Caffeine is like the sister everyone loves.
She’s popular and seems to get into all the parties.
With 90% of adults consuming caffeine every day in the UK, you’d be forgiven for suggesting she is as crucial as the air we breathe. For many people, this might as well be true. They can’t get enough caffeine, and can’t seem to function without her – even if there are some painful truths they have to deal with daily as a result.
Like the boyfriend who doesn’t know what he would do if he didn’t have his dream girl within reach, the constant wanting, anxiety, and sleepless nights, over time make life a living nightmare. Caffeine will give him short bursts of joyful validation and then demand his attention and mental energy until he’s left exhausted.
He forgets what it was like to be free from caffeine, a distant memory in his life, where everything was just fine and he could function perfectly normally without her. For most of us at a young age, this transition happened without us realizing it.
One day we were young care-free and bouncing with energy, and then at some point in our teens, twenties, or later, we can’t walk down the street without our brains noticing the allure of caffeine. Calling to us from coffee shop windows and supermarket shelves.
Society isn’t in the best place right now. We’re sleeping less, feeling more stressed, and experiencing anxiety like never before in history. Whilst caffeine isn’t to blame, for many people it’s making things a whole lot worse. Some of us can enjoy 1 or 2 cups of coffee every day in healthy doses without any problems. But for others deep down they know that the extra 2, 3 or more cups that creep into the afternoon come at a price.
Science tells us that even though we might not feel caffeine consciously after a few hours, 25% of the caffeine you drink is still active in your system 12 hours later.
It’s crazy that the world is so reliant on caffeine, yet all along caffeine’s sister has been sitting on the side-lines without anyone noticing her potential. Sure, she doesn’t always dress up the same way, call to you as you walk down the street, or put you into a frenzy the moment she touches your lips, but she is truly wonderful and may be exactly what the world needs right now when it comes to finding better physical and mental health.
Meet Theobromine.
Theobromine doesn’t mind you sleeping. She won’t impair the quality of your sleep – possibly the most important foundation of our overall health. She will give you a gentle lift when you need it most, but there’s no crash or anxiety that comes from having too much of her in your life. Chemically Theobromine is incredibly similar to caffeine, there is just one less group of carbon and hydrogen atoms. Yet the differences in your body are meaningful.
Yes, theobromine is a stimulant, but it doesn’t impact your central nervous system (CNS) in the same way caffeine does. In fact, the main area theobromine takes effect is on your cardiovascular system. It encourages more blood flow around the body, and whilst it gives you energy it creates a relaxing effect at the same time. This is why people who take part in cacao ceremonies with high doses of pure theobromine-packed cacao describe the feeling they get as ‘heart-warming’. Cacao being the main place in nature to find theobromine also happens to contain other feel-good chemicals which help increase your feel-good serotonin levels all at the same time.
The good news is, that to improve your sleep and your mental health, you don’t have to break up with caffeine entirely. You might want to, but for many just swapping some caffeine for some theobromine using brewed cacao is enough to find the right balance. Often it’s that 3pm slump, or any craving in the afternoon when you don’t want caffeine to still be hanging around when creeping into your bedtime routine.
You could do this with chocolate of course. But not everyone feels great about eating an extra high-calorie snack, potentially with lots of sugar when all you need is a hot drink. Pure ceremonial cacao can makes a wonderful drink, but can be very time-consuming to prepare when compared to brewing some cacao husk or ground cacao nibs in your French press.
Why not try a new kind of brew next time you need a lift?
Comentários