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The best time in the morning to drink coffee to encourage the production of serotonin and maintain a balanced mood all day long.
I spent the entire first day at the International Wise Traditions Conference one year camped out in the room where Julia Ross was speaking.
Julia Ross is the acclaimed author of the books The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure.
It was my first opportunity to hear her speak, and I was not disappointed.
I took boatloads of notes that day and have enough material for several blog posts which I will write up in the coming weeks.
Today, however, I want to specifically address Julia’s discussion about coffee.
Julia Ross’ take on coffee is different from other speakers I have listened to before.
I wanted to share her warning about it because I think it’s something most coffee drinkers have no idea about.
Julia says that her main objection is that people drink coffee first thing in the morning when they get up. This typically results in skipping breakfast altogether because coffee is a strong appetite suppressant.
Not to mention that coffee reduces (not increases as popularly believed) blood flow to the brain by about 25%.
Worst Time for Coffee is First Thing in the Morning
Skipping breakfast is a big no-no and not just because it increases your chances of overeating especially starches and sugars later in the day.
Skipping your morning meal does a number on your body’s ability to produce the neurotransmitter serotonin which is derived from the amino acid tryptophan. Â
Tryptophan, like all the amino acids, is contained in protein. Â
Meat is the best source of tryptophan but only from animals roaming on pasture (corn contains almost NO tryptophan so don’t eat beef from corn fed cattle or eggs from primarily corn/soy fed chickens).
Protein (food)  —–> Tryptophan (amino acid) —–> Serotonin (neurotransmitter)  —–> Melatonin (hormone for restful sleep)
Serotonin is what helps you feel happy, calm, and self-confident even in the face of stress
. Moreover, ample serotonin is important for a restful night’s sleep as the body converts serotonin into melatonin at dusk.  Inadequate melatonin results in insomnia problems.
Skipping breakfast in the morning short circuits the body’s ability to produce adequate serotonin throughout the day. Â
While eating protein later in the day definitely helps, your body still ends up playing serotonin catch up all day every day due to missing breakfast.
Julia says that we all need about 20-30 grams of protein 3X per day to fulfill our body’s requirement for amino acids in order to produce adequate neurotransmitters like serotonin. Â
If you are already deficient in serotonin, supplementation may be required for a short time to regain neurological balance.
This topic of neurotransmitters tends to get rather complicated, but the bottom line is this:
If you must drink coffee, then at the very least, wait until after breakfast to do it!
This way, the impact on your serotonin levels will not be as severe as drinking coffee first thing in the morning and skipping breakfast due to the appetite-suppressing effects.
You may find that this one simple change alone will help balance emotions the rest of the day.
Feelings of happiness, emotional flexibility, and stress reduction are common once this simple change is made.
How to Replenish Serotonin
Do you suspect that your serotonin levels are in the tank and you need neurotransmitter supplementation?
Clues would be that you grapple with worry, anxiety, OCD thoughts or actions, depression, panic attacks, and/or chronic insomnia.
In that situation, Julia Ross recommends this dosage with the amino acid tryptophan:
- 5-HTP (suggested source): Â 50 mg in the mid-afternoon and before bedtime.
OR
- L-tryptophan (suggested source): 500 mg in the mid-afternoon and again before bed especially if insomnia is a problem.
Note that 5-HTP is cheaper than L-tryptophan but some people get nausea from it, so switch to L-tryptophan if 5-HTP doesn’t work for you.
For children, start with a fraction of the dose above and only use L-tryptophan.
Raise the dosage as needed to eliminate low serotonin symptoms.
Next Steps
Once you’ve put off AM coffee until after you eat, you might perhaps feel motivated to try to shake the habit completely.
According to Julia Ross, people who crave chocolate, coffee, alcohol, and even exercise are typically low in the neurotransmitter endorphin.
Using supplementation of amino acids that are precursors to endorphin may help in trying to shake the coffee habit completely. These include:
- Amino acid d-phenylalanine (DPA) (suggested source): 500 mg, 2-4X/day. Use DPA if you are a daily coffee drinker and also an anxious person.
OR
- Amino acid d-phenylalanine (DPA) bound to the amino acid I-phenylalanine (LPA) – known in combination as DLPA (suggested source):   500 mg, 2-3X/day. Use DLPA if you crave the energizing effects of coffee and are not typically an anxious person.
Do you think a deficiency of neurotransmitters might be the reason some folks love their coffee so much?
Are you game to try changing when you drink AM coffee to help balance brain chemistry? Or, does it make more sense to switch to a noncaffeinated beverage like dandelion coffee instead?
Please share your thoughts on this and personal experience in the comments!
More Information
The Truth About Your Morning Coffee Fix
How Bulletproof Coffee Shoots You in the Foot
So, you suggest supplementing 5-HTP, and I wonder if you would still suggest that for someone who is taking antidepressants. (I know thats not an ideal situation, but it is what it is.)
The reason I ask is because I stopped taking antidepressants while pregnant, and a midwife suggested taking 5-HTP, but advised very strongly not to continue once I went back to antidepressants.
If you took 5-HTP while you were pregnant, and it worked, why did you go back to antidepressants? And if 5-HTP didn’t work while you were pregnant, why do you want to take it now?
Funny, drinking coffee makes me happy 🙂 It’s one of those things that instantly makes me relax. Kind of like when I grab my knitting needles or a good book. Though, I always enjoy one cup of coffee with a little sucanat and cream with my breakfast as I read the news. I dropped it for around 10 weeks and didn’t notice a difference in how I felt from day to day.
I agree with the premise of the post: drink coffee with a full meal. Caffeine has the potential to raise adrenaline and cortisol levels too high IF it is not consumed with a balanced meal. Eating fat, protein, and carbs together will naturally lower stress hormone levels, which is why you can avoid potential problems by drinking coffee with a meal.
However, just because overindulging in something may have negative side effects, doesn’t mean that cutting it out to the extreme is more beneficial for everyone.
None of us can dare assume that drinking NO coffee compared to drinking it in moderation is going to prevent disease or extend our lifespans. In fact, large scale studies suggest exactly the opposite.
I sure would hate to sit on my deathbed calculating the extra minutes I might have lived if only I had drank less coffee, had a better raw milk source, didn’t eat that Krispy Kreme that one time, or if I had only soaked my grains longer! If you have to eat the perfect diet to achieve health, wellness and longevity, then I probably won’t make it to 30.
Also, mainstream medicines ideas about serotonin are just about as backwards as their take on saturated fat. But that’s a whole other topic…
LOL! – “I sure would hate to sit on my deathbed calculating the extra minutes I might have lived if only I had drank less coffee, had a better raw milk source, didn’t eat that Krispy Kreme that one time, or if I had only soaked my grains longer! If you have to eat the perfect diet to achieve health, wellness and longevity, then I probably won’t make it to 30.” Agree!
Now, what is this about mainstream serotonin ideas…would you share a link or something, please? Thanks….
Sure, you might find this post helpful: http://www.livingthenourishedlife.com/2012/12/serotonin-myths-high-serotonin-blues.html
THank you, Elizabeth! Going to check it out now!
Wouldn’t adding creamer or sugar also be part of the problem. I would assume that makes it more “fulfilling” which would contribute to the breakfast skipping. When I do drink coffee, I take mine black, and it hasn’t affected my appetite whatsoever. Or maybe I just love food too much to skip a meal, lol!
Thanks for posting about this, interesting information. I thought that the studies reported in the mass media lately were in the ‘coffee is good for you’ column but I admit I don’t pay much attention.
I’m a late convert to drinking coffee and haven’t noticed any ill effects at all, nor that it reduces appetite any meaningful amount. Then again I don’t appear to be sensitive to caffeine.
Looks like another thing to investigate – how it affects me. Not some lab rat. Me.
Caffeine is a methyl donor and your genetic mutations have a lot to do with how many methyl groups a person benefits from. The specific ones are COMT and VDR taq. I have one mutation for each so I can tolerate some methyl groups but not a lot. My son has two mutations on each and can tolerate very little methyl groups. Neither of us consume caffeine as other foods contain methyl donors and that’s enough for our body to process.
COMT — VDR Taq++(need the most methyl donors)
COMT — VDR Taq +-
COMT — VDR Taq —
COMT+-VDR Taq++
COMT+-VDR Taq +-
COMT+-VDR Taq —
COMT++VDR Taq++
COMT++VDR Taq +-
COMT++VDR Taq–(exquisitely sensitive to methyl donors)
Some people can benefit from caffeine as long as they are supporting it with a healthy lifestyle. And obviously the source of caffeine is organic and free from molds.
Lisa, this is interesting! Can you provide a link that will tell us about other foods that are methyl donors and a little of how this all works? For instance, is theobromine also a methyl donor? I am very sensitive to coffee and chocolate, and somewhat sensitive to tea, but I crave them. I used to drink about 10 cups of coffee a day when I first went to work, and it caused a lot of bad side effects. Now I drink a few cups of weak tea per day, using half the normal amount of tea leaves, with coconut milk or something similar, and seem to tolerate it. But I’m thinking of switching to dandelion root tea, Teeccino, or something similar.
Most coffee probably contains a lot of mold toxins because of the way it is processed, and these toxins may be one reason that some of us can’t tolerate coffee. I know I’m very sensitive to mold. I found one brand that claims to have minimal mold. It is processed differently and tested. But I’m not sure I want to get back into coffee addiction.
I think the biggest detail left out of most of these types of evals is that the person presenting the information is speaking in relation to their experience, and especially when it comes to nutrition and body chemistry, even though we are all very very similar, we still react to and function differently. Most important thing, try not to skip your morning fuel ups. If coffee reacts badly with your system, don’t have it. If you feel you can’t live without it, you’re having too much and you probably really need to assess your normal nutrition intake as well as your physical fitness.
This is not a one-size-fits-all. Everyone is different. If caffeine negatively affects you, avoid it. I drink 1/2 decay coffee in the morning. If I drink coffee in the afternoon or evening, I immediately feel exhausted and have a hard time staying awake. I have autoimmune thyroid disease, so I am starting to experiment with Yerba Mate.
My brain loves that first hit of coffee, but my body hates it.
When I drink coffee I don’t want breakfast. Then I crash in the afternoon. So I do think there’s something to this.