Do you find yourself constantly drinking cups throughout the day, especially at lunchtime and on your breaks?

You may not think that you are doing any harm, but research has shown that in certain cases there may be more downsides to coffee than people realize.

In this article, we will take a quick look at the pros and cons of drinking coffee. Whether you only drink a cup a day, or have around 5 cups before lunchtime, by reading this article you will gain a greater understanding of what coffee may be doing to your health and general moods.

It’s not all bad though. Coffee can also add many benefits to your lifestyle, some that you may have never thought about. We will take a look at those later in the article, but first let’s start with the cons of drinking coffee.

Staining of teeth

Have you ever looked in the inside of a cup after it has had coffee in it? If you have, then you would have seen how the cup very easily stains and takes a bit of scrubbing to wash off.

Image via Wikipedia

The same thing happens to your teeth if you drink a lot of coffee. This is especially true if you do not brush your teeth on a regular basis and practice good oral hygiene.Getting rid of these stains can be tough, especially if they are the result of many years of excessive coffee drinking.

An expensive trip to the dentist can do the trick, or maybe one of the special whitening agents that can be found in chemists or online.

Bad breath

Nobody wants to have bad breath, and if you look after your mouth by brushing twice a day and flossing regularly, as well as avoiding lots of junk food, then you are well on your way to having a nice fresh breath that you can be proud of.

However, even if you do all of those things mentioned above, if you drink a lot of coffee then it is unavoidable that it will cause a few nasty smells in your mouth. A lot of coffee brands are also high in acidity, which is a major cause of heartburn and acid reflux.

Stress Levels

Drinking too much coffee results in the stimulation of adrenal glands, which has been proven to send your stress levels through the roof. This is very true if you work in a high stress environment, and is particularly dangerous if you do not realize that you are becoming more and more stressed.

It is advisable to reduce the amount of coffee that you drink if you feel some stress coming on. Drink plenty of water to keep yourself hydrated, and practice relaxation techniques on a regular basis to maintain your inner calm.

Now let’s have a quick look at the pros of drinking coffee:

Alertness

It is well known fact that a cup of coffee in the morning acts as a good stimulant, and gets you ready for the day ahead.

This can be a good thing, especially if you are not a morning person. It can help you get ready mentally for the day ahead, and get started with a bit of energy on your first task.

Antioxidants

A little known fact about coffee is that it’s loaded with some impressive antioxidants. This can help get rid of all the harmful toxins that fill our bodies, and help to make our skin look healthier and more dynamic.

Asthma

If you suffer from asthma, then you will be pleased to hear that caffeine can help to improve asthma symptoms. This is because it is very similar to an old medication that used to be taken by asthma sufferers.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this article on the pros and cons of drinking coffee. Just remember to keep your coffee consumption in moderation and you should be fine.

But also be vigilant for any of the warning signs that you might be drinking too much.

About the Author

Article provided courtesy of Claire Park, owner of eFoodProcessorReviews.com – an excellent resource for food processor reviews. We also provide the most important info that you need to know about the Braun multiquick 3 k650.

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Sunflowers grow and flourish in fields without a helping human hand, while blueberries can spread their vines across the ground offering up a bounty of fruit.

Companion planting is a gardening method that harnesses nature’s own means of fertilization and pest control.

Without chemical additives and trips to the gardening store, your garden can thrive like those wild plants.

Here are a few companion plants that are perfect for the common backyard garden.

Marigolds

Marigolds, beautiful orange blossoming flowers, are the wunderkind companion plant because they can protect your entire garden.

Marigold roots contain a natural pesticide that is excreted into their soil, which kills certain types of nematode that live in the soil.

The plants can even be turned under at the end of the season so they decay in the soil, continuing to protect your garden.

Marigolds also repel whiteflies, thrips, and bean beetles. The Mexican Marigold is so strong that it is known to destroy weeds, as well. Avoid planting these blossoms near beans, because they can have a herbicidal effect.

Alliums

If onions make you want to cry, you have something in common with common garden pests.

Alliums, a species of plant that includes garlic, onions, shallots, and chives, are an excellent pesticide.

Specifically, slugs and aphids are deterred by alliums, so your roses will love garlic nearby. Additionally, the plants repel carrot fly and cabbageworms.

Alliums are also beneficial to broccoli, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and fruit trees.

Borage

Borage, a herb with a pretty blue flower, is a prolific grower.

While it adds a great pop of color to your garden with little effort on your part, borage is also a nurse plant.

Its leaves contain Vitamin C, potassium, and calcium; by composting the leaves to make fertilizer or turning the leaves down in the soil, your garden soil gains nutrients.

Borage attracts wasps, which defend your garden from harmful pests, and honeybees, which help with fertilization. Borage deters hornworms, a highly destructive pest.

Basil

Basil is a incredibly useful herb to have in your garden, simply because it is commonly used in cooking.

Besides saving you money on your herbal grocery shopping, it helps improve the size and flavor of tomatoes, and is beneficial to peppers and asparagus.

As a pest control plant, basil repels thrips, flies, and – great for you! – mosquitoes.

Tarragon is another beneficial herb. Nearly all pests find tarragon’s smell to be absolutely repugnant.

Dispersed throughout your garden, tarragon will protect all of your plants from pests.

Tarragon is also a nurse plant, which enhances the growth and flavor of nearby crops. While everything benefits from it, eggplant especially loves tarragon.

Tomatoes and Peppers

Both tomato and pepper plants require high levels of humidity and need shade for their fruit.

Because the plants grow tall and have dense leaf growth, they increase humidity and add sun protection, when planted together. Plant the two fruits in clusters to see their benefits.

Liz Childers enjoys planting new herbs that benefit her garden and can be used in cooking. She writes about a variety of topics, including finding a good camping tent.

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This is far from the truth!

Grounds from your coffee pot have a great nutritional makeup that can not only wake you up in the morning, but do absolute wonders for your yard.

If you are looking to start going organic in your lawn care regimen then using coffee grounds is a great way to start.

Used grounds will not only provide the nutrients that your grass needs to start growing correctly, coffee will also help the amendment process of your soil.

Coffee Grounds Used For Fertilizer

Conventional synthetic fertilizers are great for making your lawn green extremely fast, and in the hands of a certified professional they are perfectly okay when used in the right circumstances with limited use.

These fertilizers provide your lawn with macro-nutrients that when applied are  immediately accessible, and are great if you are trying to get new lawns established fast, such as a newly sodded or seeded lawn.

The bad thing about these fertilizers is that they are widely misused by homeowners and uneducated lawn maintenance companies – in the hands of these individuals these fertilizers create runoff into our waters and burning of the homeowner’s lawns.

Synthetic fertilizers can also promote susceptibility to disease, infestation and contamination from fungus, pests and bacteria, if they are applied at the wrong times and at the wrong amounts.

I recommend that if you do decide to continue on a synthetic regimen then either hire a certified professional like Georgia Lawn or at the very least get a soil analysis done so that you will know the proper amount of macro nutrient to apply safely.

If on the other hand you would not like to worry about nutrients leeching out of the soil, burning your lawn or creating a succulent state that promotes disease – then look no further, coffee grounds are the answer!

Used coffee grounds can provide your lawn with many great benefits:

• Coffee grounds provide your lawn with both the major nutrient group N-P-K and the macro nutrient group in a slow release form. This is an important factor because unlike fast release synthetic fertilizers, the nutrients in coffee grounds will take time to break down and require microbes to break them down. This one aspect will change how your grass feeds, more than you can imagine. Since the nutrients will be available over a period of time instead of all at once your grass will grow strong and stay that way.
• Used grounds are a delicacy for earthworms. The earthworms use the grounds and in return aerate the soil with their castings. This not only helps break up the soil, it aids in the beneficial microbial activity that a healthy lawn craves.
• Coffee grounds are also being researched to deter certain wilt and rot fungi and bacterium from forming.

Where To Find Coffee Grounds – For Free!

Starbucks is a great place to get a hold of substantial amounts of used coffee grounds.

Most Starbucks have a Grounds For Your Garden program that you can get at least a five-pound bag of used coffee grounds that they would otherwise be throwing away. This not only helps your lawn but it helps Starbucks keep waste out of landfill.

You can also check out the cafes participating in Ground to Ground, or better yet, approach your local coffee shop and ask them if they want to help you out.

According to E-importz -  “Americans consume 400 million cups of coffee per day, making the United States the leading consumer of coffee in the world.”

In there somewhere is the single American household coffee pot that is putting out just enough used grounds every day to use in your fertilization program. If you can set-up a kitchen compost bin you will be able to save your grounds everyday and before long will have enough to take care of your needs.

Another great thing that you can do is start up a community coffee grounds pile. Doing this you will be able to acquire a larger amount of grounds while sharing with the rest of the neighbourhood.

How To Mix And Dry The Coffee Grounds

Once you have gotten up enough coffee grounds you can now begin to start making them work for your lawn.

The first step is to spread them out evenly onto either a tarp or old sheet and let them dry in a sunny dry spot.

The next thing that you need to do is using either a hard rake, leaf rake or shovel, go through and turn the grounds so that what was exposed is now mixed into the pile. It usually takes a day or so for the grounds to completely dry, but this depends on what part of the world you are in. Dry and hot conditions work the best.

Once you have your grounds dried you will be able to mix them or apply them straight – both have their benefits.

Applying the grounds directly to your lawn is good if you are going to be doing some core aeration or are only going to be applying a light amount of them.

Coffee grounds are highly compactable and can smother the lawn if applied too heavily. If you are looking for a heavy application of grounds mixing them with pelletized lime for acidic lawns, or with compost for topdressing for any other lawn, should allow you to dump the grounds on without smothering the grass.

If you are going to be mixing the grounds with lime, the mixture we follow is to mix ten pounds of dry grounds to forty pounds pelletized lime.

To do this you can pour the lime onto the same tarp or sheet that you used to dry the grounds and mix it in with the grounds. Now use a shovel or a hard rake and mix the grounds and lime.

Make sure to mix the grounds in really well with the lime and then use a shovel to put the mixture into either a drop or broadcast spreader.

If you live in the Southern United States where there is a lot of clay and acidic soil, then you will want to put out about twenty pounds of mix per thousand square feet.

Calibrate your spreader setting by either looking at your manual or looking on the Internet for a quick reference sheet that most spreader manufacturers should have on their sites. Once you have your spread ratio, start walking at a medium pace and then open your spreader’s shoot, releasing the mix onto the lawn.

You will want to go around the perimeter of your lawn first and then in straight rows through the lawn.

When you get to the edge of each row, close the shoot on your spreader and turn around – once you are walking forward again open the spreader’s shoot. Doing this will give you a nice even coverage with no dump spots in the corners, which smothers your grass.

If you are using the grounds for topdressing, then mix ten pounds of grounds to 40 pounds of compost. Mix the same way as the above, making sure to get a good even mixture throughout.

Once you are done, put the mix into a wheel barrel and grab a shovel. Try and spread as even as possible, to avoid spots where piles will accumulate. If that does happen, grab a leaf rake and try and rake them into the lawn as good as possible.

After Care Instructions

After you have spread your grounds a good watering will do them good. Not only will it help the grounds get into the soil, it will help the high spots level out.

You will only want to water the lawn enough to get the top one to two inches of soil wet. A quick way to test this is to get an old screwdriver and mark it at two inches. Now sink it into the ground until you feel it stop – this is dry ground.

Any time is a good time to add coffee grounds to your soil, as it will love the boost in organic material and nutrient makeup.

You should apply the grounds every couple of months if you want optimal results. After a while you will be able to see substantial changes from all the microbe, earthworm and beneficial fungi activity that has come from adding material, that would otherwise end up in landfill.

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They are delightful little creatures, curious, friendly, individual, and weary of strangers.

They are smarter than what I was expecting, and have charmed their way into our family as the egg supply, not as the meat supply!

So here in this video we have one of the hens having a dust bath, and she seems to be loving it.

Watching over is the cock, or the roo, as they are sometimes alternatively referred as (but I just call them ‘males’, sometimes even ‘the MAN’).

As you can see, the dust bath is a regular habit at Quail central, and that reminds me that I need to buy another bag of sand.

It so happens that they like some dried coffee grounds thrown in with the sand, and just guess who happens to have a spare ton or so of the stuff lying around?

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If you don’t, you aren’t alone – although coffee is one of the most popular drinks in the world, few people can identify the plant that it comes from.

This was my initial inspiration for growing a coffee plant in my botanical conservatory – I wanted a plant which would be an interesting talking point, as well as making an attractive feature.

I soon found that growing coffee plants is an addictive hobby, and in order to share this with others, have put together a selection of coffee plant growing tips.

Choosing Coffee Beans for Growing

When coffee is grown as a commercial crop in countries such as Brazil and Vietnam, planters always start with freshly harvested coffee cherries.

The flesh of each cherry is crushed by hand to break up the fibres and the fruit is soaked to release the coffee bean. When I decided to grow a coffee plant, I found that getting my hands on coffee cherries was almost impossible.

However, green, raw coffee beans are much more widely available, with Arabica varieties being preferable for indoor growing. When choosing coffee beans, it is important only to select beans which are free from damage and disease, and ensure that your supplier’s stock is fresh.

Both of these points will increase the likelihood of your coffee plant successfully germinating.

Germinating & Planting Coffee Beans

Before planting coffee beans, you will need to start the germination process. I always soak my coffee beans in a shallow bowl of warm water (around 32ºC) for one to two days. Keep a close eye on the beans, and you’ll see a white growth forming, which is the first sign of growth.

Prepare a 30cm diameter plant pot for each coffee bean, by filling it with a potting medium which has a neutral pH level. Place the coffee beans flat side down in the pot and top lightly with another layer of potting medium. Water lightly, allowing the excess to drain off, before sealing the whole pot inside a clear plastic bag – I find sandwich bags work well.

This creates a mini greenhouse, which will maintain the conditions that your seedling needs to grow. This is the stage where patience is your watchword, as I’ve found that it can take up to four months before a plant starts to grow!

In most cases, if you’ve purchased quality coffee beans and maintain optimum conditions, a seedling will emerge within six weeks, at which stage the plastic bag can be removed.

General Care & Maintenance of Coffee Plants

Coffee plants grow at a rate of around 2.5cm each month, so seedlings will be comfortable in their original pot for the first year or so. When you feel that it is time to re-pot, choose a pot which is deeper than it is wide, as this allows space for the single, central root to grow.

Generally, I find my coffee plants do best at temperatures around 18-13ºC and out of draughts, so conservatories with double glazing are an ideal location. Watering once a week should be sufficient – don’t be tempted to overdo it, as your plant will suffer.

With the right care, your coffee plant will start to reach maturity in four years, and may even start to flower.

As coffee plants can self-pollinate, you may even get your own coffee cherries forming – although it will be many years before you will produce enough to make your own coffee!

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The concept is simple: don’t throw away, but reuse. Through recycling, every person is able to reduce their personal waste and save materials through recycle goods.

This same idea can be applied to everyday life. While not everything can be recycled in the typical notion, most goods that otherwise might be thrown away can be reused.

Here are a few simple ways to get started “reusing.”

Zip-lock bags

Zip-lock bags come into the house from a wide variety of places. Sandwich meats and cheeses from the deli case come in gallon-sized bags; some pharmacy deliver medicine in them; many products separate their different parts by using zip-locks.

No matter how they come into your house, don’t let them leave in the trash. With a good hand wash, zip-lock bags can be used again and again to keep food fresh, store batteries, keep coupons, or anything else you can think of!

Greeting cards

Image via Wikipedia

Greeting cards need not be thrown away or recycled after the holidays.

The bright, often sparkling, fronts make great gift tags for other presents. Cut the two sides apart and recycle the side with writing.

Cut the other side to focus on a specific pretty image or keep it whole. Write your gift message on the back and tie or tape it to your presents. The scrap cards can be kept with wrapping paper for easy access whenever you need them.

Children may also enjoy using the cards in art projects. If you don’t have any kids of your own, call a local school and see if their art department or kindergarten classes would be interested in taking them.

Clothes and Shoes

Image via Wikipedia

Take a look at your closet and see what items have been dangling on their hangers for months on end.

Ask yourself what items you have gone a year without wearing. Even if you tell yourself you may find an occasion to bring them out again, you probably will not if a year has already passed.

Instead of letting them take up space in your closet, donate them to a thrift store or a homeless shelter. Someone will find a use for them at either of these places and you’ll be helping others.

Seeds

If you already have a garden, you have an excellent source of seeds. To get the seeds from fleshy vegetables, let the vegetables ripen slightly past the point where you would pick and eat them. When you do pick them, scoop the seeds out, separate them from the pulp, wash and dry them.

With pod plants, let the plant dry on the stalk and, then, collect, wash and dry the seeds. Save the seeds for the next planting season or give to friends and family so they can start their own garden.

Kitchen containers

Most dry or packaged food comes in a container that can be saved and reused. Wash out pasta sauce jars or hard plastic pasta containers and save for the next time you need to save leftovers or are making your own pesto.

Colorful paper

Image via Wikipedia

Bright magazines and used wrapping paper can be neatly saved and stored for a few uses.

Like greeting cards, kids may enjoy collaging with or drawing on the fun designs.

Both can also be reused for new wrapping paper; just cleanly open your presents or cut out the magazine pages to save for the next time you are giving a present.

T-shirts, sheets, towels

Any old linens can be reused and repurposed. Turn old handkerchiefs into napkins for casual BBQs or kids parties. Your children may want to use their old clothing to dress up dolls or stuffed animals. Of course, towels and torn sheets can be cut down and used as rags for cleaning the house.

Office paper products

Office paper that has only been printed on one side can be fed back through the printer for another use. Once both sides have been used, then, put the paper in recycling or give it to the kids as drawing paper. Opened envelopes can also be drawing paper.

To reduce waster and save money, Terry Carter tries to reuse and repurpose as much as possible. She freelances about a variety of topics, including a great Phoenix Bankruptcy Attorney.

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Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 49,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 18 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Sunlight

As long as you have enough sunlight entering your kitchen, preferably a window in a south facing position, then your plants will be fine. If your plants start to grow too tall and the leaves too long or appear faded, this is generally a sign that they aren’t getting enough light and you should move them. If you can’t move them then you should purchase growlights that you can use to supplement your plants sunlight, ensuring they are the correct strength that your plant needs. If you can’t find any growlights, fluorescent shop lights left 4inches away from the plants will suffice.

Temperature

Moisture

Pests

Pests can be avoided by following a couple of simple steps. Firstly, pick the soil for your plants carefully, ensuring you don’t pick a compost that is pest or disease-prone.  When moving herb plants from outdoors inside, make sure they are kept quarantined from the other until you’re certain they are insect free.  If any insects do somehow manage to get onto your plants, bathing them can help remove them and keep them insect free.

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To my friend,

I wanted to write a quick thank you note for your support this year with the Ground to Ground initiative.

Shared between us all during 2011, we have saved many tonnes of used coffee grounds from going to landfill. And it has been a very good year!

All over the world, in cafés and offices, into bins and bags, used coffee grounds are picked up by our volunteers.

In most cases, these grounds are carried to private gardens, and added with other materials (grass clippings, leaves, kitchen scraps), to prepare a compost.

It takes about 6 months to turn those materials into fresh new soil, which is then used to grow another generation of fruits and vegetables.

This contribution from cafés and offices has a direct impact on the good health of our gardens, even our local communities, because we depend on a complex chain of life that starts within soil.

The community at large is increasingly interested in sustainable living, food security, and self sufficiency. Café and business customers are those same people, so their involvement in Ground to Ground says a great deal about their environmental commitment.

I look forward to continuing this initiative into 2012, and encourage you to pass on what you have learned to your family, friends, and colleagues.

You will find a wealth of information on our website – http://groundtoground.org – the World’s largest and most up to date body of knowledge on the age old practise of used coffee grounds collection, and how their use can transform a typical suburban backyard into a food forest.

Kind Regards,

Shane Genziuk

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Do you break open the chemical based fungicide and lay to waste your plans for an organic garden?

For many, chemical fungicides are not an option since manufactured fungicides are sulfur based and largely toxic. If chemicals are out of the question there is no need to despair. There are plenty of natural and homemade alternatives to complement your organic garden.

Milk Builds Strong Plants!

Surprisingly enough, household milk is an effective fungicide. A study by scientist Wagner Bettiol showed that diluted milk, applied regularly, greatly decreases mildew and mold in plants by up to 90%, which is competitive when compared to synthetic fungicides. The milk also acts as a foliar fertilizer providing salts and amino acids that essentially boost the plant’s immune system.
To prepare try diluting your milk by adding 1 part milk to 9 parts water. Apparently skim milk works best for this. Put the diluted milk in a spray bottle and apply to your plants once a week.

All Natural Alternatives

Cinnamaldehyde

This is the broken down chemical in cinnamon that is responsible for its taste and flavor. The synthesized version of this is made from steam distillation of cinnamon bark. Cinnamaldehyde is applied to the base of the plant and acts as a natural insecticide as well as a fungicide.

Neem oil

Made from pressed fruit and seeds of the neem tree, neem oil has various applications. It is widely used in India for medicinal purposes and as a bio-pesticide. Neem oil does show some toxicity and should not be consumed.

Jojoba oil

This oil is harvested from jojoba seeds. Commonly used as a replacement for whale oil, jojoba oil is also an effective fungicide that is also non-toxic.

Baking soda

Another home remedy for fungi is just baking soda. Make this mixture with 4 teaspoons baking soda, 1 teaspoon dish soap and a gallon of water. Be sure to spray the concoction on both sides of leaves.

Why Not Chemical Fungicides?

Fungicides usually entail a cocktail of chemicals to spread on your garden that can also be hazardous to your health. That is why the Worker Protection Standard requires limited exposure and protective equipment for field workers who spray fungicides. Exposure causes various skin and health problems not to mention the effect on your garden. The runoff of these chemicals kills soil life and seeps into the groundwater.

Of all the natural alternatives, milk is the cheapest and most accessible, which sparks an age-old debate between half and half and skim milk. Half and half is creamier. But skim milk makes a better fungicide. Regardless of your preference, even if you like your coffee black, it’s pretty cool that you can nurture your garden with coffee grounds and plain old milk.

Matthew Sommer writes about sustainable business and helps people to compare business insurance quotes.