Caffeine, Creamers and Coffee Talk : Rebecca Washuta
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Guest: Rebecca Washuta
Release Date: 9/18/2023
Welcome to Trulyfit the online fitness marketplace connecting pros and clients through unique fitness business software.
Steve Washuta
What are the positive health effects that we can get from caffeine? How was caffeine classified a supplement a nootropic, a micronutrient or other? Is there clean caffeine and dirty caffeine? What are some misconceptions about caffeine? And should we potentially stay away from it? We discuss all this and much more on the upcoming podcast.
Steve Washuta
Welcome to Trulyfit. Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I’m your host, Steve Washuta, co-founder of Trulyfit and author of the book Fitness Business 101. On today’s episode I have on Rebecca Washuta. She is my sister and she’s also a licensed dietitian, we are going to be talking about caffeine.
Steve Washuta
What is caffeine? What does it classified as? What does it do in your body? What are the negatives of caffeine? Do we abuse caffeine, and a host of other things. We also talk about different milks and creamers that you can put in your coffee, which ones Rebecca prefers over others or recommends to her clients based upon their goals. It was a great conversation.
Steve Washuta
If you want to find more about Rebecca, you can go to happy healthy nutritionist.com Or happy healthy nutritionist on Instagram. With no further ado, here’s Rebecca and to give my listeners a little background who haven’t heard you before on who you are and what it is that you do in the health and fitness and nutrition industry.
Rebecca Washuta
So I’m a licensed dietitian, I have my own private practice in Miami Beach, and I specialize in weight loss and habit formation. I have degrees in neuroscience and nutrition. And I work with clients to help them learn to eat in a balanced way and form healthy habits.
Steve Washuta
Okay, well, today we are going to talk about caffeine, mostly I’m sure the conversation will go in a bunch of different directions in the past, believe we’ve hit on a bunch of nutrition topics I’m sure, obviously caffeine is involved in nutrition. So food is going to be somewhat a part of the conversation. But first, let’s maybe like define caffeine. What is it? Is it a macronutrient? Is it a supplement? How do you define caffeine?
Rebecca Washuta
Sure. So caffeine is a Phyto nutrient, meaning it’s a nutrient that’s derived from plants, it’s actually found in almost 60 different plant species. And it’s also considered no tropic in that it can enhance cognition and memory. So you asked like, is it a macronutrient?
Rebecca Washuta
No, is it a micronutrient? Also? No, because that would assume that your body needs it in order to function. And I know that some people think they need caffeine in order to function. But it’s not something that’s required by our body. So big umbrella, I would consider it a phytonutrient.
Steve Washuta
Yeah, it’s interesting that you mentioned nootropics, they were really big, maybe five or 10 years ago, they’re starting to come out again, a lot of people sort of like, even make their own concoctions, like they’ll buy two or three different ones, because you can just buy the powders and like mix them together. And then they there’s like, I’ve like read these forums online with like, if you mix point three of this with this, this gives you the best like overall whatever it seems
Rebecca Washuta
everyone misses now.
Steve Washuta
somewhat dangerous, but there is a huge industry for for those sort of cognitive tools for lack of a better term.
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, for sure. I think there’s definitely been an increase in the prescription neuro tropics, right, like Adderall and Vyvanse. More people are on that than ever. There was a, there was actually a point this summer where I heard sort of like the ozempic craze, right pharmacies were running out because there were just so many prescriptions that were written.
Rebecca Washuta
So I think people are starting to move away from that and want the more natural versions, which is great. However, you know, natural compounds still have an effect in your body, right? Cocaine is essentially a natural compound. And so you do need to be careful. You need to know what you’re doing. You need to be consulting, some type of healthcare practitioner before you go in and just start mixing and taking things.
Steve Washuta
Yeah, the the one that was big for a while, was Modena, Phil also known as a new vigil, or Provigil, and it was big. It was big in the tech industry. So they originally came out as a drug, you know, all the drugs have to come out for something where they can’t just design the drug, right to be approved. So it came out for narcoleptics.
Steve Washuta
And then they moved until people have shift work disorder, which isn’t a real thing, right? It’s just like, Oh, so you work through different shifts, okay. And then we’re just handing it out like candy to people who are in the tech industry who like were coding basically for like 18 hours a day, and they could stay up. I don’t know what the negative side effects of it are.
Steve Washuta
But I do know that there are some I know there there was like, they found that some choline deficiencies, like whatever’s going on in your body to process it like depletes the choline, which then has like, other effects, but that was a big drug that was being abused sort of in the nootropic area for a long time.
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, for sure. I even you know, in the health care industry, I have friends and colleagues and you know, I’m sure you could ask your wife about this. When you are a doctor or when you’re in that field, and you’re doing these crazy shifts as a resident, there were a lot of people taking that you know, just to stay up and to stay awake and be you know, be able to see patients so, right. It was prescribed for narcolepsy,
Rebecca Washuta
but then they were just giving out for excessive daytime sleepiness, but it’s like people are tired because they’re not sleeping. We weren’t meant to stay up for 24 hours at a time right? Those type of chips aren’t, aren’t normal. They’re not healthy in the long term. So. But yeah, it’s interesting, because it’s not it’s different than like an Adderall. It’s not an amphetamine. But it is a stimulant. So, yeah, it’s definitely still out there. And I think it’s so widely being used.
Steve Washuta
Well, thinking, talking specifically now about, you know, you need sleep, it’s not always good to, to trick your body so to speak. I was told that’s what caffeine does that you’re not obviously we know it’s not energy in your world and nutrition. World Energy has calories, right? But in, but from the layman’s perspective, the general population goes, Oh, I’m taking caffeine, I’m getting energy. That’s not really what it does explain what it does.
Rebecca Washuta
No, so it’s actually working on your adenosine receptors in your brain, and it’s blocking adenosine from binding to the receptor. Adenosine causes sleepiness.
Rebecca Washuta
So it is preventing you from feeling sleepy in the short term, but that those adenosine molecules are going to build up over time. And that’s why if you’ve ever, you know been studying for finals, or been living on caffeine, you can only do it for so long, and then you’re exhausted, you’re want to because all of that the adenosine molecules build up, and you’re tired.
Rebecca Washuta
It’s definitely not not creating energy, it’s preventing you in the short term from feeling tired. But you know, there are no shortcuts. So it’s, it’s just gonna come back to bite you and you’re going to be even more sleepy later on. Yeah,
Steve Washuta
I mean, like anything else, there’s always a, there’s always a secondary effect of these things going on your body’s a series of chemical reactions. And if you choose that, one of the chemical reactions going on in your body, there’s going to be some sort of consequences coming down the pipe.
Steve Washuta
Now I’ve heard there be talks of like, oh, this caffeine isn’t clean, or this is clean? I don’t know if it’s people say like powders are different than caffeine and coffee, which is different in caffeine and a monster, can you explain if there’s any difference between it or it’s always going to act the same way your body?
Rebecca Washuta
For sure, I just want to go back to the previous question for a second. So we talked about how caffeine works on the adenosine receptors in your brain, but it’s also working in your body. So in your body, it is going to stimulate the release of epinephrine or adrenaline from our adrenal glands. And those adrenal glands, when they release epinephrine, that’s actually going to raise our blood sugar.
Rebecca Washuta
And I think this is really important for your listeners to note because even if you’re drinking your coffee, black, the caffeine is still in the short term going to raise your blood sugar, it’s going to raise your stress hormones. And so it’s something to be aware of, you know, I think, again, and in the mindset of there are no shortcuts.
Rebecca Washuta
You also can’t live on caffeine, because it’s going to spike your blood sugar, it’s going to spike your insulin. So, you know, it’s really about approaching everything in in a balanced way. So just wanted to put that out there that it not only is working on your brain, but it’s having an impact on your on your body on your metabolism as well.
Steve Washuta
Well, two questions, and then we’ll get back to the sort of dirty or clean caffeine questions. Yeah. Just to say from what you just said. So number one is because it spikes, your blood sugar and your epinephrine a little bit is that white causes like gastric movement, right?
Steve Washuta
We all know that you kind of start to potentially go to the bathroom after you have caffeine. And then the second question would be, how do you like from a practical standpoint? What is your recommendation for people that who drink coffee every day? Because we all do?
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, so the its effect on your blood sugar is not related to its effect on your on your gut. But it does, it can cause the muscles in your gut to contract to cause contractions. That’s why you feel like you need to go to the bathroom, usually pretty quickly after you have caffeine. And then your second question is, what are my recommendations as far as how much caffeine or how often?
Steve Washuta
Well, you basically just said it, you know, because of the what it does to our body? It’s not something that you would recommend you have every day are not for everybody, right? I know, you’re not talking to one specific person, you would obviously have to see their health history and their background.
Steve Washuta
But for those of us, which is probably the vast majority of Americans who say, I need my two or three cups of coffee every morning, is it better to just say, hey, maybe every other morning? Or maybe I take off on a Friday? Like what what is a good practical advice for somebody who may be concerned that they are messing with their blood sugar too much because of the amount of caffeine in the coffee?
Rebecca Washuta
For sure. So I think you know, first and foremost, Nutrition has to be personalized and caffeine intake needs to be personalized. So if you look at the guidelines, it’ll say there’s an upper limit of 400 milligrams of caffeine per day. For some people, you know, your genes dictate the way you metabolize caffeine to some people metabolize it pretty quickly.
Rebecca Washuta
So me for instance, I can have two or three cups of coffee and feel fine. Some people can have one cup of coffee and they’re jittery. Right. So you know, if you’re a person who’s sensitive to caffeine, if your body doesn’t, you know, metabolize it or break it down very quickly. So I think you need to keep that in mind and pay attention to how you feel.
Rebecca Washuta
Are you feeling jittery after your first cup of coffee? Well, you shouldn’t have that second, are you feeling perfectly fine? Well, you know, then then you’re in good shape, you can maybe have that second cup of coffee. So the other thing I would recommend is, you know, everyone I think nutrition says, like, Is this good or bad? And it’s not necessarily the what it’s the how so it’s not is coffee is caffeine, good or bad, it’s how are you consuming it.
Rebecca Washuta
So I recommend that my clients consume coffee with a fat. So use the half and half use the coconut milk, because that fat is going to slow down the absorption of the caffeine. So that’s going to reduce the blood sugar spike reduce the insulin spike, you can also put collagen in your coffee. Another good idea because it’s going to the protein in the college and it’s going to slow down the absorption of the caffeine, caffeine.
Rebecca Washuta
Trying not to have coffee on an empty stomach, definitely not having coffee with sugar in it. And definitely not even coffee. With a sweet, I think it’s very common to pair it with a pastry. But you know, even black coffee is going to spike your coffee. So if you then Pair that with a big doughnut, your blood sugar is going to go through the roof. So it’s more about how you drink your coffee.
Rebecca Washuta
Doing it in a way that’s going to reduce the caffeine spike. I also recommend trying half caf or trying decaf coffee. I know, you know, some people feel like they really need the caffeine. And we can get into this a little bit later. But I oftentimes think it’s a habit, right? People are used to having that cup in the morning. And if you switch to half caf, you know, sometimes the placebo effect kicks in and you you don’t even miss the caffeine as much as you thought you would.
Steve Washuta
Yeah, there’s a lot of times in the morning, I should say a lot of times maybe once every two or three weeks, I will have something to do earlier than I can drink my coffee. Right? So the typical process for somebody is you wake up and you make coffee or maybe you have your coffee on a timer or something that extend right check if you come for coffee, then get on with your day. But here or there, I either have a client that requests maybe late at night, hey, can we work out at 5am or something? Right?
Steve Washuta
And so I will then train them. After that session is over. I will be you know, to my knowledge as alert as I was had I drink that cup of coffee, right? So it’s like, do I really even need that coffee? Or is it just part of my daily routine and the issues for also the general population as you know, it’s like, okay, you have your cup of coffee and your large donut, and you have a ton of energy. And then it goes down.
Steve Washuta
You’re like, well, it’s just because I ran into caffeine. So then I was like a monster. And then then you have a five hour energy, and then you drink another monster. And it’s like, well, they’ve had 1000 milligrams of caffeine. That’s like a standard American
Rebecca Washuta
diet. Diet. Yeah. Well, so I have two things to comment on there. One is, you know what you said about someone having the coffee having the doughnut. Most people have the coffee, have the doughnut and then go to sit down at their computer, right? We’re sitting in our computer for eight hours a day and you’re not moving your body. If you were to have a coffee, have a doughnut and then go work out for two hours.
Rebecca Washuta
Okay, right, that’s naturally going to bring down your blood sugar, but because we’re just sitting and not moving our bodies, the blood sugar spike is going to be even worse. So you know, if you do have days where you’re more active, okay, maybe you prioritize caffeine on those days, if when you have days where you’re just sitting and you’re doing less, you don’t need as much caffeine on those days.
Rebecca Washuta
And then you know, you mentioned having something to do early in the morning and feeling fine, right? Just because you didn’t you didn’t have the opportunity to make coffee are circadian rhythms that that has a lot to do with their circadian rhythm. So in the morning, our cortisol naturally spikes to sort of get us going for the day, that’s also going to naturally raise our blood sugar.
Rebecca Washuta
And so you know that that’s another issue with people is your cortisol is a little bit higher in the morning, then you’re having coffee then you’re having sweets, then you’re doing nothing you’re getting these huge blood sugar spikes. So I challenge people to try it just like you said, like try a morning without coffee try and morning with half Caf try and morning with matcha green tea and see how you feel because you probably don’t need it as much as you think you do. And your cortisol does a great job of of really waking you up in the morning and getting you going.
Steve Washuta
Alright, now going back to posts of caffeine doesn’t really matter. Now. Now I don’t want you to come into solely on like a supplement company, right? Is it like universal supplements as opposed to like United supplements both have a caffeine product is one better than the other? I’ve just been like how you take it in right powder versus a tea versus a coffee like does this make a difference?
Rebecca Washuta
Sure. So if we’re talking about synthetic caffeine versus natural caffeine, it’s exactly the same, right? Anything that’s created in the lab, it’s going to look exactly the same, it’s going to have the same impact on your body. But when caffeine is found in plants when it’s naturally found in plants, it’s found in coffee and tea and guarana, and you know, a bunch of other species. It’s good We naturally packaged with other phytonutrients.
Rebecca Washuta
And they seem to work synergistically. So I’ll give you an example. A study just came out a couple of months ago in a popular Research Journal frontiers of behavioral neuroscience. And they looked at people who were drinking coffee, and they compare them to people drinking hot water with the same amount of caffeine, and that people drinking coffee had higher connectivity and better results with working memory, cognition and focus.
Rebecca Washuta
So they looked at them under an fMRI after taking these drinks. And so they suspect that it’s the another phytonutrients, and coffee called chlorogenic acids. So all of these plants, you know, the green tea, so matcha, and other teas like that, they have tons of phytonutrients. In them, some of some phytonutrients, we probably haven’t even discovered yet, right? There’s, there’s believed to be 1000s out there that we just haven’t even named, but they work in a synergistic way to not only make you feel awake, but also, again, as the neurotropic to, you know, enhance your cognition, enhance your ability to focus.
Rebecca Washuta
And so I tell clients, whenever possible, have it in its natural form. And I think, you know, this is true for a lot of things in nutrition, like, should you have the apple or the apple juice, you should always have the apple, right. Things that are less processed are better for us, and our body can better metabolize it. And then we get the added boost of these extra phytonutrients that are all working together to give us what we’re looking for.
Steve Washuta
You talked about the cognitive benefits of caffeine and what it could potentially do. What about the I guess you would say the more body physiological health benefits? Are there any?
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, for sure. So, you know, when you think about caffeine, there aren’t a ton of studies where, like I mentioned, where they’re just using water and caffeine, it’s mostly coffee. So I’ll use coffee as the example here. But they found that coffee one increases thermogenesis.
Rebecca Washuta
So if you’re looking to lose weight, if you’re looking to maintain weight, it’s going to increase your body’s ability to burn calories, even at rest, it’s also going to decrease your appetite. So they found over time, it decreases your risk of obesity, it decreases your risk of other metabolic disorders like type two diabetes, and non alcoholic fatty liver disease, and even has neuroprotective effects.
Rebecca Washuta
So they’re showing that it decreases your risk of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. And so you know, all of this in moderation, like you had mentioned, the person who’s maybe taking 1000 milligrams of caffeine, we don’t want to, we definitely don’t want to get that high. The upper limit is 400. I recommend between, you know, 203 100 for clients, but again, that’s depending upon their bodies.
Rebecca Washuta
If you do one of those, even one of those at home tests, I did everlywell, the at home, it’s like an ancestry, but it’s also genetic testing, they can actually tell you, if you have certain genes that metabolize caffeine well, but I think most people know, right, you know, if you’re the type of person who feels super jittery and crappy after one cup of coffee, you know, if you’re someone who can have 234 cups, and you’re fine. So definitely listen to your body and do it in moderation. But there are definitely a lot of health benefits there to wonder if
Steve Washuta
there’s also when you were talking about testing, like the ability of sure there was somewhere to test the amount of caffeine, I thought it was trusting in particular items in either direction, right? Whether it’s high or low, I just, I have a sense sometimes when I all drink a coffee and my body feels a certain way I might buy a new brand or you know, have an energy drink where it’s supposed to only have 150 milligrams of caffeine, but I look at it. I’m like, No way.
Steve Washuta
This is 150. Like, I’m I’m like my arms are shaking right now. This must have like 400. So I do wonder if there’s a way to test that because I don’t I don’t know how accurate these things are. I know that these these Aveda, they’re obviously districts have to go through some sort of FDA protocol, and so does coffee.
Steve Washuta
But how do we even know that each time you brew coffee, whether it is the I don’t know if you have the answer to this, obviously, but like the heat of the water at that particular time and whatever else was in with the coffee, like there’s no way that caffeine can be the same amount every time.
Rebecca Washuta
No, it’s definitely a range, you know, and you bring up a good point with the coffee. cold brew coffee isn’t made from special cold brew beans, right? It’s the way that it is it’s it’s me that’s left overnight for 12 hours, but even the size of the ground so this is something I learned recently, I wasn’t a coffee drinker, probably until a couple of years ago it was as I was wrapping up grad school and taking my board exam I got into coffee before that I only did tea so what I learned recently is the size of the ground affects the strength of the coffee and affects the caffeine so I like really weak coffee.
Rebecca Washuta
I want my coffee this sort of you know tastes like coffee ice cream, mine is the sugar I take it with a lot of cream. So if you use larger coarse ground like what you would traditionally use for cold brew If you’re going to extract, you know, just just given the surface area of it, if you’re going to do a scoop of the larger grounds versus a scoop of the smaller grounds, the smaller grounds are going to extract more of the caffeine. So it’s going to be a stronger cup of coffee. So everything from the size of the ground, the amount of time that it’s left in the water is all going to affect that.
Rebecca Washuta
So it is good for people to be curious. And when it comes down to FDA regulations and guidelines, companies get a lot of leeway with nutrition labels, they do even with calories. And plants hate hearing this, but calories aren’t set in stone, they the companies get a range that can be within 10%. And sometimes it’s even higher of the actual calories that are that are in the product. So the math isn’t always mapping. And it’s not always concrete. So it’s good to, again, pay attention to your body and how you feel.
Steve Washuta
i That’s interesting. I didn’t know it could be within such a large range, you know, like even even more than 2% seems to me to be like a pretty outlandish range, especially as you start to go up in calories like five or 6% could be huge. I also add that as you were saying that I thought of just like looking at the back of nutrition label the other day, a friend was talking about like using CREAMER And like in the morning he was just like some general creamer.
Steve Washuta
I said, Have you ever looked at the back of like your your creamer? He’s like no, why go? It’s the only thing I’ve ever seen that has a serving size over 50. Right. So usually you see serving size, it will say like, like one to four or like or something of six or two or serving size one on the back of the creamer. It says 63
Rebecca Washuta
per package. Yeah, yeah.
Steve Washuta
So you see 35 calories, which is in bold. And you think okay, I’m using this is just 35 calories. It’s like Norway, you use that in six servings? Not easily. Right? Because they give
Rebecca Washuta
you one one tablespoon. Nobody’s using one tablespoon? Oh, my gosh. The creamers too, if you look at those ingredient lists. I think they’re one of the packaged foods out there with the most ingredients. Terrible, so many natural flavors. It’s their way. They’re one of the top foods I tell people to stay away from.
Steve Washuta
Yeah, I’ve recently cut off myself from basically all the fixtures. I don’t eat any more. I mean, maybe here and there. Like I just I love Diet Coke. So if I’m out to eat once every, you know, or like that sort of once every two months. That’s just what I want.
Steve Washuta
Right? So if you’re gonna go drink three glasses of tequila, you gotta like, oh, like my body’s fine, like so. I don’t put any stevia and I don’t put any Splenda in mostly also because, you know, we had this conversation on our last podcast when we were talking about sweeteners, right, the difference between sweeteners, water sweeteners.
Steve Washuta
And for me, I started to get to the point where everything needed to be hyper sweet, because I was using those so I was only using them in my in my morning coffee. And I would just use maybe one. But it made a difference throughout the rest of the day. Where Yeah, yeah, it’s a combination of me starting to crave it, but also me not enjoying things that were just, you know, moderately sweet, because of obviously used to that flavor.
Steve Washuta
Right. So now I’ve sort of dampen that effects and I can enjoy something that is, what would one would consider moderately sweet. I’ve now changed, I guess you’d call it my palate to think that’s very sweet.
Rebecca Washuta
For sure. Yeah. So you know, and similar to my recommendation to caffeine, adding a type of you know, milk that has a fat in it, like coconut milk or half and half or heavy cream, because that’s going to, again, prevent the absorption of caffeine from happening too quickly, it’s going to slow the absorption, I think it’s easy to transition your palate to like the richness of something with fat in it once you take the sugar out.
Rebecca Washuta
So you know people think like oh, coffee is gonna be so just like depressing and boring if I if I’m no longer adding sugar, but your palate changes really quickly, your your brain and your reward centers can rewire pretty quickly. And that fat taste is like very rewarding naturally, right? Because our ancestors needed fat to survive. So that still activates your reward pathways, it’s much healthier for you, it’s going to slow down the caffeine.
Rebecca Washuta
So that’s something I recommend to you know, people are everyone kind of wants to jump on the next crease. So I’ve had a lot of a lot of clients using the oat milk in their coffee in the morning. And I don’t recommend that it’s high or it’s hot, it’s higher in carbs than any other milk out there. And a lot of times it’s sweetened. And again, we talked about the blood sugar spike that’s that’s only going to make it worse. So yeah, I don’t recommend oat milk.
Steve Washuta
Alright, so rank. Let’s go ahead and let’s take calories out of this right let’s let’s go ahead and say you’re not concerned with calories per se. That doesn’t mean you’re not concerned with blood sugar, doesn’t mean you’re not concerned with a particular type of macronutrient. But yeah, good about calories, rank order the milks if someone doesn’t actually care about the taste. What would you have put into a coffee?
Rebecca Washuta
Like as far as as far as health goes all Yeah,
Steve Washuta
almond milk, oat milk whole will skim milk creamer?
Rebecca Washuta
Well, I’ll again, I’ll reiterate, it’s different for everyone, if you have a dairy allergy if you have a coconut allergy and nut allergy, whatever, but assuming someone has no allergies, heavy cream, half and half, whole milk, coconut milk, almond milk, macadamia nut milk is in there and then oat milk last. So you want to you don’t want to be afraid of fat and having that extra fat in there, even though it’s more calories.
Rebecca Washuta
And we’ve been so trained to think, oh, my gosh, calories, the more fat in the more protein is going to slow the absorption of the caffeine, it’s going to make you feel fuller longer, it’s going to do a lot to blunt your blood sugar spike. So we really want to focus that’s what we want to focus on is is how our food is being digested and how it’s affecting our blood sugar in our hormones, not on the calories, because we’ve all known people who have lost weight on the keto diet, right.
Rebecca Washuta
And so if weight and health was really just about calories, none of those people you know, would have had any success. Because the keto diet is very high calorie and very high in fat. So it’s it’s got to be a combination of the two but for sure, in order to slow down the effects of caffeine and and prevent that blood sugar crash that caffeine crash where you’re just wanting more coffees later on during the day, you want to pair it with, with the with a fat so I’ll I do half and half or heavy cream in my coffee.
Steve Washuta
I know that you rotate between coffee and tea. Do you do that? For the sake of just variety? Or do you do that for some sort of health benefit?
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, for both. So you know, we talked about phytonutrients, both coffee and teas have a ton of phytonutrients in it. So it’s good to switch it up. But I typically have coffee first thing in the morning. And then if I have anything after that, or like this afternoon, I am drinking a matcha because it has less caffeine and one of the amino acids in Matcha is L theanine.
Rebecca Washuta
And that actually helps you feel calm and focused, which is what you want. So I typically will rely more on teas when I don’t need that, you know, stimulation first thing in the morning because even without the caffeine and there’s there’s a ton of ton of health benefits a ton of phytonutrients. So always good to switch it up.
Rebecca Washuta
And typically you can assume that T is going to have about half the strength of caffeine as coffee does. So if a cup of coffee has 100 milligrams, green tea is going to have between 30 and 60 milligrams again, there’s a range. And black tea is going to have between maybe 50 and 70 milligrams. So it’s it’s less than it’s a good way to also wean yourself off if you feel like you have developed a caffeine habit.
Steve Washuta
Well, let’s finish all that. Have you had any clients who might have had caffeine habit? How would you you don’t need to be an expert on this. But how would you personally maybe point this out, maybe maybe in yourself or somebody else? What gives you the like the indicators that someone might be drinking too much caffeine or be reliant upon it?
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, if you are drinking, two cups of coffee are the equivalent and you’re still feeling tired, there’s a problem. And you really need to give your body a chance to reset. So, you know, I’ve had clients come to me who can’t understand why they’re not losing weight, because all they do all day is drink coffee. But again, it’s not just about calories, it’s about hormones.
Rebecca Washuta
And if you’re living on caffeine, it’s going to increase your insulin, it’s going to throw all of your hormones off. So it’s not something you want to do so really, you know paying attention to your body and paying attention to how you feel caffeine is a stimulant if you notice after two cups that you’re not feeling awake, you you have a problem and you definitely need to take a break and and give your body a chance to reset.
Steve Washuta
This has been fantastic information as usual one give my listeners a link to where they can find all of your information. Let’s give them your Instagram and then maybe where they can reach out to you directly to an email or to your business website.
Rebecca Washuta
Yeah, absolutely. So Instagram is happy healthy nutritionist and my website is the same happy healthy nutritionist.com
Steve Washuta
My guest today has been Rebecca Washuta. Thank you so much for joining the Trulyfit podcast. Thank you.
Steve Washuta: Thanks for joining us on the Trulyfit podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your listening platform. Feel free to email us as we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks again!
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