Kicking the caffeine habit

If you want to be in tip-top mental health, stay away from stimulants. This is doubly important for those with mental health problems because too much caffeine can, in some, produce symptoms that lead to diagnosis of schizophrenia or mania. This may happen because high caffeine consumers can become both allergic to coffee and unable to detoxify caffeine. the net effect is serious disruption of both mind and mood.
Heres how you can give it up:
Coffee contains three stimulants: caffeine, theobromine and theophylline. Although caffeine is the strongest, theophylline is known to disturb normal sleep patterns and theobromine has a similar effect to caffeine, although it is present in much smaller amounts in coffee. So decaffeinated coffee isnt exactly stimulant free. Many people are cleared of minor health problems such as tiredness and headaches just from cutting out their two or three coffees a day. The best way to find out what effect it has on you is to quit for a trial period of two weeks. You may get withdrawl symptoms for up to three days. These reflect how addicted you've become. After this, if you begin to feel perky and your health improves, thats a good indication that you're better off without coffee.

Caffeine makes you tired.

Here's the irony. The reason that people get hooked on drinking coffee, particularly in the morning, is because it makes them feel better, more energised and alert. But does coffee actually increase your energy and mental performance, or just relieve the symptoms of withdrawl? Coffee is addictive and drinking it relives the symptoms of withdrawl.
Not only is coffee addictive, but also it worsens mental performance. Moderate and high consumers of coffee were found to have higher levels of anxiety and depression than abstainers.
Caffeine blocks the receptors for a brain chemical called adenosine, whose function is to stop the release of the motivating neurotransmitters dopamine and adrenalin. With less adenosine activity, levels of dopamine and adrenalin increase, as does alertness and motivation. Peak concentration occurs 30 - 60 minutes after consumption.
The more caffeine you consume, the more your body and brain become insensitive to its own natural stimulants, dopamine and adrenalin. You then need more stimulants to feel normal, and keep pushing the body to produce more dopamine and adrenalin. The net result is adrenal exhaustion - an inability to produce these important chemicals of motivation and communication. Apathy, depression, exhaustion and an inability to cope set in.
Coffee isn't the only source of caffeine. There's as much in a cup of strong tea as in a cup of regular coffee. Caffeine is also the active ingredient in most cola and other energy drinks such as red bull. Chocolate and green tea also contain caffeine, but much less than these drinks.

Stimulants

Sugar is only one side of the coin, as far as blood sugar problems are concerned. Stimulants and stress are the other. As you can see from the figure below if your blood sugar level dips there are two ways to raise it. One is to eat more glucose, and the other is to increase your level of the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol. There are two ways in which you can raise adrenalin and cortisol. Consume a stimulant - tea, coffee, chocolate or cigarettes - or react stressfully, causing an increase in your own production of adrenalin.
Knowing this, you can see how easy it is to get caught up in the vicious cycle of stress, sugar and stimulants. It will leave you feeling tired, depressed and stressed much of the time.
Here's how it works. Through excess sugar, stress and stimulants you lose your blood sugar control and wake up each morning with low blood sugar levels and not enough adrenalin to kick-start your day. So you adopt one of two strategies:
Either you reluctantly crawl out of bed on remote control and head for the kettle, make yourself a strong cup of tea or coffee, light up a cigarette or have some fast releasing sugar in the form of toast, with some sugar on it called jam. Up go your blood sugar and adrenalin levels and you start to feel normal.
Or you lie in bed and start to think about all the things that have gone wrong, coulod go wrong, will go wrong. You start to worry about everything you've got to do, haven't done and should have done. About ten minutes of this gets enough adrenalin pumping to get you out of bed. If this sounds like you, your caught in that vicious circle, with all its negative effects on your mind and mood.

Water

It is an astonishing fact that the human body is basically two-thirds water. Without it most people are dead in four days. In normal circumstances in twenty-four hours we lose 1.5 litre of water in urine, 750ml through the skin, 400ml in the breath, and 150ml in faeces. Thats a total of 2.8 litres a day. A simple equation would suggest that this is what you need to drink.

Water has many roles throughout the body other than flushing the kidneys, including dissolving minerals, and acting as a delivery system, a lubricant and temperature regulator.
Even very mild dehydration can lead to constipation, headaches, lethargy and mental confusion, while increasing the risk of urinary tract infections and kidney stones. When just 1 per cent of body fluids is lost, body temperature goes up and concentration becomes more difficult.
The thirst mechanism kicks in when we've lost between 1 and 2 per cent of body water. However, the thirst reflex is often mistaken for hunger. If we ignore it or mistake it for hunger, dehydration can continue to around 3 per cent, where it seriously affects both mental and physical performance. Sports nutritionists have found that a 3 per cent loss of body water results in an 8 per cent loss in muscle strength.

Balancing your blood sugar.

Here is an article from Patrick Holfords - New Optimum nutrition Bible
Keeping your blood sugar balanced is probably the most important factor in maintaining even energy levels and weight. The level of glucose in your blood largely determines your appetite. When the level drops, you feel hungry. The glucose in your bloodstream is available to your cells to make energy. When the levels are too high the body converts the excess to glycogen (a short term fuel store mainly in the liver and muscle cells) or fat, our long term energy reserve. When the levels are too low we experience a whole host of symptoms including fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, nervousness, depression, sweating, headaches and digestive problems. An estimated three in every ten people have impaired ability to keep their blood sugar level even. It may go too high, and then drop too low. The result, over the years, is that they become increasingly fat and lethargic. But if you can control your blood sugar levels the result is even weight and constant energy. Diabetes is an extreme form of blood sugar imbalance. The condition arises when the body can no longer produce sufficient insulin, a hormone that helps to carry glucose out of the blood and into the cells. The result is too much glucose in the blood and not enough for the cells. The early warning signs are similar to those of mild glucose imbalance, but they rarely go away as a result of simple dietary changes. One of the tell- tale signs is a continuous raging thirst as the body tries to dilute the excess blood sugar by stimulating us to drink.

So what makes your blood sugar level unbalanced? The obvious answer is eating too much sugar and sweet foods. However, the kinds of foods that have the greatest effect are not always what you might expect.
It isnt just about what you eat, its also about the quantity you eat, how you prepare it, what you eat it with - and what you drink.
Fast releasing foods are like rocket fuel, releasing their glucose in a sudden burst, for example Sucrose, cornflakes, banana, raisins, white bread, white spaghetti, white rice, potato (Baked), chocolate, rice cake, fizzy orange drink. They give a quick burst of energy with rapid burn out.

Slow releasing foods are fructose, oats, apple, pear, whole grain rye bread, wholewheat spaghetti, brown basmati rice, sweet potato, soya beans, oatcake, carrots, apple juice.

A bit about Sugar

When you eat complex carbohydrates like whole grains, vegetables, beans or lentils, or simpler carbohydrates such as fruit, the body does exactly what it is designed to do. It digests these foods and gradually releases their potential energy. What is more, all the nutrients that the body needs for digestion and metabolism are present in those whole foods. Such foods also contain a less digestible type of carbohydrate, classified as fibre, which helps keep the digestive system running smoothly. All forms of concentrated sugar - white sugar, brown sugar, malt, glucose, honey and syrup - are fast releasing, causing a rapid increase in blood sugar levels. If this sugar is not required by the body it is put into storage, eventually emerging as fat. Most concentrated forms of sugar are devoid of vitamins and minerals, unlike the natural stores such as fruit. White sugar has around 90 per cent of its vitamins and minerals removed. Without vitamins and minerals our metabolism becomes inefficient, contributing to poor energy and poor weight control. Fruit contains a simple sugar called fructose, which needs no digesting and can therefore enter the bloodstream quickly, like glucose or sucrose. However unlike them it is classified as slow releasing. This is because the body cannot use fructose as it is, since the cells run only on glucose. As a result the fructose first has to be converted by the body into glucose, which effectively slows down this sugar's effect on metabolism. Lactose, milk sugar, is similar. It is made up of a glucose and galactose. The glucose is fast releasing while the galactose is slow releasing. Some fruit, such as grapes and dates, also contain pure glucose and are therefore faster releasing. Apples, on the other hand, contain mainly fructose and so are slow releasing. Bananas contain both and therefore raise blood sugar levels quite speedily. Refined carbohydrates such as white bread, white rice and refined cereals have a similar effect to refined sugar, while oats are more complex and their release of sugar is slower. The process of refining or even cooking starts to break down complex carbohydrates into simple carbohydrates called malt (offically maltose), in effect predigesting them. When you eat simple carbohydrates you get a rapid increase in blood sugar level and a corresponding surge in energy. The surge, however, is followed by a drop as the body scrambles to balance your blood sugar level.

HOW FOOD FUELS YOU:

Although your body burns some stored fat when you exercise, its main fuel is carbohydrate that's been stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. When your glycogen stores are depleted, your body will indeed tap more of its fat reserves, but at what price? Without readily available fuel, you're not likely to feel too energetic. "And you won't burn more of anything if you can't muster the enthusiasm to master your toughest sets. On the other hand, if you eat before exercise, whether it's a large meal several hours in advance or a small snack only minutes ahead of time, you'll have the extra oomph you need for an energetic and effective workout.

Here's the reason: Before carbohydrate is tucked away in your muscles and liver as glycogen, it enters your bloodstream in the form of glucose (also called blood sugar), a readily available source of energy that helps perk you up when you're feeling hungry and fatigued. If the glycogen stored in your muscles and liver is low, your body can rely on glucose for fuel; if you already have a fair amount of stored glycogen, your body will use the glucose as a secondary source of energy and spare the glycogen. "It means that you have two sources of fuel as opposed to one, so you can last a lot longer," says Jackie Berning, RD, a sports nutritionist and assistant professor in the department of biology at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.
　
Something else you should consider is that the muscles and liver can only store so much glycogen. It's important to "top up" your reserves fairly often, even if you haven't been doing much: During a long night's sleep, the body depletes as much as 80 percent of the glycogen stored in the liver. "That's why eating a little something before you exercise in the morning can really help," says Nocton. Moreover, it doesn't take long to deplete stored glycogen during exercise, and it gets used up even faster when the weather is warm. "If you're playing an intense tennis match without having eaten and it's warm outside, it may take only 30 to 40 minutes before you deplete your glycogen," says Berning. Eating before a match will not only help you last a lot longer, it will also help settle the gastric juices that make your stomach growl and ward off the feelings of lightheadness and fatigue that can make it difficult to perform well.
　
　
　
　
WHAT TO EAT WHEN

Naturally, the fact that you shouldn't exercise on an empty stomach doesn't mean that you should eat a three-course meal 10 minutes before hitting the gym. In general, the closer you get to your workout start time, the fewer calories you should eat. The nutrients that make up those calories should also shift. Because it takes the body four to six hours to digest fat, about three hours to digest protein and about two hours to digest carbohydrates, it's important to winnow down the protein and fat content of your meal or snack as you get closer to exercise. "You're not going to want to eat a plate of french fries two hours before working out, because the blood is going to rush to your stomach to digest that while it's also trying to rush to your exercising muscles," says Berning. "In the end, it doesn't do a very good job of either one."

So, here are a few rules of thumb to follow: If your workout is four hours away, eat a regular meal that combines protein, fat and carbohydrates, then have a small carbohydrate-rich snack closer to your exercise session to tide you over. Three hours before working out, make it a smaller meal and lighten up a bit on the protein and fat. Thirty to 90 minutes before exercise, have a snack of easily digested carbohydrates (see below). If you only have the 15 minutes between, say, leaving your office and hitting the gym to grab something, go for a sports drink or a few Saltines. Also keep in mind that while eating high-fibre foods is important for good health, they're best eaten after or long before exercise, since they can cause bloating and other annoyances that will make you feel uncomfortable when working out.