🌿When Wellness Trends Meet Real Bodies: How Matcha Exposed My Nervous System
A viral wellness ritual became my wake-up call in bioindividuality—and a lesson in why no trend is universally “healthy.”
There’s a very specific type of wellness content that’s everywhere right now—the coastal-minimalist, matcha-sipping influencer drifting between pilates classes and infrared saunas radiating the kind of effortless glow that makes you wonder if inner peace is just a city amenity. I’ll be honest: I love watching it. It’s calming, aspirational, and beautifully curated. But as someone who is actively healing their body—not performing wellness for an aesthetic—it’s also deeply misleading.
Wellness isn’t a vibe. It’s a relationship—with your nervous system, your gut, your hormones, your energy. And that relationship is personal. Meaning: what nourishes someone else might overstimulate me. What grounds you might send me spiraling. What supports their longevity might activate my immune system. The wellness world talks a lot about “biohacking,” but not enough about bioindividuality.
And nothing has made that more clear to me than caffeine.
The Influencing Begins
When I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis last year, I immediately became my own wellness research department. I built a food journal that tracked everything: what I ate, how I felt, my hydration, my digestion, even bowel movements, described in vivid detail (you’re welcome). It wasn’t pretty, but it was powerful. It showed me patterns, helped me identify triggers, and ultimately guided me into remission.
One of the first things I removed was caffeine. Coffee was nonnegotiable—I cut it cold turkey and never looked back. And because I wasn’t consuming it, I wasn’t tracking it.
Enter matcha.
If you follow even one wellness creator, you already know: matcha is the darling of the health world. Antioxidants. L-theanine. Gut-friendly. Stabilizes blood sugar. Supports longevity. The messaging is so loud and so consistent that it feels irresponsible not to drink it.
So, a few months into remission, I brought it back in.
At first, it felt… good. Supportive, even. A gentle lift instead of the jittery crash I remembered from coffee. I integrated it into my morning routine without a second thought. This is what wellness people do, right?
Then the fast-brain started.
When “Zen Energy” Turns Into a Full-Speed Monologue
It happened on a random Thursday during my 9-to-5. I’m in a meeting, when I notice my brain is operating at double speed. My thoughts are lining up like race cars. Words are coming out before I’ve even finished the last sentence. I’m interrupting. Talking over the person I’m meeting with. My nervous system feels hot, buzzy, urgent.
I’m outside of my own body watching myself be that person—the one who can’t slow down.
Afterward, slightly mortified (and slightly fascinated), I went back to my desk and asked my best friend, Google:
“Would caffeine make it feel like my brain is moving in fast pace?”
It turns out, yes. It absolutely can.
What Matcha Doesn’t Mention on Instagram
Here’s the part the internet rarely tells you: caffeine doesn’t hit everyone the same. Especially not people with UC or a history of gut inflammation, even if you’re in remission.
Caffeine works by blocking adenosine, the chemical in your brain responsible for signaling relaxation and rest. When adenosine is blocked:
Your nervous system stays in “go” mode
Your brain releases more dopamine and adrenaline
Your brain goes from peaceful canoe ride → speed boat
If your body is still recalibrating from inflammation, stress, or long-term immune activation, this stimulation doesn’t feel like productivity. It feels like dysregulation.
Why This Matters More if You Have UC
Even in remission, your gut lining may still be healing and your nervous system may still be on high alert. Caffeine can:
Increase intestinal motility (translation: speed up your digestive tract, potentially triggering urgency)
Irritate the gut lining if the mucosal barrier isn’t fully restored
Elevate cortisol and adrenaline, which may increase inflammatory risk over time
So while matcha is a health-supportive beverage for many people, it might not be the right daily choice for your system—or mine.
Wellness Is Personal Data, Not Public Trends
This isn’t a cautionary tale about matcha. It’s a wake-up call about how we consume wellness trends without consulting the most important source we have: our own body.
There is nothing inherently wrong with coffee, caffeine, or ceremonial-grade matcha sourced from the peak of a Japanese mountain. But the question isn't “Is matcha good?” It’s “Is matcha good for me?”
That answer can only be found by observing your own reactions.
How to Test Your Caffeine Tolerance (Without Panic Googling in a Meeting)
If you’re curious whether caffeine is supporting your energy or dysregulating your system, try this:
Start with half a serving instead of a full one
Always drink it with food to buffer its absorption
Track your focus, digestion, mood, and nervous system response for the rest of the day
Pay attention not to the productivity spike, but to the after-effects
Your body is a feedback system. It’s always communicating—you just have to be willing to listen.
The Real Flex in Wellness
We’re so used to outsourcing our health decisions to influencers, practitioners, labels, studies, experts. But the real work—the work that actually moves the dial on your healing—is done in partnership with your own system.
There is nothing aspirational about ignoring your body’s signals in pursuit of a trend, no matter how green and frothy it looks in a handmade ceramic mug.
The most radical thing you can do in wellness is not add more. It’s notice more.
So maybe matcha stays in my life, or maybe it doesn’t, or maybe it’s just a weekend treat.
Because what I’ve learned is that wellness isn’t a lifestyle you perform. It’s a relationship you cultivate. And the deeper that relationship becomes, the easier it is to see what’s truly supportive—and what’s just noise.
Maybe the goal isn’t to chase what’s optimal in theory, but what’s aligned in practice. When you choose curiosity over conformity, your body will always show you the path that’s yours.