Coffee is socially connected to rituals that involve eating. Many of these eating rituals, in turn, are connected to snacks and breaks, fast-food breakfasts and desserts. (Notice that the first beverage you think of when asked what you want with your "Dunkin' Donuts" is not green tea or water.)

Physiological

Coffee stimulates the adrenals, the glands responsible for stress hormones. The constant assault on these poor glands, from coffee, sugar, stress and daily life, can ultimately lead to a condition known as adrenal exhaustion.

Coffee plays havoc with your blood sugar. The body treats a coffee jolt as a "stress response" much like the adrenals shooting a jolt of adrenaline into the system. This adrenaline response was a survival mechanism for our caveman ancestors; it signaled danger from a woolly mammoth and told the body to prepare for fight or flight. It signaled the body to release sugar into the blood, to be used as fuel for the muscles (which would be either clubbing that mammoth or climbing the nearest tree). But nowadays, it just signals the release of sugar. With no ensuing flight or flight, the sugar signals a release of insulin, and before you know it, after a couple of hours of jitteriness, your blood sugar is in the toilet, and you're crashing and burning and reaching for ... guess what? I'll give you a hint: It's not Brussels sprouts and steak.

Coffee also increases urinary secretion of important minerals such as magnesium, potassium and sodium and uses up a fair amount of vitamin B1. Not only that, the coffee plant itself is a virtual repository for toxins such as pesticides and other harmful chemicals. (If you still insist on drinking it after reading this article, consider buying organic). And it can raise blood pressure and interfere with sleep.