Beyond Coffee: A Sustainable Guide to Nootropics, Adaptogens, and Mushrooms

by James Beshara

When it comes to productivity, there aren't many things we do today that we did 200 years ago. We send emails instead of post, drive cars instead of horse-drawn carriages, and look up stuff on our phones instead of traveling a hundred miles to the nearest library.

However, when it comes to our morning routines, 80 percent of the world consumes caffeine each day to wake them up and give them a boost for their daily tasks. Whether it's black tea or coffee, most of us consume the same ingredients we consumed 200 years ago without realizing two important facts. First, coffee beans and tea leaves are not the only sources of energy that nature provides us. Second, productivity is more than just wakefulness. It's energy, focus, creativity, decreased stress, and improved sleep, among other things.

What can nature, science, and global access to different ingredients tell us about optimal productivity? And which ingredients are scientifically proven to be effective and safe? Backed by over 240 scientific studies, Beyond Coffee is a simple guide that answers these questions.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Science, Food, Medicine, Productivity

146 pages, Paperback

Published November 4, 2019

Reviews

[Richard Zhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most interesting part of this book is the table of contents. Good as a starting point for further research, but far from a reliable reference for any of the subjects mentioned. The authors keep to a similarly sized explanations for all compounds, but that doesn't fit with the available amounts of research. Some compounds like caffeine and omega-3s might have 100x more research than a lesser-studied substance, so they deserve longer explanations than given here. The authors do well to stay away from personal anecdotes, but I feel that would have been a more useful contribution than yet another literature review that barely skims the surface. There's quite a bit missing here: Why not a deeper dive into neurotransmitters and hormones? What about the vasoconstrictive effects of caffeine? How about alternative uses for addictive substances (nicotine, etc) as a way to habituate yourself to better diet habits (take a nicotine patch every time you blend a spinach smoothie)?

I could sum this up with: eat your fish oil supplements, drink coffee (in moderation), eat some mushrooms. But we already knew that.

[Pseudo Nymph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly don't understand some of the lower star reviews on this book. It's the perfect introduction to a lot of the "super food" compounds that we see in news articles and commercials. This book rates the sustainability, effectiveness, and safety of more than 40 brain health compounds. It's all based on hard science which I really appreciate. I feel like it gives a good starting point for anyone who wants to improve their health or explore some of these compounds but is confused by all of the pseudoscience, conflicting information, and marketing that you get when you Google them. I have a science background and I still get feel overwhelmed when I'm trying to research this stuff on my own. It's all either scientific papers that are hard to understand or anecdotes and misinformation by some mommy blogger who's into essential oils. This book is great because it takes all of the scientific research about these compounds and summarizes them in a way that's both intelligent easy to understand.

This book is a great place to start if you're interested in discovering ways to boost your brain health without accidentally harming yourself in the process. It also has all of the references listed which I appreciate. While it is on the shorter side I think this is actually beneficial with this particular topic. I think this book would make a great gift for anyone who's interested in health.

[Glenn Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good information, but a bit short on details in some areas. Not a long book. The last 1/3 is mostly reference.

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting.

[Axel Jano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like a long prescription.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This is the first thing I've read by any of the authors. I've been into nootropics and nutrients on and off for about 30 years so the topic is something I'm familiar with.

It's hard to call this a book, it's only 144 pages including the reference section and the actual meat of the book is only 89 pages long. If you're interested in increasing mental function this is an ok starting point, but there are better books to get you heading down that path.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what I expected with this book, but what I just read left me a little disappointed. This sorta felt like reading a long blog post. The whole book was basically just a list of potentially useful nootropics with a short brief introduction on what it is and a one sentence summary of a study which implied it may or may not be useful. There was nothing substantial in this book. It's literally a blog post in the form of a book.

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very helpful reference book if you're looking into supplements for whatever reason. There are a few included in this book I didn't know about and I also didn't know taking maca for longer than four months is not advisable. I'll definitely have to do some more research and this is a good starting point.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge believer and consumer of the authors Magic Mind nootropic energy drink, which contains a few of the items in his book. If you have not stumbled upon that, you should! Skip this book if you know about nootropics. It's cursory, at best, and a good overview for novice. I gave the extra star because I like the product. The book, not so much.

[Helfren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coffee is a drink that synonymous with the modern life work-life and made us more awake during the day. However, how to move beyond coffee? The author discusses his own experience consuming coffee as source of energy and to find another alternative to the short-term boost drink.

[Ruma Dak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too technical for a 'normal' reader. One needs to research a lot more to make the knowledge actionable or digestible.
Did not get what I was accepting from the read. I could have made more sense with a little more details!

[Tegan Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite liked this book even though it’s basically just a literature review. I appreciate the constant reminders of using nootropics and adaptogens carefully and under medical direction. The sustainability score was also helpful for a layperson to understand the risk of certain compounds.

[Aneeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting in terms of alternatives to coffee. It introduced me to Ashwagandha.

[Sevil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bunch of articles put together, almost like a research paper

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good starting point if you are new to nootropics but incomplete and lacks some depth on specific health issues.

[Aaron Cash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative about coffee alternatives

[Anshu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Headway

[Kelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not a comprehensive guide. Just enough information to make someone make terrible decisions.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brief handy book on some common nootropics. But nowhere near as extensive as Head First.

[Dora · Rating 2 out of 5]

The brevity of the book was the first thing that made me question my choice of purchasing and reading it. Not only is it thin, but the number of words is probably extremely low too (made to seem larger by the paging). Not a good thing when it comes to a "scientific" book.

I read the entire thing and found it an easy read, very-well systematized, and generally an ok first resource if you're not sure about a certain adaptogen or nootropic.

However, I felt completely disrespected as a reader when I turned to the notes section and noticed:
1. The resources were almost exclusively NCBI article abstracts
2. The research for the book was done in a short time span (from February to June of 2019), which makes me doubt its intensity and quality.

How am I sure the resources were abstracts? The references aren't listed as articles would be (with authors, names of the publication, date of publication, etc.), but just include a shortened title of the website referenced along with a link. And judging by the dates the links were accessed, there was not enough time for the authors to read through the actual papers, compare them and then write up the corresponding chapter.

I'm not sure how big of a role the medical specialist coauthors played in the writing of the book, but it should have been bigger.

I expected much more from the book.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just started taking Magic Mind and wanted to read more research into Nootropics and Adaptogens. Nothing I didn't know before, since I have been bio-hacking for years, but I like this book as a quick reference book into all the "things."

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skimmed through - ok but only of you are geeky on the Things covered

[Abdulrahman · Rating 1 out of 5]

its a blog post.