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Coffee--Tea---By Melvin Page, D.D.S.

Today there are a number of stimulants commonly in wide usage which can and do have, a harmful effect on the body chemistry. Stimulants are substances that are taken into the body, not for their nutritive quantities but because they exert some desired effect on the nervous system. The most prevalent and harmful of these stimulants is coffee.

The culprit in coffee is caffeine, a substance related chemically to uric acid. Caffeine stimulates the adrenal cortex to produce more of it’s hormones; this in turn induces the liver to break down glycogen (body stored sugar) into glucose (sugar), which flows into the blood stream. This is why a cup of coffee "gives you a lift".

However, this artificially induced lift causes trouble because the Isles of Langerhans of the pancreas, which produces insulin, cannot tell the difference between the effects of drinking coffee and eating food. Because of their repeated stimulation due to drinking coffee, the isles of Langerhans become so sensitive that they over-respond to normal stimulation. This gradually but progressively breaks down their efficiency.

For breakfast, many people fortify themselves only with black coffee and cigarettes and, of course, they get an immediate lift as their glands are overworked. They begin to feel fatigued around 10:00 A.M.; but the coffee break takes care of that until lunch, then some food and more coffee—and their coffee break at mid-afternoon, coffee on arriving home and then at dinner. Such a course, year after year, can be a major factor in causing numerous degenerative processes. It wears the glands out by keeping the blood sugar level jumping up and down in the body’s efforts to maintain a normal blood sugar level.

Coffee also stimulates the nerve cells, like a small dose of benzedrine ( the main ingredient of a dangerous drug that many people have taken for quick energy, to stay awake or reduce weight). Coffee increases the pulse rate and the amplitude of the heartbeat. Coffee causes a more active secretion of the gastric glands with the result that people who suffer from too much gastric secretion often suffer from heartburn after drinking coffee.

Renal activity is increased by drinking coffee so that large amounts of salts are taken from the blood. Nervous people are made more nervous from drinking coffee. Symptoms of two much coffee drinking are palpitation of the heart, headaches. insomnia, nervousness, and digestive trouble. Coffee is known to destroy vitamin C in the body so that coffee drinkers may be deficient in this vital vitamin, necessary for healthy6 tissue and to ward off infectious disease.

The per capita consumption of coffee is over 16 pounds per person per year in the United States.

Tea is another stimulating beverage which contains caffeine and tannic acid which is hard on the kidneys. One cup of medium strong tea contains the same amount of caffeine as a regular cup of coffee. Tea should be used only moderately, and then in weak form.

People who wish to maintain good health and body chemistry, and these are synonymous with each other should eliminate from their diet beverages that contain the alkaloid of caffeine. These caffeine containing beverages or foods include coffee, tea, soft drinks that contain caffeine, cocoa and chocolate.