Snake Super Health Podcast EPISODE 10: COFFEE AS ULTIMATE OVER-STUDIED UNKNOWN SUBSTANCE
On the pod: Coffee, gut health, shoulder anabolism, Peat and 24 cups of coffee a day, Huberman coffee protocol at 5 AM; fat blunting caffeine; paper filters and cholesterol; Starbucks’ weighted vest
Coffee is the ultimate overstudied, misunderstood substance. Is it good for you or bad for you? On this episode of Snake Super Health Podcast my cohost Josh Feola and I discuss a new study linking coffee with positive gut health biomarkers, its Lindy existence in lifting circles, its possibly very healthy properties when consumed at a high level, and the meritocratic/science-pod tilt against drinking it right away and after lunch. What do we know about coffee?
Snake Super Health the POD: a discussion on health for people interested in its edge—nutrition, red light, lifting, musculature, face yoga, pullover exercises, calisthenics, strength, raw dairy, energy, orange juice, black seed oils—but who don’t live there. Or who do. Or people who are normal. Or who aren’t. Hosted by Sami Reiss and Josh Feola [https://www.instagram.com/leantimes]. Subscribe on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4xGZu5W2t1DN3AFQCsG6NL], on Apple Podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/snake-super-health-podcast/id1846403715]. Rate and review.
Relevant anti-Knicks story:
“You hear similar tales of awe from those who were with Diaw in Atlanta too. [...] The capper comes from Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, who, like Quinter, was an integral part of the Suns’ front-office team when Diaw was acquired in a sign-and-trade for Joe Johnson orchestrated by then-Suns personnel chief Bryan Colangelo.
‘Boris walks into the gym one day wearing flip-flops and holding his customary cappuccino, which was a staple for him every morning,’ Griffin recalled. ‘It was during pre-draft workouts, so he sees the Vertec [machine] and asks what it is.
‘We tell him it measures your vertical leap by determining how many of the bars you can touch. He asks what’s the highest anyone has ever gone, and we tell him Amare’ [Stoudemire] cleared the entire rack.
‘Boris puts down the cappuccino, takes off his flip-flops and clears the entire rack on the first try. Then he calmly puts his flip-flops back on, picks up his cappuccino and walks away, saying, ‘That was not difficult.’‘” (Source [https://www.espn.com/nba/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/11084748/boris-diaw-dishes-san-antonio-spurs])
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Show Notes:
00:00: Intro
01:00: Coffee as the most overstudied, misunderstood commodity…
01:30: History of coffee—Ethiopia to Cairo to Europe to Brazil to Seattle…
03:30: Coffee as social leveler—coffee vs. beer—coffee as work…
4:30: The health discussions around coffee of the 1700s—identical to ours’ now…
5:30: The endless list of studies bagging on coffee…
6:30: The endless list of studies supporting coffee…
7:00: The conservative, scientific anti-coffee protocol: circadianism…
8:00: Josh’s pro-coffee bias—eight cups a day = healthy
9:00: The Ireland study: Coffee consumption—even decaf—promotes good bacteria in the gut.
9:30: Because of fiber? Paper filters?
10:30: Peat and coffee.
13:00: What’s more Lindy? Bank coffee/AA coffee, or iPad coffee?
14:30: The ritual of coffee… vs. Celsius…
15:30: Sometimes you have to drink mud first thing…
16:00: Coffee as preworkout, coffee as only perfect supplement….
16:30: THESIS: As lifting became more baroque and arcane, a shot of espresso was no longer enough…
18:00: As lifting has splintered, lifting has returned to coffee…
19:00: Lindy vs. Science: Coffee has been around forever, but gut-brain science is new.
20:00: Josh One For The Road: Starbucks weighted vest… and pretty good macro protein coffee?
21:00: What would this drink have looked like in 2023?
21:30: Can a sugar-free, high-protein, high-fiber coffee taste good?
22:00: A little sludge now and then is good for you?
23:00: Yemeni coffee—not bad!
24:00: Sami One For The Road: Super Shoulder Training as a way to get giant steroid shoulders without taking steroids.
27:00: Josh is hitting Zerchers—underrated dad lift; Rollins’ workout essay
28:00: Is the barbell’s unnatural angle what makes people more resilient?
Reading List:
* Irish study: Habitual coffee intake shapes the gut microbiome and modifies host physiology and cognition by Cryan, Boscaini et al (pubmed ID: 42014402 [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42014402/]) Nature Communications 2026 Apr
* Coffee and colony [https://revista.drclas.harvard.edu/a-review-of-coffee-nation-how-one-commodity-transformed-the-early-united-states/]—book review on Harvard Review of Latin America
* Negative studies: coffee and bone density [https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5024]; coffee and nervous system [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12872-026-05693-0]; coffee and blood pressure [https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12937-016-0146-0]; coffee and cardiac electrical activity [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21288364/]
* Positive studies: meta analysis on coffee and lower cause mortality [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5696634]; coffee and neurological disease rates [https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5696634/]; coffee and focus [https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260502233911.htm]
* Ray Peat on caffeine [https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/caffeine.shtml]
* Various Peat quotes on coffee [https://raypeatexplained.com/ray-peat-on-coffee/]
* Ultimate Orange: the first preworkout [https://www.insidefitnessmag.com/en-us/blogs/fitclub-exclusive-content/your-old-school-supplements-ultimate-orange?srsltid=AfmBOooGqrRmrpTpz0vFyLQOI5rx-PBldK_kWLSv9JE21Fq8x8RQlpKc]
* Arnold Schwarzenegger and coffee [https://thesportsrush.com/bodybuilding-news-after-revealing-the-ultimate-pre-workout-arnold-schwarzenegger-explores-the-unique-dance-between-coffee-and-bone-health/]; coffee as bodybuilding preworkout [https://arnoldspumpclub.com/blogs/newsletter/arnolds-challenging-movie-scene]
* Josh 14TR: Starbucks weighted vest, 22g protein coffee drink [https://about.starbucks.com/stories/2026/starbucks-rtd-coffee-protein-uplevels-morning-routines-with-new-weighted-vest-and-strava-challenge/]
* 22 grams of complete protein
5 grams of prebiotic fiber
5 vitamins and minerals
2 grams of sugar
* Sami 14TR: Super shoulder work:
* Side laterals every day [https://www.instagram.com/p/DYCCRGpvN_Q/] (@goldeneracalisthenics)
* with dumbbells [https://www.instagram.com/goldeneracalisthenics/reel/DYGcrrPvImV/]
* Max out on plate loaded shoulder press [https://www.instagram.com/p/DWcJgrJiXnR/] (@_bradyngamber)
* Straight arm bar lift [https://www.instagram.com/p/DYsBoynvR7L/] (@counts.fit)
* Shoulders and androgen receptors [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10664066/] (study PMID 10664066)
* Sami’s GQ piece: My new year’s resolution to drink more coffee [https://www.gq.com/story/drink-more-coffee]
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SAMI REISS
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