Donna Partow

God is a genius.  And when He created the human body, he created a masterpiece.  Your body was designed by God with the ability to heal itself.  Yesterday, while cleaning my stove, I cut my finger.  
Guess what will happen to that nasty little cut?  Right.  It will heal, automatically, with no interference from me.  Now I might put some ointment on the cut to speed the healing process, but my body will
still do the healing. 

Now, imagine that rather than a small cut on my finger, I had a huge cut on my arm.  I might go to the Emergency Room and have a doctor stitch up the wound.  The medical intervention might aid the
healing process, but once again, my body will heal itself.
Even when you go to the doctor and have a major medical procedure performed, it is NOT the procedure itself that heals you.  It simply facilitates the body’s self-healing process.

Okay, so we are all agreed: God created our bodies to heal themselves.  One of the simplest things you can do to help your body heal itself is to stop POISIONING it.  I hope to post a variety of articles about the various poisons and toxins we routinely ingest, but let me start with worst offender: caffeine.

1.  Caffeine is a Drug. It may be served at churches throughout the land, but it’s a drug nonetheless.  Would your church serve cocaine or crystal meth?  I doubt it.  But caffeine affects the
nervous system in the exact same way—it’s a chemical stimulant.  The only real difference is it’s legal.

2.  Caffeine “stresses you out.” Coffee shops have done a marvelous job of creating a relaxing atmosphere, but the truth is coffee does not help you relax.  In fact, quite the contrary.  Caffeine
stimulates the chemical excretion of stress hormones leading to increased anxiety and irritability.  If you don’t believe me, go off coffee for a few weeks then drink up a cup.  You’ll be so jumpy, your
family will have to scrape you off the ceiling.

3.  Caffeine hinders concentration. No wonder people work such long hours!  Caffeine hinders your ability to concentrate, so it takes longer to get your work done.  In fact, research indicates that
caffeine actually decreases blood flow to the brain by as much as 30% and negatively affects memory and mental performance.  Caffeine has even been linked to Attention Deficit Disorder.

4.  Caffeine lowers your immunity, making you more prone to sickness. Caffeine literally strips your body of vitamin and mineral reserves by causing the excretion of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and trace minerals.

5.  Caffeine elevates your risk for heart disease.  It elevates your blood pressure. Both decaf and regular coffee increase your cholesterol and homocysteine, the biochemical that science has
linked to increased risk for heart attack. Caffeine is also linked to coronary vasospasms, the cause for 20% of all fatal heart attacks

6.  Caffeine leads to weight gain!   Caffeine consumption results in blood sugar imbalances by causing a temporary surge in blood sugar, which leads to an overproduction of insulin.  So even though caffeine may give you a temporary boost, the crash is coming!  If you are trying to lose weight, quitting caffeine is vitally important.  Every time you drink caffeine, your insulin level goes haywire and sends the wrong message to your body.  Guess what the message is?  Store all this excess sugar as fat right away!

7.  Coffee may be linked to cancer.  Coffee is imported from Third World countries that continue to use many dangerous chemical pesticides that have been banned in the United States.  Lest you think decaf is a better option, it is not.  In fact, the chemical (methylene chloride) used to strip caffeine from the coffee is probably worse for the human body than the caffeine, as it has been
directly linked to lung and liver cancer.

8.  Coffee is linked to Osteoporosis. Both regular and decaf coffee contains oxalic acid, which our body attempts to neutralize by drawing upon its storehouse of calcium.  The more coffee you
drink, the more calcium is stripped from your bones.  The older you get, the less you can afford to continue strip-mining your own body!

9.  Coffee and Kidney stones. Although not usually life-threatening, one of the more painful conditions that afflict the human body are kidney stones.  As noted above, the oxalic acid in coffee triggers the body to release calcium from the bones into the blood system.  Eventually, this excess calcium winds up in the kidneys.  If there is a continual flow of excess calcium, it can begin to form calcium deposits—also known as kidney stones.

10.  Stomach Upset. Coffee increases the secretion of hydrochloric acid leading to an increased risk for ulcers. Coffee, including decaf, reduces the pressure on the valve between the esophagus and the stomach so that the highly acidic contents of the stomach pass up to the esophagus leading to heartburn and gastro-esophageal reflux disease. With America’s high consumption of coffee, its no wonder the best selling over-the-counter drugs are the so-called antacids.

11.  Female Health Complications.  Fibrocystic breast disease, PMS, infertility problems, miscarriage, low birth weight infants, and menopausal problems such as hot flashes are all exacerbated by caffeine consumption.

12. Pre-mature Aging.  As if all of the above were not reason enough to surrender coffee and caffeine in any form, get ready for the kicker.  Caffeine dehydrates the body, contributing to the pre-
mature aging of the skin and kidneys.  It has been shown to inhibit DNA repair and slow the ability of  the liver to detoxify foreign toxins.  Obviously, a toxic un-repaired body will age must faster than a clean body in good repair.

Ready to Quit?
If you are ready to quit your caffeine addiction – and that’s what it is, an addiction – let me suggest three simple steps designed to gradually break your addiction.  You can go “cold turkey” if you like, but brace yourself for an onslaught of withdrawal symptoms including headaches, insomnia, dizziness, extreme irritability and even depression.  This is a serious drug and the severity of your
drug addition will determine the difficulty of your withdrawal.  A gradual approach, such as the following, may work better:

Step 1.  Start your day with a cup of hot lemon water rather than a cup of coffee.  Tell yourself you can have your coffee when you finish the lemon water!

Step 2.  Substitute Teeccino (an herbal coffee alternative) as a replacement for at least one cup of coffee per day.

Step 3.  Gradually replace more and more cups of coffee with cups of lemon water or Teeccino, until you have eliminated coffee altogether.

I never thought I could break my coffee habit.  I’ve tried many times before and always came back to my church-sanctioned drug.  Then I discovered Teeccino.  Let me tell you, it is sensational.  My husband is the real coffee drinker in our house.  Each morning, I would grind fresh coffee beans—that’s a serious habit!  I kept telling him about Teeccino, but he would accept no substitutes.  Then one day, I tricked him.  Yep, it’s true.  I even ran the coffee bean grinder : )   I brewed a pot of Teeccino and watched him drink his beloved first cup of the morning.  “Wow, this is great.  Is it a new creamer or something.”  

I fooled Mr. Coffee himself.  That’s how good it is.  Try it for yourself.  My favorite flavor is Vanilla Nut.  You can order Teeccino by simply clicking here: Teeccino

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