Discussion
How the hell people don't know this is beyond me. Dosage is critical with drugs. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant.
Exactly why I only drink espresso with raw milk.
Never black anymore, and never drip or cold brew.
Shit ain't good for you.
Coffee on an empty stomach used to kill me whenever I tried it, but I've been improving my metabolic flexibility, so nowadays I can handle espresso by itself as long as it's not too much. I still more often than not eat something with it and get a latte though.
‘Improving your metabolic flexibility’ — how are you doing that?
Well, how do I explain... The mitochondria get used to using certain fuels, most people on an American diet having their bodies primed to use carbs 24/7, and the more you switch your body to sourcing a little or a lot of fuel from fat, the more you are able to run on an empty stomach, the more metabolically flexible you are, and the more steady your energy levels. It has a lot of side effects like losing fat, lowering inflammation all around the body, and even increasing the power your brain can draw, as the ketones (fuel from fat) that it draws from your blood when running more off of fat than usual are more oxygen efficient than the blood sugar.
You can increase this with intermittent fasting overnight (basically, delay breakfast or have dinner early or both), fasting multiple days with lots of water and electrolytes and possibly water soluble vitamins to avoid headaches and muscle cramps and vitamin deficiencies, eating anything from moderately low carb to extremely low carb. Exercise also helps, as does abstaining from eating sugar most of the time. Drinking vinegar at the beginning of a meal with carbs prevents glucose spikes, which helps too, and you can get this from a shot of Tabasco for flavor.
And for keto, don't believe the bullshit about needing to eat low protein on keto to avoid it turning into carbs, that's pseudoscience: your body allocates only as much protein to be converted into carbs as is necessary, it's smart, pretty much you should eat as much protein as you can get, on any diet, and especially keto. Too many gullible and unscientific people out there regurgitating that shit that's unfounded and proven false.
Interesting stuff, and thanks for taking the time to answer this in detail. The vinegar tip is new to me!
Welcome! Oh also if you wanna learn more about how your body signals itself to use more of one or the other fuel between carbs and fat, look up insulin and glucagon and the interactions between them in the two dimensional space of their various levels. Glycogen stores, fat, and protein hanging out in, I believe your liver? can be used to pull fuel into your blood in addition to the food in your digestive system. Your glucagon and insulin levels both respond to and manage levels of each of these fuel sources. High glucagon is overall catabolic, while high insulin is overall anabolic. There are organ groups that will prevent catabolism, like say cannibalization of your muscles, even with high glucagon during fasting, unless your body needs to use it as a fuel source more than it needs it for its usual purpose, in this case if you use your muscles at all while fasting, you will keep your muscles because your body is like oh, I need that for moving around in the universe.
Fasting can even make you gain muscle indirectly, because the next time you eat, if it has protein in it, your body will put extra protein toward your muscles compared to normal. This is assuming that you exercise anywhere from lightly to vigorously during the fast. Ok I think that's all the helpful tips I've got. Just one more: LMNT makes good electrolyte mixes, but the best source is from low carb food like avocado, broccoli, spinach, beef, salmon.
I do most of these things and I can drink coffee in any form on an empty stomach with no issues.
I only have issues with non-raw dairy in large amounts.
