Happy Tuesday guys!

This smoothie tasted like chocolate covered strawberries. And with the cacao nibs and cocoa powder it was as energizing as a cup of coffee. I'm considering ditching coffee and tea altogether and just having one of these smoothies every morning.

Ingredients:

Blend until smooth:
1 cup frozen strawberries
1/2 cup of milk (or milk alternative, such as almond milk)

Then add and blend until smooth:
1/2 frozen banana
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp chia seeds
1 scoop collagen protein powder (I used Further Food Collagen)
1/2 cup water (or milk if you prefer a thicker smoothie)

Toppings:
Cacao nibs
Cinnamon

(Also for a discount on your next order of Further Food Collagen protein powder use the code NATASHA10 at furtherfood.com.)

So.. I’m thinking about quitting coffee and tea altogether. Do you guys think I should?

I quit drinking coffee a year and a half ago because I found that there was too much caffeine in it, and I was getting dehydrated and experiencing a lot of headaches. And I stuck to this for the most part, but I’ll still have one every once in a while. I started drinking tea every morning as a substitute for coffee, like green tea and organic chai tea, because they have a lower caffeine content and natural healthier ingredients. But now I’m thinking of ditching coffee and tea altogether.

I started researching the effects of caffeine on the body and here’s the gist of what I found.

Caffeine processing is often very poor, in North America at least, because the standards for food processing are much more lax here in comparison to countries like Europe. Inspections in the U.S. and Canada found that a large majority of coffee produced here had mold toxins because of poor processing. Of course, mold is very toxic to the body, especially when ingested. So that's one major negative aspect to coffee that I found, and was very surprised about.

Then, the reason it can dehydrate you is because caffeine is a diuretic. This means that within half an hour of drinking it, it causes your body to flush out much of its water content. Now, tea has about a quarter of the caffeine of coffee, so one cup of coffee is equal to four cups of tea, which is good. But I've found that even drinking tea can cause my body to get dehydrated fairly easily because of this diuretic effect. Does anybody else find that?

The problem with this I then found is that dehydration effects the body's overall functioning, including many of the systems in the body, like metabolism and the immune system. And it also has an effect on the cells and their ability to regenerate and heal. Dehydration can actually speed up the aging process of skin cells as well.

I also found the amount of caffeine in cocoa, tea and coffee:

12.4 mg of caffeine in 1 tbsp of cocoa
40 mg of caffeine in 1 cup of chai tea
35 - 70 mg of caffeine in 1 cup of green tea
150 - 200 mg of caffeine in 1 cup of coffee

So all considered perhaps cocoa powder and cacao nibs are a better option? I mean both are natural stimulants and amazing superfoods, and they're packed with minerals, fiber, phytonutrients and antioxidants. (Phytonutrients are basically natural components in plants that help plants fight off disease and improve their immune system -- and they have that same effect on the human body when we eat them.).

So those are all good points! But I’m still not sure what I’m going to do…

If anyone knows more about this please feel free to share in the comments. Cheers!

I hope this information was useful to you guys, and that you enjoy this smoothie recipe!

Photos and recipe are all original and my own content.

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