Did you know that over 2.25 billion cups of coffee are consumed in the world ….. every single day?Â
Or, that the lethal dose of caffeine in a human is about 100 cups of coffee in four hours and that coffee affects the same area of the brain as cocaine, amphetamines and heroin – just with milder effects?
While an occasional cup of Joe isn’t going to do any harm especially if you drink healthier dark roasts, addictive drinking via a daily coffee fix definitely has health consequences. This is especially true for those with coffee drinkers with gluten intolerance.
Another thing to watch out for is commercial lattes which contain unhealthful GMOs with every single sip.
Why Tea Isn’t As Addictive as Coffee
I myself do not do well drinking coffee and so have avoided it all my life (although I adore the smell!).
I drink green tea on an occasional basis instead and find that the caffeine in tea doesn’t bother me like coffee does. This is likely because the caffeine in tea binds to the tannins and L-theanine, a water soluble amino acid, at the time it is brewed.
These bonds requires more time to metabolize than unbound caffeine, so the absorption of caffeine into the bloodstream is slower and more gradual with tea than the rapid caffeine absorption and immediate rush of adrenaline that occurs with coffee, chocolate and caffeinated sodas.
If you are looking to reduce coffee consumption, green tea is a good alternative to wean yourself off. Other healthy coffee alternatives are discussed (with recipes) in the linked article. My personal favorite is rooibus tea.
What factoid in the infographic below on the truth about your morning coffee fix did you find most interesting?
Graphic on The Truth About Your Morning Coffee Fix used with permission: Â Evoke Food.
More Information
Why You Need to Change WHEN You Drink Coffee
Is Caffeine Causing Your Chronic Back Pain
Your Coffee Fix and Gluten Sensitivity
I have been drinking coffee for 17 years (since I was 15). There is nothing else that I can say that I have been doing that long. I have taken breaks from it several times throughout the years sometimes for a few months at a time but I always come back to it…haha. I definitely am addicted but am glad that I can give it up when I choose to although it isn’t pleasant! I have gradually decreased my intake. I mix half decaf and half regular and have two regular size coffee cups full every morning. I do enjoy the boost that it undeniably gives me in the mornings regardless of what is going on in my brain. But more so than that I miss the ritual part of it. I just enjoy the act of drinking my coffee every morning. I make sure to get organic and fair trade and only put organic cream (from my local farmer when possible) and a little bit of coconut sugar in it. As far as I am concerned there are far worse things that I could be consuming. I am keeping my coffee! :).
Disappointed because there is an easier explanation that I offered that is closer to the truth years ago in a similar caffeine/coffee article..
You might remember that it goes like this:
The Misconception: Coffee stimulates you.
The Truth: You become addicted to caffeine quickly, and soon you are drinking coffee to cure withdrawal more than for stimulation.
Ok, this is a very simplified explanation:
Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist. This means it prevents adenosine from doing its job.
Your brain is filled with keys which fit specific keyholes. Adenosine is one of those keys, but caffeine can fit in the same keyhole.
When caffeine gets in there, it keeps adenosine from getting in.
Adenosine does a lot of stuff all throughout your body, but the most noticeable job it has is to suppress your nervous system. With caffeine stuck in the keyhole, adenosine can’t calm you down. It can’t make you drowsy. It can’t get you to shut up.
That crazy wired feeling you get when you drink a lot of coffee is what it feels like when your brain can’t turn itself off.
To compensate, your brain creates a ton of new receptor sites. The plan is to have more keyholes than false keys.
The result is you become very sensitive to adenosine, and without coffee you get overwhelmed by its effects.
After eight hours of sleep, you wake up with a head swimming with adenosine. That is, until you get that black gold in you to clean out those receptor sites.
That perk you feel isn’t adding anything substantial to you – it’s bringing you back to just above zero.
In addition, coffee stimulates your adrenal glands and when the adrenaline runs dry, you feel like you’ve been running a marathon, which leads you to look for more coffee to get those glands pumping again.
After a few rides on the adrenal roller-coaster, you crash.
You might think all of this probably takes a while, but it takes about seven days to become addicted to caffeine.
Once addicted, you need more and more coffee to get buzzed as your brain gets covered in receptor sites.
Coffee also releases dopamine, the feel-good chemical in the brain which is released when you have an orgasm, win the lottery and shoot heroin. A similar addiction cycle with dopamine leads to depression and fatigue when you aren’t hitting the beans.
Finally, caffeine takes about six hours to leave your system. So if you drink coffee six hours or less before going to bed, you won’t reach deep sleep as often. This means you wake up less rested, and need more coffee.
Mind you, this is not a dependency. You will experience withdrawal symptoms upon cessation, but not like with amphetamines and cocaine.
Coffee doesn’t seem to affect the dopaminergic structures related to reward, but before you breathe a sigh of relief, ask yourself how long you’ve been drinking it. Try and stop for two weeks and see how hard it is.
If you’ve been drinking coffee for a while, you aren’t getting nearly as much out of it as you did in the beginning. You are just curing an addiction.
Take the aforementioned information and connect it to the infographic in this article and it will start to make a lot more sense..
Wow, thanks Grant! Do you have a website?
I drank coffee for a few months — but I was putting so much stuff in to make it palatable that I gave it up. It smells wonderful tho! I drink green tea or herbal or rooibos tea. Gave up all sodas about three years ago now and don’t miss them at all!
I must be weird. I’ve never noticed any affects from coffee, or from doing without it.
Mmmm coffee
I can’t believe that 5 espresso shots has the same amount of caffeine as one venti coffee at Starbucks.
Dark roast coffes have lower caffeine content than light roasts. The longer the bean is roasted, the more it lowers the amount of caffeine. A good quality espresso is made using the darkest roasts available. A typical cup of brewed coffee is a light to medium roast unless otherwise stated.
coffee is awesome!
A huge study as recently been done on the massive benefits of drinking coffee, with greatest benefits seen with those who drink up to six cups a day.
blood vessels constrict when drinking coffee, thus when trying to kick the habit, you b/v is the head have a difficult time adjusting, thus the headache. i believe Ireland at one time outlawed coffee consumption, and one went to prison, which at that time was almost a life sentence. but finally legalized it again after citizens started doing ether to get their fix. this was way long ago. i notices Starbux rushed right in and raised their prices when the rumour of coffee bean issues came out. that’s okay, it taste like industrial strength coffee now, and no personality .
Coffee is one of those things I’ve struggled with. I’ve tried to quit numerous times. I’ve used all kinds of replacements. I’ve tried drinking smaller portions or less often. I’ve almost completely quit my Starbucks habit.
But I’ve come to the conclusion that life isn’t worth living without my two mugs of decaf with heavy cream each morning. It makes me happy. It soothes and satisfies me. There have been very few things that have given me as much pleasure as I experience in the time it takes to sip that coffee. I enjoy it more than I do family or friends or work or vacations or hobbies, which I suppose goes to proving it an addictive drug. So I buy my water processed organic decaf (caffeine is not my friend) to minimize the problems and just enjoy without guilt or worry.
I have to agree with you. I can’t say that I enjoy coffee more than anything, but it is quite soothing to me. The bigger thing that I have run into is that for the people in my life, coffee is a typical social custom. I visit with family, we have a cup of coffee. We will discuss our latest creations, coffee machines, etc. it just gives us something to talk about and enjoy together. The same is true with many friends, we meet for coffee, enjoy it together, talk about it. In the past when I tried to give up coffee, I felt like I lost that connection, even when I had tea. I do enjoy tea, but I feel like giving up coffee has too much of an effect on my social life for it to be worth whatever the supposed health benefits. So I do my best and don’t worry about it. I enjoy organic coffee with some grass fed cream, molasses, and almond extract. It’s delicious and I get some nutrients with the coffee. Plus, it turns out coffee has some magnesium, which seems so impossible to get.