You’ll Take My Coffee When…
The first step to confronting your caffeine problem is admitting that you have a caffeine problem. Let’s see here… I brew up about 16 ounces of coffee in the morning, which I usually have drank up by 9:30-10:00 AM. This means I’ll usually have to get a regular sized cup at my 10:00AM break which I’ll have drank by lunch. Then on my lunch break, in order to make it through the afternoon I’ll usually get a triple espresso or a 14 ounce cup of dark roast charged with a shot of espresso. This is an essential part of my daily routine, seemingly as essential as filling up my car with fuel.
My morning coffee is so important, that if I were running late and was faced with a time crunch where I had to choose between brewing my coffee or scraping the ice off my car windsheild, I’d brew my coffee and drive to work Ace Ventura style with my head hanging out the drivers side window to see where I’m going. Yeah, I have a caffeine problem. But guess what Bub… You’ll take my coffee away when you pry my cold dead hands from the cup.
This article coming across the news wire makes you wonder -
City of Shaker Heights, Ohio ( Jan 17, 2006 ) — Following a health trend that appears to be brewing up all over the nation, Mayor Judith Rawson has signed a proclamation for the City of Shaker Heights that addresses the issues regarding caffeine intoxication and dependency.
In the proclamation the Mayor is “calling upon all Shaker Heights citizens, public and private institutions, business and schools to increase awareness and understanding of the consequences of caffeine consumption.”…
City of Shaker Heights is one of several cities across the country recognizing this annual event. This will be the third year for this event which is sponsored by the Caffeine Awareness Alliance, a non-profit organization. Marina Kushner, founder, states, “Each year more and more people are waking up to the real truth about the dangers of this ubiquitous drug. We are delighted that the mayor has recognized that this is not a laughing matter.”
I try really hard to be as fair as possible toward respecting people’s opinions and point of view on things, but aren’t there any more pressing issues these people could be spending this kind of energy on? I read up on Marina Kushner, the founder of this activist organization, and I wonder if her passion for this cause has anything to do with the fact that she has a book for sale on the dangers of caffeine and also sells her own line of caffeine-free soy coffees. Busted!
Sure, there are problems with caffeine, and sometimes I worry about those certain side effects that come along with having a few too many tasty caffeinated beverages. I’ve been reading that the effects caffeine has on metabolism can be both good and bad, and also that many of the long term effects of caffeine seem pretty controversial and they haven’t been fully proven for the most part. So ultimately I don’t think we’ll be seeing any “Truth” commercials for caffeine any time soon like we do for the whole anti-tobacco effort.
“Ask Alice” at Columbia U. tells us how to tell we’ve had too much caffeine -
It depends on the person — oftentimes, you’ll know when you’ve had more than enough if it makes you feel:
* anxious
* excitable
* restless
* dizzy
* irritable
* unable to concentrate
* gastrointestinal (GI) aches
* headaches that don’t seem to go away
* trouble with sleepingThese are among the most common of caffeine’s effects on our bodies when taken in high doses (i.e., more than eight 8-ounce cups of coffee a day), but they can certainly occur from lesser amounts as well. Many are the result of caffeine speeding up metabolism.
I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve been dizzy, jumpy, excitable, anxious, and get headaches from too much caffeine. It’s an interesting world when 50% of your blood is composed of caffeine. My most common problem, which has been known to come from having a simple can of Mountain Dew after 6PM, is the trouble with sleeping. I dealt with what I thought was a serious case of insomnia for a long time, then it occurred to me that I was drinking way too much caffeine in the evening.
So I cut myself off, and started drinking caffeine free soda in the evenings. So far it’s been working well for me. I’ve debated with a couple of people recently whether or not you can tell the difference between caffeine free and regular sodas, and in my opinion, you can definitely tell the caffeine isn’t there. Same with decaf coffee, it tastes completely different. To me, decaf coffee isn’t even drinkable.
Fortunately I have been strong enough not to fall victim to any other kind of addiction. I don’t smoke, don’t do any illegal drugs of course. Heck, it’s usually like pulling teeth trying to get me to take the over the counter drugs that I need for common ailments. I don’t like taking any of those drugs, I can’t stand the drowsiness or the stomach problems or whatever other side effects are involved. Also, I’m not a big drinker. I only drink the amount of alcohol that would be enough to catch a buzz on certain special occasions, and those occasions can be spread apart longer than once a month most of the time. I’ll have two or three beers throughout the week regularly, but that’s just because I enjoy the flavor of the brown ales that I drink.
The point is that compared to many things, caffeine dependency is a pretty trivial issue. Let’s hope it stays that way and we don’t discover in fifty years that we shouldn’t have been drinking the stuff.