Coffee Acid

Starbucks…Dunkin Donuts…late night 7-11 – what do these 3 have in common? Here’s a hint: it’s dark, soothing and addictive. Yes, we’re talking about the everything staple…coffee! Seriously, it is the everything staple. You have it in the morning to wake you up, in the afternoon to pick you up, in the evening with dessert and at night to keep you up. It’s the perfect social drink to have a meeting or new encounter : “Hey, let’s go grab some coffee and discuss…”. What would we do without it?

Well, there’s been a lot of controversy over the years about the healthy and non-healthy benefits of coffee. Drink Healthy Drinks gives a nice overview of coffee and it’s effects (positive and negative) on the human body. But for us Type O’s, it’s not so much the caffeine that’s a problem but the acid. If you remember, type O stomachs are much more acidic that other types. Although this is good for meat lovers because it makes it easier to digest meat, if we ingest additional acidic foods (coffee, tomatoes, vinegar, etc) irritates our stomach and makes us more prone to ulcers. As cited from www.dadamo.com, “Dr. D’Adamo recommends a licorice preparation called DGL (de glycyrrhizinated licorice) which can reduce discomfort and aid healing. DGL protects the stomach lining in addition to protecting it from stomach acids.”

Although, I’ve always loved the taste of coffee I’ve never been truly addicted…really, it’s true! So, transitioning it out of my routine was not too difficult. To start my day off, I drink a glass of either hot or cold green tea. In the afternoon, I enjoy a nice refreshing cup of peppermint tea. Both of these are acceptable on the Type O diet plan, and peppermint is actually beneficial and quite refreshing! But, once in a while I do crave a hot cup of rich coffee. I gave into this craving the other day during a meeting and boy did I regret it later! I guess since my stomach had been relieved of the acid for several weeks, re-introducing it was a shock that my body was not ready to handle.

But, for those of you who are truly addicted to coffee but want to quit, I recommend weening yourself off rather than quitting cold turkey to avoid major side effects. Here is a good article with tips on how to quit your coffee addiction by WikiHow.