Stimulant foods you may want to avoid

Hi. I'm a "canary down the mine shaft". If someone's going to be sensitive to something, it's me! One of the things I need to either avoid or treat as a 'sometimes' food are stimulants. If I eat too many stimulants, I start to get edgy, shaky, jittery, and life isn't pleasant. I have suffered from adrenal fatigue in the past, so it's something I am always mindful of. Here's a handful of foods that are stimulants that may be making you feel a little wired.

Coffee

I'm not big on using deprivation as a tool for health, but sometimes it's necessary. For me, I just NEVER drink coffee. Of all the food based stimulants, it's the one that everyone thinks of. I'm not even 100% sure that I can use coffee products on my skin without feeling the effects, but I am going to experiment with this as there is a really great new Self Tanning Mousse from Eco Tan that I want to try, since I can't use their other products because they contain Rose Geranium (my kryptonite), I am really keen to try this.

Matcha Green Tea

I read a very poorly researched and misguided article online recently telling people with adrenal fatigue to drink Matcha Green Tea for energy instead of coffee. It may not be coffee, but it contains approx 50% of the caffeine content as coffee, so it's still a really bad idea if you're avoiding stimulants, which you absolutely should do if you have adrenal issues.

Chocolate

Noooooooo............ Sorry, if you're avoiding stimulants, too much chocolate is going to send you off the deep end too. Whether it's a good block of raw chocolate or something cheap, it's still a stimulant. For me, I eat them once in a while. If I have a sweet tooth, I will dip in the Caramel range of chocolate from Loving Earth which has no cacao powder in it. For my 'sometimes' chocolate, the new chocolate coated almonds from Loving Earth are totally wicked and are double dipped, first in the caramel chocolate and then the mylk chocolate. All are dairy free if that's an issue for you.

Tea

Black tea has the highest content of caffeine, and it does vary between varieties. White tea contains less, as does green tea. The amount of caffeine in a cup of steeped green tea from a tea bag or tea leaves is significantly less than the matcha green tea we mentioned above.

Cinnamon

Donuts and churros are always covered in cinnamon and white sugar. Cinnamon is quite often found in muesli's and cereals, which is the one of the reasons I choose the 2die4 range myself.  Eaten daily, cinnamon is absolutely a stimulant and has given me an anxious buzz on more than one occasion. It is innocently found in loads of healthy recipes, so watch out for this one. Health professionals warn of the dangers of ingesting large amounts of cinnamon, especially after the internet craze of the 'cinnamon challenge' where people were eating a teaspoon in 60 seconds with no water. Please don't try this at home, it's dangerous.