestion helps calm one’s nerves. So, when there is no food in the digestive system the caffeine does its work, which results in anxiety issues.