What Can You Alternate for Coffee in the Morning?
A normal morning routine typically involves at least one cup of coffee. It’s a popular beverage to consume at the start of the day because of how it awakens your mind’s alertness. You can personalize it according to your tastebuds, which is desirable but can lead to unhealthy consumption of sugar. However, the likability of coffee remains and has throughout many centuries.
The mental benefits produced from each cup of joe are one reason why people like to drink it. But what if you don’t like how it tastes or can’t drink it due to medical issues? It doesn’t have to be the only choice for mental awareness. Here are some alternatives for coffee in the morning.
Healthy Alternatives for Coffee
Tea
One of the best alternatives for coffee is tea. The caffeine content is similar but less than coffee, and there are a variety of choices that most people will find enjoyable. You can use some of the same creamers in your tea that you do for your coffee. A big difference with tea is the lower acidity level it has compared to coffee. That acidity that coffee has can upset your stomach, thus why some people can’t or won’t drink it.
A black tea that is popular and very flavorful is chai tea. Adding milk makes it into a latte. According to Healthline, drinking black tea could reduce your risk of heart disease. While there are many recipes for chai tea, a simple way to drink it is to use scoops of chai powder and mix it into a hot beverage.
Water
Plain sips of water when you first wake up in the morning will alert your body and brain to activate more naturally. While water has no caffeine, it can bring alertness more healthily. Adding fruits and vegetables to the water adds additional benefits for overall health. Lemon water has a lot of available antioxidants because of the lemon’s Vitamin C. Most fruits taste delicious when paired with water.
Exercise
Start your day out by moving. Movement wakes the body and minds up from the fog sleep leaves us in. Exercising in the morning will not only provide mental alertness in the morning, but it will also last throughout the day, helping you stay focused. It’s like nature’s natural energy drink to you.
If you’re trying to lose weight, ensuring you get a workout in is important to speed up your metabolism for weight loss. Beginning with a workout before you start the rest of your morning routine gets it out of the way and supports healthier choices for the rest of the day. Yoga poses and walking are two of the easiest workouts anyone can do. They are not strenuous on the body and improve joint strength.
Unhealthy Alternatives For Coffee
Energy Drinks
Though not the healthiest option, energy drinks are a quick drink of choice for busy individuals in the morning. It holds high contents of caffeine, many milligrams higher than is considered safe. One can hold a caffeine equivalent of two to three cups of coffee, with some drinks having even higher caffeine content than that. Besides it being a risk to your health, the boost of energy will not last. It can make you even groggier than you started after the effects wear off.
Soda
Soda, or pop, depending on where you are from has caffeine contained in each sip, too. There is nothing beneficial besides the alertness it provides. It will give you a jolt but expect to have a crash or energy like with energy drinks. The carbonation can make your stomach hurt and if you drink too much it could contribute to the formation of kidney stones.
Conclusion
Coffee is not a bad option to start with in the morning. It does arguably reduce the risks of certain cancers and is not as harmful of a choice to consume caffeine. It’s not the only way to bring yourself back from the dead after your alarm wakes you from your slumber, though. It may be the most widely known and popularized one. However, tea as well as other natural and unnatural ways exist, too.