To Coffee or Not to Coffee?

I’m a new coffee drinker who discovered the joys of this legal stimulant just a few years back —believe it or not. And I am an adult! Who would have thought, coffee found me later later in life. Honestly, I’ve got absolutely zero coffee wisdom to dish out—so what am I even doing writing this? Ha! I’m definitely not the coffee expert here! I’m a chef, but until recently, I’ve spent my entire career blissfully unaware of the wonders of coffee. And now? Well, let’s just say I like to go meet my friends in the morning and drink the coffee.

Here’s how I take my coffee: espresso, americano, or long black— simple! I’m not into any milk, non-milks or any kind of sweeteners. That's how coffee was introduced to me, full Italian style. Now I am all in. I love meeting my mates for coffee, especially the ones that don’t have 9-5s. They are entrepreneurs and have epic lifestyles where a coffee meet up can turn into hours of talking. This to me is the best kind of coffee. The unbotherable coffee, if you know what i mean.

Caffeine is metabolised via the liver. Don’t be put off by this big, long name – an enzyme called Cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2) is the main enzyme responsible for this process. Fancy names aside, the point is, caffeine is a drug which requires detoxification via the liver so it can be safely eliminated from the body.

Detoxification is a change process where the liver takes something, that if it accumulated inside you, would be harmful to you, and transforms it into a less harmful version, in preparation for elimination. There are two phases of detoxification in the liver and one in the gut. A good way to imagine what happens with caffeine is that like other substances that the liver needs to deal with (alcohol, trans fats, refined sugars, synthetic substances, as well as substances made inside you like sex hormones, cholesterol, and metabolites from microbes), caffeine arrives at the front door of the liver needing to be changed (detoxified). Imagine the liver has roads through it: there are roads substances like caffeine can travel along into the liver that make up phase 1 detoxification and there are roads out of the liver, which are the pathways for phase 2 detoxification. 

Caffeine increases the speed of phase 1 liver detoxification. Great, you might think, sounds like just what I need—faster liver detoxification processes. But here’s the thing: for too many people today, their phase 2 is inefficient, congested or simply overwhelmed with its task list, so the substances travelling along a phase 2 pathway can be moving slowly, like traffic crawling along a motorway. And now you have sped up phase 1 with the caffeine. So with fast phase 1 generating what are known as ‘intermediate metabolites’ that need to immediately be taken in by the phase 2 pathways to continue on their detoxification journey, if the phase 2 roads are congested with traffic, the products of the end of phase 1 have nowhere to go. 

This can have major consequences for your health and your body’s ability to prevent diseases as these intermediate metabolites that are only partially detoxified, are highly reactive and can damage your tissues. Basically, at the core of it all, its no to the coffee! God Dammit!!

And here’s the fine print- titled ~the contrast~

Yes to the coffee.

A super kool culture, serving up a super kool drink. 

My top 4 go to coffee in Sanur.  I’m making up for lost time!

1-Jhoii Local Eats. Not cause i own the joint, cause it good coffee

2-Mushroom Espresso. Really great coffee, google them now.

3-Dimattina Coffee & Roastery. Really good coffee !

4-Barbarossa nice aircon area. Coffee is good