Hey y'all and welcome to the everyday athlete podcast recorded live from Omaha, Nebraska and I'm your host, Katie danger U S army veteran and founder of Red H Nutrition providing everyday athletes just like you, clean, effective nutritional solutions, custom formulated to help you reach your absolute potential every single day.
(00:28): In fact, here we are at episode number 30. Yup. We're at three zero already. Whether this is your first episode tuning in or your 30th. I want to thank you for choosing to spend your time with me today. Time is very, very valuable. It is something we cannot get back. So in short, thank you so much for spending your time with me and this week, I've got a pretty good episode for you. I think you're going to be interested in this cause we're talking about coffee and if you are at all like me, you really enjoy your daily cup of Joe and like anything we can do in life, there's always better ways than others to do things. And the same goes with coffee and the type of coffee that you choose because not all coffee is created equal, but yeah, before I dive into the different types of coffee, I want to point out that I wasn't even always interested in coffee at all.
(01:15): In fact, through college and my time in the army, I didn't even grow a fondness for coffee. During the, I remember when I was in the army, we would get the Emorys. And one of the things a lot of people look forward to where the little Taster's choice, instant coffee packets. Yeah. We couldn't obviously drink it like normal coffee or heated up or anything. So what people would do is they would make these makeshift two bags out of their napkins and this coffee. It was just awful, but that's what you did in the army. When you need a caffeine fix those Taster's choice packets, we're worth a lot of time trading leverage. But anyway, I digress. Let's get back to the point here. The first time I actually had coffee that I would enjoy. It was not the military, but it was when a friend came along and he showed me about friendship, pressed coffee.
(02:02): I mean, I had probably heard of French press coffee before, but like I'm from small town, Nebraska. Like this just wasn't something I was familiar with. It sounds really silly now in hindsight, but whatever I heard about French press coffee and he made me some and I don't remember what the roast was. I don't remember anything like that, but I just didn't know coffee could ever be so enjoyable. It wasn't bitter. It was actually really, really good. And you guys, it took me almost 25 years of my life to appreciate coffee. I feel like I'm a late bloomer. I mean, that's only 10 years ago. I started drinking coffee. So I've got a lot of coffee tasting to go, but I do have a lot under my belt. So that's why this episode was really fun for me to do because 10 years later, I've learned a lot about coffee.
(02:43): I've learned about, you know, where it's grown, how it's grown, how that differs in the caffeine content, how it's roasted, how long it's roasted acidity and then organic versus non-organic [inaudible]. If you've listened to anything I've talked about in any podcast before [inaudible], perhaps this is your very episode. So I'm going to reiterate something or state something new for you. I believe that we are what we eat. What we put into our bodies is going to be a reflection of what we get out. You put good in, you get good out. You put bad stuff in, you get bad out. It's just, yeah. Gasoline in a car. If you put suboptimal gasoline or fuel, that is not appropriate for your vehicle in your vehicle, it's not going to run very well if at all. So when I started learning about the darker side of coffee, growing, harvesting, and importing, I realized that the type of coffee drink is very important.
(03:30): So I go back to that point that not all coffee is created equal. I mean, that's kind of a dumb moment because if you realize that like Taster's choice instant coffee packets, and then compare it to French roast coffee, obviously coffee is not created equal, but I'm diving even deeper. And I'm talking about organic versus not organic. And that is the number one thing I consider in my coffee choice is whether it's organic or not. I really didn't care too much. When I first started drinking coffee. It really wasn't until recently I found out about all this anyway. So I love buying all the fancy brands of coffee. I just think that stuff is so fun. Like death wish black rifle, you know, you name it. I like trying it. They have all these fun flavors and blends, right? But when I learned about the health hazards and the risks of nonorganic coffee, it just became a hard pass for me.
(04:14): You know, no matter how good their marketing was of their coffee, if it's not organic, I'm just not willing to put it in my body. So here's the deal. You guys, here's what the use of pesticides in any agriculture poses, a significant risk to human health. So if you're not eating organic fruits and veg, basically any time that you eat a non-organic plant or animal, you pose the risk of putting something inorganic in your body, such as a pesticide and herbicide, in terms of meat consumption, we're talking about antibiotics and steroids and things like that. So in this case, the use of pesticides, particularly as it's used in coffee fields, in any of that process, poses a significant risk to our health. There's an article that was published by the national Institute of health in 2009. It reported that we've contaminated most of our environment, which leaves chemical residue in the soil, the air in the water.
(05:04): So not only is it useful pesticides and chemicals bad for our bodies, it is ruining the environment. So this podcast is mostly about the health benefits, actual consumption of coffee. The cool thing is secondary order of effects, where we would see an improvement in our overall environment. If organic farming and agriculture started to become the precedent. Now that's a different time or place, not for this podcast episode, but it's something to consider. Certainly now people give a lot of credit to their fruits and veggies coming from organic sources. In fact, myself, I got think it's whole 30. Yeah, whole 30. They had this really cool guide. And it talks about what if you're on a budget or if you can't get everything organic, it's just not something you can do. It gives you a list of the fruits and veggies. If you can, you should choose organic.
(05:51): And those are essentially the ones where we eat the skin of the product as well. So an Apple, not necessarily a banana coffee would be one carrots, lettuce, things like that. So if you're interested in that go whole 30 and I think it's just their organic versus non-organic comparison. If you're on a budget, cause it's definitely about saving money, but it's also good to know when we talk about people giving credit to fruits and veggies, but we don't really talk about switching to organic coffees. We talk about whether it's dark or it's mild or it's breakfast, or even if it's like Colombian or Peruvian or Guatemalan, but we don't talk about organic or not organic. And this is really important. I want you to think about this for a second. Let's say you have an eight ounce glass and eight ounces is one cup. So you haven't eight ounce glass, a day of nonorganic coffee.
(06:34): You're sipping your regular coffee right now. It's not organic. This means that in some way, shape or form along this coffee beans growing process, that chemicals were used that could be pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, any all of the above. So then let's say you have at least one cup of coffee every day for the next 10 years. I chose 10 years because that's pretty much how long I've been drinking coffee for now regularly. And I've only recently made the switch to completely organic. Okay. So I took one cup times 365. So that's eight ounces. That's 2,920 ounces. That's almost 23 gallons of coffee that I have drank in a year. And then if you multiply that over 10 years, it's almost 230, 30 gallons of coffee. I have drank over the course of the past decade. Now, obviously you put that in the 230 gallon term perspective.
(07:22): It seems like a lot of coffee. So in about 10 years, I've drank 230 gallons of coffee. That's a lot. And if I'm going to drink that much coffee over the next 10 years of my life, from this point on, I want to be choosing the highest quality coffee. I'm going to tell you right now, guys, I probably don't eat as many fruits and veg as I do hit my coffee every single day, aye, have long had a mantra of an Apple a day and I have been so good about it. I mean, there are a few hiccups here and there, but I probably missed my Apple a day more than I miss my coffee a day. So that's why I talk so much about choosing the right coffee. I'm going to get an organic Apple then by logic. If coffee is more consumed than Apple, I should have organic coffee as well. That's just my logic. It seems to work though. It seems to work, prove me wrong if you got something else, but that's why I choose the highest quality coffee. I drink so much coffee and I'm pretty sure most people out there. If you are a coffee drinker, you probably have at least one yeah,
(08:18): Cup a day like at a serving. If you sit down once a day for coffee, it's probably at least eight ounces or more right.
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(09:03): So Here's the fact of the matter coffee is one of those heavily chemically treated crops in the entire world. Not apples, not bananas, not lettuce coffee. Once again, if I consume that much coffee, I'm going to make sure that it is the highest quality coffee. According to recent statistics, up to 250 pounds of chemical fertilizers are sprayed per acre of conventional coffee. That is a lot of fertilizer per acre, so much per acre. So it's kind of hard to conceptualize an acre isn't necessarily something that we can visualize, but we can visualize what 250 pounds looks and feels like, especially for weightlifters here. So that's a lot of fertilizer. There's some back and forth on what happens to the chemicals and coffee. Some companies that are non-organic, they're going to back up their marketing and say that the pesticides are burned off during roasting. There's also other camps that promote the chemicals are cooked off while roasting, but it's rather cooked into the beans.
(09:59): So you've got the camp that's trying to, you know, essentially say, no, we sell nonorganic coffee, but it's safe for consumption. And then you have the campuses. No, no, no. They're not burned off. And they're cooked into the beans. Listen, I will tell you that I've had organic coffee for a while now. And just from my palate and taste alone, organic coffee is where it's at. The acidity is so much lower. The bitterness is so much lower and you know, this is just a decision I'm going to make and I'm going to quit taking chances on a food, a product that I consume so much of. It's kind of what I decided with certain vegetables and certain fruits that I consume. A lot of. If I'm going to have this in my diet, like a staple of my diet, then I'm going to choose the best quality of that, that I can.
(10:43): I've said this before, too cool thing is secondary result from all this. If you're into saving the environment, organic farming and supporting organic farmers is the way to go as well. It's sustainable and saves the environment. Okay. Conventional coffee is among those heavily chemically treated foods in the world. It's steeped in fertilizers, the pesticides herbicides. I mean, when you just keep saying all these things that are treated without loudness, it's just gross. It makes it taste bad. And that could possibly be some of where I'm coming from too. Now that I know all of this stuff, Oh, it's just really hard to go to like, you know, a mom and pop restaurant and get your breakfast and have they're normal percolated. Or if you're lucky, French press coffee, right. I'm sure that I use organic beans and that's okay. But if I can choose, I always choose organic now.
(11:27): So not only can our bodies suffer from this, but the environment suffers and the people who live in it suffer from the type of farming that is conventional. The farmers are exposed to high levels of chemicals. The surrounding communities are impacted because there's chemical residues in the air and the water, it contaminates their water that they drink. You know, it's not just unpleasant. These things are highly toxic and they're detrimental to human health impacts the farmers that are working with these chemicals. How on earth could it possibly be good to consume the product question, Mark, there's no benefit to ingesting even a small amount of herbicide or pesticide chemicals. There's just none. So it is a zero tolerance policy with me because it's just the most optimal. No, in the case of organic coffee, there's no synthetic fertilizers or chemicals used in the growing and production, which means a cleaner bean cleaner air, cleaner land, clear water, cleaner community surrounding it.
(12:19): Coffee is only grown with organic fertilizers like coffee Polk, chicken manure, or compost. Here's some bonus points, two bonus points, organic farms also. Yeah. To combat climate change because they emit less carbon and chemical farms. There you go. And organic coffee beans are richer and healthful antioxidants and people. I can taste the difference. I just told you I've tasted the difference. If you have yet to treat yourself to any organic coffee, Lee's treat yourself, take one day, treat yourself, you know, guys, athletes, this might sound like an advertisement or a push to a certain brand, but is not, that's not what I'm here to do. I just have read so much about coffee and because I consume so much of it, I really wanted to choose the absolute best for my body. That's what I do. That's what this whole podcast is about. Optimizing all the little puzzle pieces, the makeup, your life.
(13:08): And I enjoy coffee and I want to make sure I'm also making the best choices for my longevity. I know there's lots of well marketed coffee brands out there. I mentioned some of them earlier, but until they take a real interest in their growing and cultivating methods and cut out the chemicals, I'm only going to give my business to brands who care about the bigger picture. Number one, my health and number two, the environment. So with that, I spent a lot of time on Amazon. I've scoped out a lot of it from beans. We've tried a lot here at danger HQ and I buy them in one pound bags. So I don't have to invest a lot in trying them out. I found some good organic beans for about seven and a half bucks. So here's a few of my favorite organic brands that I've been trying so far equal exchange their love buzz blend.
(13:51): So, so good is not right. Bitter. It's like bold. Oh, it's really, really good. I love it. Don Pablo subtle earth. They come in one, two or five pound bags. I found this is kind of my go to because when you buy at five pound bags per pound, it ends up being super cheap, even cheaper than anywhere you can get in the store. So I liked Don Pablo, but it's kind of mild and doesn't really have a lot of fun and flare behind it like equal exchange. Or then there's also kicking horse smart ass and it's a medium roast and all of kicking horses, roasts are organic, but I just happen to like the smart ass medium roast blend. So yeah, equal exchange love buzz, Don Pablo subtle earth. He also has lots of different roasts too. Depends on what you like. And then kicking horse brand, particularly the smart ass roast.
(14:36): You know, you're going to find organic gross or slightly more expensive usually. And I say that because if you find a brand new light and you start to order in bulk, you'll find some great deals. And like that Don Pablo subtle earth, it comes in five pound bags, $39. If you, the math at $7 and 80 cents a pound, at least in town in Omaha here at the organic places, I have yet to find organic coffee for less than $8 a pound. And I found it here on Amazon. So listen, athletes, this podcast is all about how I can share with you all the small things I do to improve my life on a daily basis, how I take in my current routine and how I optimize everything. And yes, I have found that switching to organic coffee is an improvement in my life and your team.
(15:17): Plus I swear, it just tastes better. Oh, I just love coffee and it just tastes better. So start with those roasts that I mentioned, the equal exchange love buzz blend is so good. And I did the calculation. It's only eight 50, a pound, eight 50 a pound on Amazon. Can't beat that, but here's the caveat here is the one caveat to all of this. Once you go organic, you ain't going back. I promise you that that's the only bad part about this. You're going to just want to get organic beans after this because it tastes so much better. Athletes. Thank you so much again for tuning in to episode number 30 and allowing me to share my passion of coffee with you. I'm going to get off my soap box now. And if you have any suggestions for great organic coffee that you've tried, please let me know about him.
(15:58): Send me an email. And as always, if you've got a question about something in the podcast, send me an email. katie@redhnutrition.com. So next week for episode number 31, I'm going to be bringing on a few guests with me, Bella and Kennedy from Omaha's first row house rowing studio are going to be joining me. And we're going to talk about 2020’s hottest new fitness trends, which is rowing. It's a different approach to train Rowan studios like rowhouse they promote kilt training, high intensity, low impact training. So that's a new acronym for you. Hilt high intensity, low impact training. So you can still train at intensity, but mitigate the wear and tear of your body in particular your joints. So if that sounds like a blast, join us next week. It's going to be fun. Okay. Join me next week, episode number 31 with Bella and Kennedy from a row house in Omaha until then athletes. This is Katie D over and out.
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