Improved mood and health, smoother energy and focus, appetite reduction, fat burning, increase in growth hormones, lower insulin levels, improved athletic performance.
How are there some many benefits from a simple change?
Three reasons:
- Coffee
- Fasting
- Protein
Let’s dig into each of these.
Why is coffee so good for you?
Coffee is the world’s most consumed beverage, after water – and one of the most “well-researched” food products on earth. In fact, over 19,000 scientific studies have been conducted on coffee and health.
Research has shown that 3-5 cups of coffee per day has an astonishing array of health benefits. In fact, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announce in 2012 that “older adults who drank coffee—caffeinated or decaffeinated—had a lower risk of death overall than others who did not drink coffee.” Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, injuries and accidents, diabetes, and infections!
Coffee can also assist in weight loss. Caffeine can mobilize stored fat and burn more adipose tissue. The caffeine found in coffee can elevate fat-burning by as much as 15 percent.
Additionally, coffee is a great source of anti-inflammatory antioxidant compounds — in fact it’s the worlds largest source of antioxidants!
Several other well conducted studies show that coffee drinkers live longer overall and have a lower risk of premature death from any cause. In two very large studies, drinking coffee was associated with a 20% lower risk of death in men and a 26% lower risk of death in women, over a period of 18-24 years. And research has linked coffee to improved mental health as you age.
If coffee causes side effects such as anxiety, tremors or irritation of the digestive system, try a good quality decaf (code EVOLVEDNS for 10% off). You can still get many of the benefits. High-quality coffee contains higher amounts of a compound called chlorogenic acid (CGA) which, among other health benefits, blocks the jittery effects of caffeine.
Coffee is also one of the few bitter foods consumed which makes it even more essential to include it in your diet. Bitter foods help moderate both hunger and blood sugar. Bitter foods also affect health in that they stimulate the liver to produce bile, which is an important part of optimal digestion. Bile emulsifies fats and renders nutrients – especially fat-soluble ones such as vitamins A, D, E and K – making them more available.
Time-Restricted Feeding (TRF)
TRF is a form of fasting and fasting has been shown to improve health in many ways. Your body has been conditioned to eat 3 square meals a day (plus snacks). Fasting is a great way to reset your body so that you are more aware when you are actually hungry and not just eating because of another reason (stress, habit, etc.).
TRF has health benefits, from improving your insulin sensitivity (or a healthier response to carbs) to shifting your body into burning fat instead of sugar for fuel. It also has a hormonal response that causes your body to release more growth hormones, which help to preserve lean tissue and increases utilization of stored body fat. In this TRF study, participants reduced total daily energy intake and reduced fat despite ad libitum food access. One study found that when overweight women followed a TRF approach, they lost more weight and body fat and improved their insulin resistance compared with women who followed a more traditional diet of limiting calories seven days per week.
In addition to fat loss, TRF’s potential benefits include improved cholesterol numbers, promotion of cellular housecleaning, increased lifespan (in animal studies), improved immunity, better athletic performance, and better appetite control.
Tip: Use the app Zero to track your fast. Aside from tracking daily start and stop times, Zero also helps track nighttime eating. It does this by fetching your location to calculate local sunset time. For example, if the sun sets at 6pm, and you began fasting at 8pm, Zero would automatically log two hours of nighttime eating.
Protein
Protein first thing in the morning is important because it boosts your metabolism and it triggers leptin, your satiety signal, keeping you full longer preventing the likelihood of binging on junk food later in the day, and decreasing carb impulses. It also boosts dopamine, a brain chemical usually associated with feelings of reward. Plus, your body uses amino acids from protein to build lean muscle, which makes you more toned and helps burn calories when you aren’t being active.
You are more insulin sensitive in the morning which means, if you start with a high carb breakfast like cereal or waffles, your body is more likely to store the breakfast as fat. In a novel but small study from Greece, restricting carbohydrate in the morning, in addition to a low-calorie Mediterranean diet, led to improved weight and fat loss, lower body mass index (BMI), and a reduced waist circumference compared with the Mediterranean diet alone.
Click here for some great high-protein meals.
Sign up for the full 21-Day Black Coffee Challenge here.
To purchase my favorite coffee, both regular and decaf, I recommend Purity Organic Coffee. It’s the healthiest coffee on the planet…no GI issues, jitters or toxins. Just pure, clean energy. Use code EVOLVEDNS for 10% off. http://troydelaney.com/coffee
Disclosure: The above link is an affiliate link so I do earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Thanks in advance if you do choose to go through the link above! If you have any questions about this product, let me know and I would be happy to answer them for you.
