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Coffee, tea & cocoa Greetings and Salutations, Today we will concentrate on 3 things: Coffee, Tea, and Cocoa (I think that this is an uncomfortable subject for all of us) This article is compiled from a book that was written by Dr Herbert M Shelton called "Health For The Millions" " In the United States, which appears to be the most drug-addicted nation in the world, about 96% of the families drink coffee daily. Eight out of ten adults drink coffee each day, as do one in four children. At the present time Americans are drinking, on the average, 50% more coffee than they did ten years ago. Someone figured that Americans are drinking about one thousand million more gallons of coffee a year than milk. In our profit-mad world, millions of acres of land are devoted to the production of tobacco, coffee, tea, and similar poison substances. Millions of tons of grains and fruits are converted into alcoholic drinks, in a world that is even now struggling with the spectre of a population explosion and worldwide food scarcity. Tea drinking has spread over the earth, apparently from China, in much the same way that coffee and chocolate drinking spread. Tea was introduced into Europe about the same time as coffee. These three substances, coffee, tea, and cocoa or chocolate, all contain an almost identical alkaloid. Called caffeine in coffee, theine in tea, and theobromine in chocolate, this alkaloid can be fatal to man or animal. Classed by pharmacologists as stimulants. We frequently hear it said that tea and coffee "excite the exercise of thought." Although it is customary to include such narcotic habits as tobacco, alcohol, opium, and marijuana under the general designation of stimulant habits, this does not seem to be the reason these substances are taken. It is not stimulation, but relief from discomfort that is sought when they are taken. On the other hand, when coffee, tea, chocolate and cocoa, and the stimulating soft drinks are taken, it would seem to be a different type of relief that is sought, relief from weakness and exhaustion. When such stomach stimulants (irritants) as pepper, mustard, pungent spices, and pepper sauce, are taken, there would seem to be a need for stimulation. The search for relief is the essence of drug addiction. There is no craving for poisons; there is only unease, discomfort, and misery, which drive the victim to more frequent and larger doses of his favourite poison in his search for relief. Untold thousands of people go about their daily duties so tired they hardly know how to work unless driven by stimulants. They mourn their enthrallment to work and business and wish they could omit these. If they knew enough to discontinue eating wrong foods and desist from stimulant habits, and if they new enough to supply their bodies with adequate nutrients and secure more rest and sleep, in two months they would find themselves new people. The "coffee break" would no longer seem "necessary" to them. They would soon discover the truth of Dr Samuel Johnson's remark that it is easier to be abstinent than temperate. They have already learned that the tendency of all poison habits is progressive. Even in small quantities, tea completely paralyses salivary secretion. When the infusion amounts to as much as one-fifth of the contents of the stomach, tea retards stomach digestion. Coffee and cocoa have little effect on salivary digestion, but interfere as much as tea with stomach digestion. Stimulation is irritation; a stimulant is a substance that temporarily occasions an increased vigour of action by means, which exhaust the power of action. Thereby actually reducing vigour. When this occurs, there must be a corresponding period of rest and sleep. Exhaustion necessitates depression; stimulation must be followed by debility. All of our poison habits have debilitating effects on the organism and increase the precariousness and fragility of life." This subject will be concluded next week. Take care and wishing you a wonderful week, Elise