Coffee and Acidity

What are the best coffee options in Costa and Starbucks?

As many of you are probably coffee drinkers I thought I would give you an indication of the best choices to make when you are at your barista of choice.

Obviously because of the higher milk content Latte’s will contain more calories and thus are higher in carbohydrates than a standard Americano black coffee with added milk if preferred. As many of you probably know asking for skimmed milk will decrease the calorie content. This can be significant and in a medium Latte the calories are nearly halved in comparison with whole milk with a 6 gram saving in fat! With a Cappuccino the difference is a little less but still significant. A standard Americano is always the way to go as this is standard espresso with hot water and a dash of milk. Tea is also a great option for this reason.

Acid and Nutrition

When a food is ingested, digested, and absorbed, each component of that food will present itself to the kidneys as either an acid-forming compound or a base-forming one.  When we get the totals of these loads we have what is known as an acid-base load.

Why is this Important?

Well every cell in your body functions at its peak within a certain pH range and this is different for different cells. In today’s world we are nearly all forcing our cells to live in a highly acidic environment. The most significant problems with this are that it is awful for bone health but also IGF-1 and growth hormone levels, both of which are essential for recovery and muscle growth!

Some examples below: (the higher the value the more acidic it is, 0 being neutral)

Chicken                                    8.7

Rump Steak                             8.8

Cod Fillet                                  7.1

Milk                                            1.0

Carrots                                     -4.9

Cauliflower                              -4.0

Apricots                                    -4.1

Milk Chocolate                         2.4

Kiwi Fruit                                  -4.1

Key things to know are that although the higher protein foods have high acidic values they also produce the compounds needed to break them down effectively thus counterbalancing their values.

What I am saying here is not to start worrying about eating acidic foods but that it is a newly researched area and that the scientific evidence shows it can significantly hinder your body’s attempts to recover when you are in a state of acidosis(highly acidic). My advice would be to always try to include a large amount of vegetables with highly acidic meals to counteract them and give you’re cells the best possible chance of working optimally.

 “Failure is waiting for those who dwell on the successes of yesterday. You must train harder tomorrow than ever before”