How to Fight Your Thanksgiving Food Coma

Thanksgiving is arguably the biggest meal of the whole year. We get together with our near and dear ones, give thanks, and of course, EAT! We fill up on hearty turkey, heaping helpings of delicious pies of all sorts, mashed potatoes, and much more. Soon after, you’re not just stuffed to the brim, but you also get hit hard with a severe case of sleepiness, also known as the ‘food coma.’ While you may think nothing of it, those effects of consuming a large, often fatty meal, can have greater health consequences than just falling asleep early.

Here, we thought that it might be a good time to share some tips on how you can still enjoy a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, and not have to face those consequences.

What happens when you get a food coma?

After you eat a large meal, the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for increasing instestinal activity, tells your body to slow down and digest. The more you eat, the more the parasympathetic nervous system is activated, causing your body to focus energy on digestion. In addition, there is more of an increase in blood flow to your core, and less to the rest of the body, which causes a feeling of tiredness.

How can you prevent food coma?

Just because it’s Thanksgiving, doesn’t mean that you should eat like there’s no tomorrow! Follow this simple guide, and you can keep your energy going and your mind fresh.

1. Don’t Fast.

If you are trying to save as much room as possible in your stomach for dinner, don’t skip out on breakfast and lunch. Most likely, this will only cause you to overeat later on. Instead, it is recommended that you eat small, sensible, healthy meals.

 

2. Exercise

On Thanksgiving day, you’ll surely be busy all day prepping for the family feast. But, before you even start working in the kitchen in the morning, do a nice, light workout, like a 30-minute walk. Even after dinner, encourage your guests to take a walk. This will help burn some of the food calories and will also aid in digestion.

 

3. Slow Down

Thanksgiving may be the most memorable meal you have of the year, but remember that it’s not your last meal on earth! It’s important to take your time, and savor every bite of every dish. This is not just for the sake of your health, but it’s also so you can appreciate the effort that went into the cooking! In addition, it’s a good idea to use smaller plates, as it has been shown that this helps us eat less by giving the impression of having larger portions.

 

4. Eat More Protein & Less Carbohydrates

Try to cut down on the potatoes, breads, and rice, and eat more proteins and healthy fats.

 

5. Drink Plenty of Water

By drinking more water, throughout the day, you will get somewhat filled  up, preventing you from eating excessively, gaining weight, and getting constipation.

 

6. Indulge (a little bit)

You most likely won’t have a completely balanced, light meal for Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s ok. You can have treats, but, as hard as it may be, try to restrict yourself to only a couple.

Keep all of this in mind, as you get ready for a satisfying bounty of yummy food on Thanksgiving night. From all of your friends at CoffeeAM, we wish you a very happy holiday, filled with fun (and coffee)!

 

Tea Tuesday: Wholesale Tea to Grow Your Business

Are you trying to grow and expand the offerings at your own café or coffee shop? Finding new ways to do this can be tedious, and at times, overwhelming. You may want to consider adding a selection of unique teas to your menu, and thanks to CoffeeAM, it’s so much easier. We would love to ease your stress by providing your business with a variety of exceptional wholesale, loose-leaf gourmet teas, herbal teas, and tisanes to help you offer customers the best quality possible.

Whether you have a customer with a highly refined palate wanting a cup of Japanese Sencha green tea, or someone hoping for a plain cup of Tazo tea, we can meet and even exceed their expectations. At CoffeeAM, we have some main categories of teas to soothe the senses of each and every one of your customers.

 Flavored Tea

Flavored teas have steadily risen in popularity over the years, particularly in recent times. With everything from a delicious, aromatic, and low-calorie Kiwi-Strawberry tea to a classic cup of rejuvenating hot or iced Peppermint tea, our wide array of fragrant, flavored loose-leaf, Chinese black teas with natural essences will continually entice and invite customers all year long. Looking for a new special for your menu to pique interest, and maybe even create some buzz? These flavored teas will be the perfect solution!

                   

Premium Black, Green, & White Teas

If you want to give your café customers a taste of the world, you may want to explore our premium teas. Not only will your customers be exposed to global flavors, but CoffeeAM will also provide you with accurate and extensive information about each type of tea, which you can share with customers. This includes everything from origins, history, grade, health benefits, and more. Travel to England for a rich, silky cup of the ever-popular English Breakfast Tea, then, head to India for a full-bodied, lightly spiced Masala Chai Tea. With the world at your fingertips, there is no reason to miss out on this opportunity to add some surprise to your daily menu.

                    

Wholesale Herbal Teas

With consumers becoming more health-conscious, and following all-natural diets, you will see the potential that our wholesale herbal teas have for your business. Our range of herbal teas are made from the earth’s flowers, nuts, roots, berries, seeds, bark, and leaves, all of which contain natural and vital vitamins. Along with an unexpectedly pleasant set of natural flavors, you will also learn valuable information regarding the product, such as the tea’s origins, history, geography, and medicinal benefits. Customers can relax with authentic and stress-reducing Chamomile Tea, or maybe with a smooth Rooibos African Red Bush Tea that’s rich in vitamins and anti-oxidants. You should certainly feel refreshed getting a taste of nature at its best.

                   

Here, we have only scratched the surface of the heavenly, wholesale teas and tisanes available to you. Visit CoffeeAM today, and in no time, you’ll have everything that you need to jumpstart your business. When you’re running a café or coffee shop, keeping your brews continually fresh and innovative can be pretty time intensive itself. For this reason, our in-house baristas will keep you updated via email with signature recipes using gourmet teas, thereby bringing customers back time and again. We will even let you know of any new medical research and findings regarding these teas.

You’ll know everything there is to know about all these wholesale teas, and you will have the pleasure of passing that knowledge on to your customers. You won’t just be serving ordinary tea, you’ll be serving an experience to an even broader audience.

LBBC: Living Beyond Breast Cancer – National Breast Cancer Awareness Month

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, the annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease, and not just its existence, but also to remind people to take preventive measures through early detection, and to encourage others to do so as well. You may not know it, but breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, and the actual causes of breast cancer are yet to be determined. So, it is all the more important to take those steps.

With that, CoffeeAM is honored to be a partner of LBBC, the Living Beyond Breast Cancer organization. They truly understand the challenges that a breast cancer patient must face, and how knowledge and a strong support system is key to easing the treatment and recovery process. By connecting those affected to meaningful information, resources, and support, no matter what stage of breast cancer they are facing, LBBC strives to achieve its goal—“a world where no one impacted by breast cancer feels uninformed or alone.”

LBBC was founded at a time when there were limited resources for women affected by breast cancer. While the organization initially had a limited budget, and it focused exclusively on post treatment, it has since experienced tremendous growth, and its ability to greatly expand its programs and services.

Through CoffeeAM, you have the opportunity to help LBBC in its continued efforts, just by making a purchase from our Coffees for Breast Cancer Awareness page. 10% of sales of each and every product on this page will directly benefit this wonderful organization. That means contributing to the continual development of LBBC’s programs, services, and resources to help even more individuals in need.

You can expect to have a delicious experience with our coffees for breast cancer awareness—some classics like Jamaica Blue Mountain Reserve, and Brazil Santos, as well as popular flavored coffees like Pumpkin Spice, and Highlander Grogg.

If you are looking for a way to make a difference and celebrate breast cancer awareness month, then consider supporting Living Beyond Breast Cancer by purchasing coffee through CoffeeAM.

Rise and Grind: Just How Important is That Morning Cup of Joe?

For many (if not most), coffee is an integral part of the morning ritual. Whether you have it right after you wake up, or just before you head out the door, it’s hard to fathom how your life would be without your morning coffee. Over the years, different schools of thought have emerged regarding the true value of that early morning cup of joe—it’s fantastic, or it’s bad practice. Research has even been conducted in this matter. What do you think? We will give you the facts, and let you decide for yourself.

While coffee has proven to have numerous health benefits, determining when is the best time to drink it is key. If you feel like even when you drink your coffee it doesn’t give you the boost that you are looking for, there could be an explanation. Recent research has shown that drinking coffee very first thing in the morning is actually the worst time.

In scientific terms, our bodies are guided by a 24-hour hormonal cycle, known as the circadian clock. These rhythms are naturally programmed into us, but those cycles can be altered through lifestyle habits. In humans, this clock controls the release of a hormone called cortisol, which is what makes us feel awake. The peak production of cortisol occurs between 6 and 9 am, more so between 8 and 9 am.

So, at the very time that you are probably having your first cup of coffee, your body is already ‘caffeinating’ itself naturally. By drinking coffee at this time (when you don’t actually need it), the effectiveness of coffee stimulation is significantly reduced. Disrupting your circadian rhythms can have other negative effects on your health, including developing a long-term caffeine dependence.

Therefore, it’s not really a matter of whether or not morning coffee consumption is good or bad, it’s more about choosing WHEN to drink it. To get the most out of your morning coffee, and to enjoy it without those negative effects, you should ideally consume it between 9:30 am and 11:30 am, which is when those cortisol levels are dropping.

In short, it’s not absolutely necessary to drink coffee first thing in the morning. You should wait till approximately mid-morning, and optimally, drink at the most, just 4 cups a day. Try experimenting with your daily coffee schedule, and let us know what you have found to be the most successful for you. With CoffeeAM, you will look forward to your morning cup of joe each and everyday.