Yerba Mate

I've recently made a big change in my eating/drinking habits. I finally decided to quit caffeine (coffee tea chocolate); as well as completely stop eating foods that I'm allergic to (wheat, dairy, corn). The caffeine was really bad for me with my sedentary lifestyle as a software engineer. It was causing an increasing level of nervous anxiety and contributing to wildly fluctuating energy levels and headaches.

So far, so good. It's been two weeks and I have my regular energy back. I had a killer headache for a few days, then really low energy for about a week, but now I feel pretty good. I think the circles under my eyes are even starting to go away. Unfortunately with the increased consumption of vegetables my flatulance has gotten quite bad - I think that apples are the culprit.

My question regarding Mate is this: I know that Mate contains a caffeine-like substance (mateine), but I've read that it is a lot less problematic than caffeine is.

So I'm asking those with actual experience with Mate: will I be taking a step backwards if I start drinking Mate after just giving up green tea? From what I've read, it seems that it will be just as beneficial as green tea in terms of being an antioxidant, anti-inflamatory, and helping with digestion; yet it also seems to promise gentle stimulation with no bad side effects. Is this really true?

replies:

hat's definitely the case. I feel like my body is in need of a massive detox, probably from drugs my father prescribed for me to deal with allergies/asthma when I was a child. (He is a reshearch physician, and used to bring home the latest and greatest experimental asthma medicines)

Only when I was 24 did I discover that I could manage my allergies and asthma through diet. At that point I had come through a period of chronic sinus infections for which I had taken rounds of increasingly powerful antibiotics. Plus decades of use of antihistimines, decongestants, and theophylline (for asthma). Theophylline is an especially nasty drug; it's pretty close to being synthetic adrenaline.

Anyways, I've shaped up quite a bit and gone through a lot; but I've got a long way to go. My digestion is the most obvious problem - I still cannot digest wheat, dairy, or most corn. (With the notable exception of goat's milk products and kefir) I have few allergy symptoms because my diet is much better, but whatever imbalance I had is still there. Another complication is that rheumatoid arthritis runs in my family. My father and younger brother both have it bad, but as of my last blood test a few years ago I still showed no rheumatoid factor. I really want to solve the problem before it manifests as something nastier than a sniffling nose and flatulance ;-)

After spending years using different herbs & enzymes to offset my allergy symptoms, i've realized I'm largely wasting my effort because I'm not getting better. So I'm trying a different approach - which is to stick to a really pure vegetarian diet without wheat or dairy; and to focus on not overeating. I plan to do some light fasting with kitchari too; but I find that pretty difficult so I have a hard time psyching myself up to do it.

I feel like a big part of what I need is actually lots of sleep; but I have a hard time finding that with a 1.5 year old daughter and a wife with CFS/Fibromyalgia --- it keeps me pretty busy. I do have a lot of great things in my life which keep me going: love of music, a wonderful spiritual path, and a fascination with herbs and natural healing.

I guess I'm in it for the long haul, so I shouldn't be so focused on getting all of my natural energy back overnight.