FAQ: Kat Answers The Coffee Question.

Subscriber Q&A: Paleo Recipes, Coffee

Q: Dear Kat, a lot of Paleo sites are popping up with recipes. Can these be incorporated into your approach? Or Should I start with the recipes in your book? And what are your thoughts on coffee?? —Linda

A: Dear Linda: Most Paleo, ketogenic, and supposed leptin-conscious approaches rely on too much protein and allow countless deal-breaking foods or combinations (what I call “stacking borderline foods”), nut flours, smoothies, fruits, tomato products, reductions, sweet vinegars, coffees, coffee substitutes, too many combined cooked vegetables or dehydrated powders, certain tinctures and supplements, and that’s still just the beginning. Too much protein causes cancer (see previous newsletters referencing the mTOR pathway). The above are either instant, or eventually-abused blockers of the benefits that my Program is known for. 

My book, The Truth About Beauty, is different from my Program and not always strict enough to ensure that the more meta bolically challenged will achieve the “flip” into leptin sensitivity because the strictness required for them could be overkill for the less-challenged readers of my book. I hope that doesn’t sound too confusion. Let me put it another way: There is necessary individual calibrating—particularly important in the initial transition— that is impossible to identify in a book written for a wide range of people with issues ranging from skin/beauty to hard-core health issues. Because there’s a minimum of about twelve hours in my actual Program curriculum, without which few seem to execute this without eventual mistakes, I believe that the TeleProgram (at least, if not the retreat) is necessary for those with greater issues (weight, adrenal, energy, craving, sleep, hormonal and some others) to close loopholes that I’ve found are otherwise inevitably exploited over time. This is why need to go further in order to i dentify their own unique thresholds (by feel, not by number) for calibrated consumption of what I refer to only during the TelePrograms or retreats as “borderline” foods—an original concept that is unique to my Program and not discussed in any other so-called ketogenic, paleo, or leptin-conscious approaches. Only fifteen years of on-site, well-logged observation and fruitful honing have gleaned me this degree of detail in my perspective. There are some psychological considerations involved (particularly ideological) in success with my method that are inherent only in my live Programs or TelePrograms, but it is surprisingly a much smaller piece of the puzzle than the biochemical aspect.

Regarding coffee... Moderate consumption might not hurt some, non-adrenally exhausted, non-leptin-sensitive people. Just like thermogenic substances for non-leptin-sensitive people... It’s the best they’ll do at stoking energy, even if theyt are not wise for long-term health. Many things that are beneficial for people who will never become leptin sensitive and who eat relatively low-fat diets (by far most people; and many believe they are eating high fat), such as juicing and going raw, are things that will immediately remove the lion’s share of benefit for metabolically-challenged people who could otherwise regain FULL, long-term leptin functioning and true energy. There is a blood sugar response after coffee that eventually gets everyone who continues it into trouble with my diet as it perpetuates cravings, hinders weight loss, and puts off true adrenal healing. Coffee is a self-imposed stress event that releases sugar from the liver. The period of weaning off until adrenals have recovered (my TeleProgram attendees use a target nutrient regimen to speed this otherwise slow process) can be daunting without the aid of resensitizing to the hormone leptin which offers much better, real energy in coffee's place. Once coffee is stopped, energy initially drops but improves every day with my diet (in record time, in fact, verified by many docs who’ve seen the fastest recovery of cortisol function with my method) as long as you also incorporate a comprehensive program to recover sleep, which my Program has unique ability to assist with (see “Bedtime Stories”). 

I should add the consistent coffee connection I see with prostate and acid reflux, bone loss, mineral depletion, and anxiety issues. It is uncanny. People are very, very protective of their coffee addiction. That is truly what it is, and the gurus that praise it—like pomegranate juice, which is loaded with antioxidants (but also SUGAR)—do not acknowledge that other side—especially for challenged folks. Just as wine drinkers don’t acknowledge the other side of that passion either...