# Coffee

Category: Foods & Substances

Coffee is a beverage whose primary active molecule, caffeine, Ray Peat treated as a vitamin-like nutrient or adaptogen, fundamentally protective and capable of compensating for hormonal deficiencies. He argued that the popular health-culture and medical establishment have…

10 passages · 1 author · 2006–2025 · Most-cited: [Ray Peat](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/voices/ray-peat/index.md)

Canonical page: https://bioenergeticoracle.com/concepts/coffee

## Synthesis

**Coffee** is a beverage whose primary active molecule, **caffeine**, Ray Peat treated as a *vitamin-like nutrient* or adaptogen, fundamentally protective and capable of compensating for hormonal deficiencies. [Source 2, 5] He argued that the popular health-culture and medical establishment have wrongly framed it as a harmful drug with no nutritional benefit, when in fact it is a rich source of **magnesium** and **niacin**, providing up to 20% of several essential nutrients in some diets. [Source 5, 6, 7] Peat noted that a large monograph from around 1970 already defined caffeine's safety and its protective effects against carcinogenesis from radiation, chemical carcinogens, and even viral carcinogens. [Source 7]

The physiological effects of caffeine closely parallel those of **thyroid** and **progesterone**. [Source 2] Caffeine increases cyclic AMP and decreases serotonin in thyroid cells, locally activating thyroid secretion, and it is known to increase the concentration of progesterone in the blood and brain. [Source 2] This synergy explains why women spontaneously drink more coffee premenstrually as a form of self-medication, and why a progesterone supplement's effect is often stronger when taken with coffee. [Source 2] Peat also detailed caffeine's ability to inhibit platelet aggregation and the release of **serotonin**, thereby reducing vascular spasms, blood pressure, and inflammation. [Source 2] He considered coffee one of the most powerful anti-stress factors, capable of protecting the liver, quenching free radical damage, and blocking the breakdown of *polyunsaturated fats* (PUFA) in the skin. [Source 9]

Peat emphasized that the harmful reactions some people experience—anxiety, shakiness, and blood sugar crashes—are not inherent to coffee but result from improper *coffee consuming technology*. [Source 1, 4] Drinking black coffee on an empty stomach causes the caffeine to enter the circulation so rapidly that it accelerates the burning of sugar, which can trigger a stress reaction and a frenzy of **adrenaline** and **cortisol** in hypothyroid individuals with blood sugar problems. [Source 1, 9] The corrective practice is to consume coffee with a meal, using **thick cream** and sugar to slow absorption and provide fuel, which prevents the depletion of glycogen stores. [Source 1, 4, 8] Peat recounted that people who previously could not tolerate even a sip of coffee were able to become happy drinkers within days by adopting this method. [Source 4, 10] He also noted that drinking coffee with meals greatly reduces the absorption of non-heme iron. [Source 3, 8]

Peat’s own consumption patterns illustrated coffee's role in supporting a deficient metabolism. Before using thyroid supplements, he drank up to 50 cups a day to stave off migraines and maintain function, a behavior he described not as a destructive addiction but as the body recognizing coffee as part of its *homeostasis*. [Source 6] After beginning thyroid supplementation, his craving spontaneously dropped to about five cups a day. [Source 6] Empirically, he pointed out that the highest levels of coffee consumption—five cups and up—are associated with the lowest rates of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, and liver disease. [Source 1, 6, 7] Even decaffeinated coffee retains significant nutritional value as a source of B vitamins and magnesium, though the caffeine itself overrides the negative effects of the "smoky junk" found in dark roasts. [Source 1, 7, 8]

## People also ask

### How does coffee interact with thyroid and progesterone in the body?

Peat argued that caffeine mimics thyroid and progesterone by increasing cyclic AMP, decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, and raising progesterone levels in the blood and brain, which explains why women often crave more coffee premenstrually.

### Why does drinking black coffee on an empty stomach cause anxiety or shakiness?

The entry describes that without food, caffeine enters the bloodstream too quickly, accelerating sugar burning and triggering a stress reaction with adrenaline and cortisol, especially in people with blood sugar issues.

### What did Ray Peat’s own coffee consumption reveal about its role in metabolism?

Peat drank up to 50 cups daily to prevent migraines before using thyroid supplements, but his craving dropped to about five cups after supplementation, which he saw as the body recognizing coffee as a homeostatic support rather than an addiction.

## Related concepts

- [Caffeine](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/caffeine/index.md)
- [Adrenaline](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/adrenaline/index.md)
- [Albumin](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/albumin/index.md)
- [Alzheimer's and Dementia](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/alzheimer-s-and-dementia/index.md)
- [Anemia](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/anemia/index.md)
- [Beef](https://bioenergeticoracle.com/md/concepts/beef/index.md)

## Cited passages

Passage numbers match the `[Source N]` markers in the synthesis above.

### Source 1 — 2020.06.10 | Dr Ray Peat Q&A - Weight Loss, Stretch Marks, Hydrogen, Negative Ions and More!

Ray Peat · Interview · Jun 10, 2020

> **Ray Peat:** It turns out that the more coffee people drink — five cups and up, for example — are the healthiest in general. Even a lower rate of of Alzheimer's disease, of cancer, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease even! So empirically, even though coffee is full of all of that smoky junk, which would be best to eliminate, the caffeine overrides it powerfully.

### Source 2 — Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Aug 10, 2006

> The research on caffeine's effects on blood pressure, and on the use of fuel by the more actively metabolizing cells, hasn't clarified its effects on respiration and nutrition, but some of these experiments confirm things that coffee drinkers usually learn for themselves.
>
> Often, a woman who thinks that she has symptoms of hypoglycemia says that drinking even the smallest amount of coffee makes her anxious and shaky. Sometimes, I have suggested that they try drinking about two ounces of coffee with cream or milk along with a meal. It's common for them to find that this reduces their symptoms of hypoglycemia, and allows them to be symptom-free between meals. Although we don't know exactly why caffeine improves an athlete's endurance, I think the same processes are involved when coffee increases a person's “endurance” in ordinary activities.
>
> Caffeine has remarkable parallels to thyroid and progesterone, and the use of coffee or tea can help to maintain their production, or compensate for their deficiency. Women spontaneously drink more coffee premenstrually, and since caffeine is known to increase the concentration of progesterone in the blood and in the brain, this is obviously a spontaneous and rational form of self-medication, though medical editors like to see things causally reversed, and blame the coffee drinking for the symptoms it is actually alleviating. Some women have noticed that the effect of a progesterone supplement is stronger when they take it with coffee. This is similar to the synergy between thyroid and progesterone, which is probably involved, since caffeine tends to locally activate thyroid secretion by a variety of mechanisms, increasing cyclic AMP and decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, for example, and also by lowering the systemic stress mediators.
>
> Medical editors like to publish articles that reinforce important prejudices, even if, scientifically, they are trash. The momentum of a bad idea can probably be measured by the tons of glossy paper that have gone into its development. Just for the sake of the environment, it would be nice if editors would try to think in terms of evidence and biological mechanisms, rather than stereotypes.
>
> [references]

### Source 3 — Ray Peat Email Advice Depository — Post 96

Ray Peat · Email · Jul 25, 2013

> **Question:** All the studies i have seen claims that Heme iron absorption is not changed by other factors like tea and coffee. Do you know of any study that shows coffee inhibiting heme iron absorption? I found this study showing beef liver has 13 percent heme iron and beef meat has 64 % heme iron. If this is true then muscle meat is more harmful than liver in terms of iron absorption . [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19475341](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19475341) Here is his response. It seems like fresh meat has ferrous iron, the bad kind and older meat will be in ferric form, the good kind. There is another reason to avoid iron rich animal foods
>
> **Ray Peat:** I think that's true, that coffee affects mainly non-heme iron absorption. The heme has toxic effects, forming carbon monoxide, apart from the iron. As I understand it, the amount of non-heme iron that's absorbed increases with the extent of its reduction, with ferrous iron being absorbed much more than the ferric form. The presence of reductants in the food will increase absorption. [references]

### Source 4 — #43 - All things hormones, metabolism and health with Dr Ray Peat & Emma Sgourakis

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 4, 2021

> **Emma Sgourakis:** Actually, on that topic, Kitty, you and I were just discussing this recently, but this is for me way back in my first pregnancy when I discovered Ray a couple of years before that. But we were talking about coffee and I'd never been a coffee drinker because I was in the health world and coffee is not a good thing, apparently, or so I thought. And the more research I did, the more I figured that actually coffee is incredible. So when most women embark on pregnancy, one of the first things they're recommended is cut back on or avoid coffee completely. I actually took up coffee drinking as, you know, as I was pregnant. And that's when I brought it into my diet, having learnt about all its protective factors and the importance. for the baby's lung development and so many other things. So I was doing the opposite, but that's when I learned to embrace coffee and haven't let it go since, obviously, because you come to love it as well. But it's quite a controversial topic because it's one of the first things recommended to a pregnant woman to cut out.
>
> **Ray Peat:** It's really important to make sure that you don't go at it too... Too intensely until you give it a chance to work. A friend of mine was sure that she would get the shakes and feel very stressed if she had even half a cup of coffee. But she was taking it on an empty stomach and not using cream or sugar in it. I suggested that she start with a small amount, adding cream and having it with breakfast. In just a few days of doing that, suddenly her whole problem of keeping her blood sugar up, having all of the stress symptoms that she normally had if she didn't constantly eat during the day, after just two or three days of getting... the right use of coffee. She was able to go all day without the shakes and her endurance greatly improved. No more blood sugar problems.

### Source 5 — Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen

Ray Peat · Newsletter · Aug 10, 2006

> # Caffeine: A Vitamin-Like Nutrient, or Adaptogen
>
> There is a popular health-culture that circulates mistaken ideas about nutrition, and coffee drinking has been a perennial target of this culture. It is commonly said that coffee is a drug, not a food, and that its drug action is harmful, and that this harm is not compensated by any nutritional benefit. Most physicians subscribe to most of these “common sense” ideas about coffee, and form an authoritative barrier against the assimilation of scientific information about coffee.
>
> One definition of a vitamin is that it is an organic chemical found in foods, the lack of which causes a specific disease, or group of diseases. A variety of substances that have been proposed to be vitamins haven't been recognized as being essential, and some substances that aren't essential are sometimes called vitamins. Sometimes these issues haven't had enough scientific investigation, but often nonscientific forces regulate nutritional ideas.
>
> The definition of “a disease” isn't as clear as text-book writers have implied, and “causality” in biology is always more complex than we like to believe.
>
> Nutrition is one of the most important sciences, and should certainly be as prestigious and well financed as astrophysics and nuclear physics, but while people say “it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure that out,” no one says “it doesn't take a nutritionist to understand that.” Partly, that's because medicine treated scientific nutrition as an illegitimate step-child, and refused throughout the 20th century to recognize that it is a central part of scientific health care. In the 1970s, physicians and dietitians were still ridiculing the idea that vitamin E could prevent or cure diseases of the circulatory system, and babies as well as older people were given “total intravenous nutrition” which lacked nutrients that are essential to life, growth, immunity, and healing. Medicine and science are powerfully institutionalized, but no institution or profession has existed for the purpose of encouraging people to act reasonably.

### Source 6 — 2020.06.10 | Dr Ray Peat Q&A - Weight Loss, Stretch Marks, Hydrogen, Negative Ions and More!

Ray Peat · Interview · Jun 10, 2020

> **Jodelle Fitzwater:** My grandma was a big coffee drinker and she lived to be 94, so I believe there's something to the health effects of it. What about the habit-forming aspect? Because it's so medicinal, it's okay to have a little habit-forming with it?
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, but part of that is really what you need . Before I took any thyroid supplement, for many years I recognized my symptoms as being typical of people who were hypothyroid — for example, being nearsighted and having migraine headaches, or classical low thyroid signs — but for various reasons I just didn't get around to trying a supplement. In that period I would drink often 50 cups of coffee a day, and I would stave off the stresses and migraines and such. But I was pouring a huge amount of of coffee through my system, and just to feel functional, keep my energy up so I could work efficiently, first thing I thought of waking up in the morning was a cup of coffee, and then I would just constantly have a cup of coffee in my hand all day. Within a couple of days after I began using a thyroid supplement, I woke up one morning and noticed something was very different, and I wasn't craving coffee. I looked at my coffee drinking behavior and I was only drinking about five cups a day — four to five — and that happened spontaneously over a period of just a few days. So it wasn't that I was addicted to 50 cups a day, it was that my system recognized that as part of its homeostasis. That could be called an addiction, but if it's repairing you and preventing disease, and making you live longer, it's not proper to classify it with addictive things such as morphine. Everything about morphine and the opiates, everything known about it is destructive, creates inflammation, promotes cancer growth and degenerative diseases, and so. It's the basic archetype of a destructive drug and that this addictiveness is just part of that. The reason people feel addicted to to coffee or caffeine is mostly that it is filling in for something they need. There's obviously no need for the opiates.

### Source 7 — Life Supporting Substances Its Rain Making Time 2011 07 04

Ray Peat · Interview · Jul 4, 2011 · http://l-i-g-h-t.com/files/rarinmaking-time-life-supporting-substances.mp4

> **Kim Greenhouse:** I am sure the audience is severely confused now, but at least I wanted you to share a little bit about your take on thyroid medication and dosages and the understanding about it. Can we finish with a talk about coffee?
>
> **Ray Peat:** OK.
>
> **Kim Greenhouse:** For years, we were told, "Don't drink coffee. It's bad for you. It activates your nervous system. You shouldn't have it." And now we are learning, "It's good for you in moderation."
>
> **Ray Peat:** A big monograph on caffeine was published I think around 1970, that I’ve read. And they described its anticancer effects among other things. It was known, at that time, to protect against carcinogenesis caused by radiation or by chemical carcinogens, or even viral carcinogens. Other effects such as protecting against heart disease and many other degenerative problems have accumulated. But it's just the last several years that it's getting into the public media, a bit at a time. But that one monograph 40 years ago really defined the safety and protective qualities of caffeine. And coffee in itself, even without the caffeine, is very rich in nutrients. Dietitians’ textbooks usually say that coffee has no nutritional value; but the British Journal of Nutrition did some studies showing that in the British diet, coffee provided about 20% of the vitamin and mineral intake for several of the essential nutrients, B vitamins for example. The amount of coffee I drink in a day provides me with something like 30 to 40 mg of niacin. It's probably the most concentrated source of magnesium that we can get safely. So, for some of the B vitamins (especially niacin), and minerals (especially magnesium), even decaffeinated coffee is a great nutritional supplement.

### Source 8 — Email Exchanges — Coffee

Ray Peat · Email · 2015

> # Coffee
>
> A couple of times I have seen coffee that had been stored near herbs that made it slightly allergenic, but that could probably be noticed in the flavor.
>
> Dry instant coffee is close to 0.5% magnesium, so a cup of strong coffee has about 40 mg. I make strong drip coffee.
>
> The antioxidants in very fresh coffee might have some special value, but I think instant coffee is on average just as good as brewed coffee. The high temperature of espresso gets the most caffeine, lower temperature processes get the minerals and vitamins (mostly niacin) and aroma, but a little less of the caffeine.
>
> It's important not to drink coffee on an empty stomach, it should always be with food, since it increases the metabolic rate, and can deplete glycogen stores.
>
> Drinking coffee with meals will greatly reduce iron absorption. Abnormal thyroid status can affect ferritin level, without necessarily affecting your iron load.
>
> [Coffee enemas - "He takes one or two cups of filter coffee and uses it as an enema (holding it in for 15-20 minutes)."] Coffee in such small amounts probably is more effective for protecting against bowel cancer and liver disease when it's used by enema, rather than orally, but I think the general effects might be better when it's drunk.

### Source 9 — #43 - All things hormones, metabolism and health with Dr Ray Peat & Emma Sgourakis

Ray Peat · Interview · Apr 4, 2021

> **Kitty Blomfield:** Isn't that scary to think of all these women who are formula feeding their babies and that have no idea?
>
> **Emma Sgourakis:** Just encouraged. It's a big reminder, isn't it, that we need to, you know, keep practising common sense. You know, the marketing is strong and the pressures are strong, but it's bring it back to simplicity.
>
> **Kitty Blomfield:** Do you have any more around the sugar before I move on to the next question, Emma?
>
> **Emma Sgourakis:** No, no, that's fantastic.
>
> **Kitty Blomfield:** Yeah, it's good. Eat the sugar, everyone. Plus it tastes yum.
>
> **Emma Sgourakis:** And when you crave it, you crave it for a reason. Yeah, just stop it. And obviously, I mean, it's, again, common sense, but when you get that overwhelming sugar craving, it's just, you know, don't necessarily reach for the donut in the office, but keep the fruit bowl full, drink some orange juice, add a bit of extra sugar to your coffee. It's, yeah, choose your better forms of sugar, but it's necessary. It's your body screaming out and warning you that blood sugar levels are crashing and stress is about to...
>
> **Ray Peat:** Oh, speaking of coffee, that reminds me that a black coffee on an empty stomach gets into your circulation so fast that if you're on the borderline for stress, the caffeine accelerates your burning of sugar. And so it can bring on a stress reaction if you don't accompany it with food or cream and sugar or something like that. And the coffee itself is one of the most powerful anti-stress factors in the world. It has just about every protective function that you could imagine. For example, if you use it on the skin or have enough from internal use of coffee, the caffeine is powerfully protecting against PUFA breakdown in the skin. It quenches and blocks free radical damage, is both anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative in the skin, protects against skin cancer, and keeps the liver functioning against all kinds of stressful factors. So coffee isn't just... a stimulant drug, but it's an extremely powerful protective factor.

### Source 10 — Ray Peat Interview on Iron Toxicity, Estrogen, PUFA, Thyroid, and Stress Hormones

Ray Peat · Interview · Sep 15, 2025 · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UmFIaFm2Mc

> **Josh Rubin:** Right. So, you know, like I said before, the repercussions, you know, like aspirin, everyone listening, don't go out and start popping aspirin. Same thing with coffee. It's all about how you use it. Now, you talk about when you use it or how you use it is very important, correct? Because... You, and correct me if I'm wrong, sipping it after a meal would be more beneficial with some cream and sweetener because it can help with iron absorption after the meal, et cetera, rather than just drinking it on an empty stomach.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Yeah, taking it with or after the meal has basically none of the harmful effects. I've known several people who... said that just a sip of coffee would make them feel shattered and shaky for the rest of the day. But I told them to put some heavy cream in it and maybe some sugar and take it with each meal, only with each meal. Right. Within three or four days, these people were happy coffee drinkers.
>
> **Josh Rubin:** Yeah.
>
> **Ray Peat:** Most people that drink coffee.
>
> **Josh Rubin:** Pretty happy. I actually just got an email from a listener, and I don't know if you've ever heard this, that said he thinks adrenal fatigue was coined by Dr. Lamb or Dr. Wilson. I don't know that, but I don't know if that rings a bell. Another question is what do you think about, there's a lot of people out there utilizing, you know, supplementation, enzymes, et cetera. What are your thoughts on that? you know, regulating metabolism, using your nutritional philosophy, and utilizing those things. Do you find them to be beneficial, or do you feel that it can actually cause more of an increase of endotoxin, et cetera?

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