25
votes
The invisible addiction: Caffeine makes us more energetic, efficient and faster. But we have become so dependent that we need it just to get to our baseline.
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- Title
- The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?
- Authors
- Michael Pollan
- Published
- Jul 6 2021
- Word count
- 3868 words
I mostly gave up caffeine years ago, though I do have the occasional coffee nowadays. The author's description of the effects of their first coffee back after a break is dead on: colours seem brighter, sounds crisper, ideas sharper. It's a true stimulant, and I've been able to train myself to use it as such. Instead of dosing daily to feel functional, I dose monthly (if that) to get a boost to my activity, be that working out, writing music, or studying. I feel much better for it, as a general rule, and the sense of deliberacy I feel from allowing myself a caffeinated coffee is quite gratifying as well.
If you're a heavy (or even moderate to light) user, I would highly recommend trying a few weeks without caffeine to see how you go. It makes a remarkable difference.
Why not do 2-3 days on/off? I rarely drink coffee but if and when I need it, as a rule I don't drink it more than 3 days in a row with at least 3 days break after that. It prevents me from building up a substantial tolerance.
I drink coffee rarely (and yeah it's a crazy powerful stimulant that way) and I usually get pretty bad withdrawal headaches. The trick is to take painkillers before the headache sets in (which for me is a little while after whatever time I had caffeine the previous day). Nearly every time I remember to do it, little to no headache. If I forget until after the headache sets in, though, nothing will stop it.
Excerpt of a new book from Michael Pollan, This is Your Mind on Plants which looks really good.
I previously listened to the caffeine parts of this in an Audible-only audiobook that was released last year. Glad to see it getting actually published for wider distribution.
Not so invisible for me, I get pretty strong caffeine withdrawal symptoms when I stop.
I have a weird relationship with coffee. I don't really get withdrawal or anything, but I also don't really get the stimulant effect either (very annoying when I do need to stay up!). I can drink a cup of coffee and go to sleep without much trouble. If I start downing espresso shots or something I will get a headache, so it's not like it doesn't have any effect.
Over the pandemic I've gotten more into coffee, but it's mostly been for taste.
It's the same for me. I'll sometimes be drinking a lot of coffee for many weeks, then I'll get bored of it for many months. One thing I notice is that it gives me a sort of starving feeling. Reading online, it seems like that's the opposite of what should happen. Sometimes it will also make me a bit sleepy depending at what time I drink it.
Never got coffee headaches though afaik.
I honestly never heard of "caffeine withdrawal" but looking at the symptoms, it sounds like what I usually get on the weekends when I don't drink coffee...
... Whoops! Thanks for posting this, OP. I'm going to start cutting down on the coffee, starting with this cup I have next to me!
I drink decaf 90% of the time. I have half a cup of caffeinated coffee maybe once during the week and a full cup maybe once on the weekend (usually because I’m making French press for my partner and myself). I was getting high heart rate notifications on my Apple Watch when I was drinking just a cup a day, so I decided to cut back.
Tea contains an amino acid called l-theanine which is a relaxant and helps with anxiety, the effect actually increases when mixed with caffeine which is one reason why you dont get a coffee-like buzz with most tea.
It's a common misconception that green tea contains less caffeine than black tea. See here: https://camellia-sinensis.com/en/analysis-of-caffeine. Mostly it has to with other factors. The studies are also published, but at least for me they are paywalled. Matcha is the way to go if you want to get a caffeine kick from tea.
It does say:
But yeah, that was just a quick find and it's not a proper research article. The articles I found were paywalled, and I don't have time to do a deep dive into it at the moment. But we can at least conclude there are a multitude of factors that go into it.
Coincidentally, I just quit caffeine about a month ago ... probably just temporary, but I don't know when/if I'll go back. I did have headache and tired/fuzzy feeling for ~2 days after quitting -- although I was also fasting at the time, so hard to say what caused what.
But really, since then, I haven't noticed much difference in my mental acuity or anything. I just feel back to normal (whatever that means).