Why is it so important to drink organic tea and coffee?

Drinking tea and coffee dates back thousands of years. Tea is something we use for many healthful reasons. Catechins are antioxidant that researcher believe can help in the treatment of a variety of cancers. It’s terrible that tea is very much sprayed with pesticides. On the other hand, both tea and coffee contain antioxidants. Beyond tea’s ability to work medicinally, it also contains fluoride. With the regular use of tea, you can improve your bone health; reduce the risk of kidney stones and amount of cavities. There are three benefits to tea catechins, anthocyanins, and phenolic acids which all are a part of reducing the harmful bacteria growth in the intestine. Green tea has the buzz of being good for you. That’s because green tea is not treated and makes it the freshest form of tea. It also contains the most phytochemicals which are the helpful things in preventing cancer risk. It’s strange to me that green tea happens to be the least popular in the United States but in other countries it is the most popular.

Coffee is the drink of choice in America and we as mom’s average about 3-8 oz. cups a day. Coffee has many benefits and in the amounts that average with moms, we get many of our vitamins and minerals. Coffee has 4 times the antioxidant that green tea does and also has more antioxidants than red wine. It also is a big help to alertness and stimulates performance. When it comes to health, coffee has shown to decrease the risk for rectal and liver cancer; Parkinson’s in men and decreased risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Unfortunately coffee is one of the most chemically treated food crops. Much of the coffee that is imported into the US comes from countries that use chemicals banned here. Coffee owns the second highest commodity spot and as a mother, it can be very important. I’m not however interested in the chemicals, pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers that come along with it. These chemicals are known to cause cancer, nervous and reproductive disorders. Many women I’ve talked to say coffee can hurt their stomach. Some of those women have taken the leap to try something different and state it’s made a huge difference. I had regular coffee on afternoon in desperation from the convenient store and its coffee that I had drank many times before. That afternoon my stomach ached terribly. The organic coffee was so much different. I knew then that if I’m going to drink it, it must be organic. Caribou does serve organic coffee and it didn’t hurt my stomach when I stopped there. I’m not aware of any other coffee shops that brew it. I encourage all to because it’s so much better. Part of the big issue is how it’s made right. We the coffee that we drink is sold for 8 to 9 dollars a pound but it’s bought for 11 or 12 cents a pound in lower poverty countries. Smaller growers can’t compete with the big commodity driven companies in places like Kenya. One article talked about how all the women and children work on the harvesting while the men spray trees all day with pesticides and harsh chemicals. It said 6 to 11 hours. I found out that shade coffee is better than that grown in the sun. Organic and Certified Fair Trade ensures that we are paying a fair price for healthy or nontoxic coffee and we can feel good that the farmer that grew it is getting paid what he should.