Interval Yoga by Ali Kamenova : coffee

I have been getting raw green coffee for years so that I can roast my own fresh coffee fresh. Roasted coffee has a very short shelf life. The oils contained in coffee become rancid about 5 days after roasting and a lot of the health benefits of coffee are diminished. Plus nothing tastes (smells) better than a freshly roasted and brewed cup of coffee. My approach to drinking coffee is to drink it on a regular basis for a few months (drinking one cup a day) and then go off of it for a while. I do enjoy it every so often and I do not buy into the two extreme camps one saying coffee is the worst and the other saying it's totally healthy. Coffee can stress your adrenals if consumed in excess. If used consciously it can increase your athletic performance, help with creative ideas and and cognitive function, decrease joint inflammation, etc. That being said I am going to discuss the best way to quit coffee that I found or how to go get off of coffee without the withdrawals.

The SECRET is in the raw unroasted green coffee bean itself.
There is very little information on the internet regarding green coffee. Recently there has been a buzz about the weight loss benefits of green coffee extract so we hear the word a lot but you still don't see green coffee beans being sold anywhere.

I like to experiment with all things natural and I always have a big bag of green beans laying around so a few years ago I decided to try green coffee in its unroasted form. I tried to grind the beans at first. Umm...but those little green babies would break even a Vitamix. They are as hard as a rocks! They would for sure break your coffee grinder. The only thing I could do is soak them and boil them for quite a while. The resulting brew tastes nothing like coffee.

The brew left overnight turns bright green almost fluorescent green

The deep green color of the first brew of the pale green raw coffee beans.

The coffee beans themselves in their raw form are pale green. Where is this rich green color coming from?

Raw green unroasted coffee beans brew/drink

The color is deep to bright green with a somewhat vegetal, green taste. The consistency is thick and almost reminiscent of celery juice. Its hard to describe. Has something in common with green tea but personally I like it much better. Actually I love it. As far as some of its health benefit claims it is said to block dietary fat absorption and to raise metabolism and to burn of fat deposits at a faster rate. I don't know about these sort of claims. As you may suspect I don't believe in magic pills. Well... I am an herbalist so technically I DO believe NATURE is magical and herbs that come from it are miraculous "potions":) But nothing, nothing, nothing can substitute for a healthy diet, fitness and state of mind other than your actual lifestyle. I am not drinking it for weight loss purposes. As a matter of fact I am 100% sure all the big buzz weight loss supplements are more of a problem than a solution. The type of thinking that we can take a pill for an ailment is just not in accordance with nature. There are true remedies in nature and there is true healing through certain natural practices such as fasting, diet and movement. If you have a chronic condition you absolutely must adjust your lifestyle and habits. This is your body telling you that it doesn't like something that you are doing or being exposed to. Always change, always learn, always evolve! In this line of thinking I don't particularly believe that caffeine helps with weight loss. Caffeine supplements are definitely harmful. But if you are still looking for the magic pill there are some vegetables that really help with weight loss. Read my article on testosterone, estrogen, cabbage, weight loss, inflammation HERE and my more detailed article on the healing powers of the cruciferous vegetables HERE

Rare coffee that is honey processed with some of the cherry fruit dehydrated on the bean. So the resulting brew is smooth and sweet reminiscent of honey.

Actually in some coffee producing countries such as Yemen prize the coffee cherry much more than the coffee bean (the seed). The fruit (the cherry) has much higher nutritional and healing benefits.

So how do I use green coffee. I soak it and then simmer it for at least 20 minutes. Soaking is not required, but it will save you time. I use anywhere from 5-30 beans. Usually around 20 beans which is minimal. If you do not drink any caffeine I do not recommend you try this now. If you decide to try it brew around 5 beans. Unroasted coffee is much smaller in size than roasted coffee is. I keep adding water to the pot as I am drinking it and I continue brewing it. An interesting observation - these 20 tiny beans never stop giving off a rich, thick, green brew. This is a testimonial to their huge antioxidant content. The taste is unusual but very good. I don't even put nut milk or sweeteners in it. That's how much I enjoy it. It does give me a mild caffeine stimulation. Not quite the same as I get from roasted coffee. It's much more pleasant. There is no caffeine rush and no crash. And the stimulation is very focused yet calm. To be quite honest with you I get very creative from it. It's very stimulating.

OK now to the genius discovery of mine.

HOW TO QUIT COFFEE PAINLESSLY.

I understand that coffee is a ritualistic, shamanic drink and has been used for centuries for ceremonies, meditation and creating connection to higher consciousness. Nowadays humanity is definitely not treating it as the sacred drink it once was. It's pretty much an abused plant, sprayed with too many pesticides, grown in conditions and habitats that are not natural to the plant (often not shade grown). It's over-planted, over-consumed, burnt, packaged and stored until all the aromatic oils have deteriorated.

It was actually not meant to be consumed on a daily basis. It is a very potent elixir and it should be respected and treated as a powerful medicine gifted to us by the Earth. It became a popular drink at the beginning of the industrial revolution and the corporate 9-5 structure that our society imposes upon us. The big coffee companies have taken advantage of the indigenous populations in the coffee growing regions around the world and have used it to contribute to our wage slave mentality and work structure. Not to mention that it is one of the heaviest sprayed crops in the world and the second most traded commodity after crude oil.

So whether you are looking to switch up your morning routine or you are thinking of quitting coffee this might be for you :)

Quitting coffee can be quite painful. The side effects of caffeine withdrawal can include headaches, muscle aches, nausea, sleepiness, irritability, fatigue and so forth.

Well, the great news is green coffee can do the trick of helping you quit your morning habit without the nasty withdrawal symptoms.

Basically you have to get your hands on some green coffee beans. I recommend the internet for that. Order online on ebay, amazon or from a specialty website.

The day you decide to quit coffee soak your raw coffee beans over night or just boil them a tad longer in the morning. Start with 20-30 beans even more if you are a big coffee addict. And simmer them through the day. Basically try to have a mug every few hours or as soon as you start feeling the symptoms of caffeine withdrawals such as a headache, muscle aches, nausea, etc. If you are leaving the house early you can boil a stronger brew and take it with you as a concentrate to add to your drinks or just to sip through the day.

The next day toss the beans and start over.

Stop drinking it at around 3-4pm just in case. Overall it shouldn't keep you up because each subsequent brew has less and less caffeine in it since we are simmering the same beans. All of the brews will have a lot of taste and color to them. You should get a nice mild stimulating effect from it. Once you are off black coffee say 5-10 days later you can start reducing the beans. Start brewing 10 beans, then 5 you get the picture. At the end you are off of all caffeine without ever having to deal with the withdrawal symptoms. As a matter of fact green coffee has some great health benefits so all in all it's a good switch.

I cant find definitive information about the caffeine content in a cup of green coffee. However it seems to be significantly lower in caffeine than brewed black coffee. Also the quality of the caffeine seems superior to me. Meaning I don't get an edgy over-stimulated feeling from it. In terms of relieving coffee withdrawals it seems to have a homeopathic effect.

BTW I got a micro lens for my phone camera and it is amazing! I never really noticed that there is so much detail on a coffee bean. This is how my coffee photo session went. After all I am a yoga teacher, nothing can happen unless a few downward facing dogs were done prior... or during.