Quit Coffee and Give Your Body a Chance to Live

As I sit down to write this, I check the dates on my calendar. They are marked as “events,” partly because Google calendar refuses to save them as anything else. But we are all slaves to it, so, who cares?

From the get-go, just the idea of quitting something means, in some way, being a slave to something else.

I can’t surf the internet without being a slave to it, I can’t drink diet cola without being a slave to it, I can’t eat Doritos without reaching out for another packet. Our life, it occurred to me at that moment, was a series of slaveries.

FIRST STEP TO QUITTING COFFEE: NOT THE HOW BUT WHY

Of course, when I quit coffee, the first thought wasn’t “how will I quit it,” but why was I addicted to it in the first place.

I grew up drinking tea, most parts of my life and coffee was just an occasional indulgence, only a tiny pinch of it, mixed with hot, frothy milk.

This kind of obsessive way in which I needed my coffee used to be something I was proud of. My coffee had to be, always, mixed with whole milk, and the milk needed to be boiled and had to be frothy. And I liked it with raw sugar because in my mind it thickened the consistency of coffee.

Did raw sugar really thicken the consistency of coffee? Was the idea of a certain kind of coffee just an idea?

Turns out, it was.

WHY I QUIT COFFEE

I quit coffee partly out of curiosity and partly out of need. Suffering a bout of ocular rosacea (doctor speak for rosacea of the eyes) made me think about my body in ways I had not before.

My decision to quit coffee was also informed by one pervasive fact: that what goes on in your body, shows up on your face. So, I started, well, googling.

I wasn’t looking for answers to my problem online, but in some way looking for ways to invalidate a very common-sense fact I had learned about my body: what goes on inside shows up on the outside.

I didn’t find any. It turned out that the age-old wisdom was on point: that was responsible for my ocular rosacea.

I am the kind who resists doctors when I can. Sound familiar? I am also the one who loves to look for natural remedies to cure my problems (as is perhaps clear from my blog).

I don’t resist doctors when it comes to serious medical issues but would you reach for a box of pills when you know your problems have their roots in your lifestyle?

Google stated, at several places, that I was right in what I thought. You are what you eat, food is medicine and add your favorite cliché to the list.

And I was wrong, these weren’t clichés, these were things holistic living functioned on. An ancient Indian form of medicine that was thousands of years ago.

At first, I thought Ayurveda was going to give me some cure, similar to the antibiotic my doctor had prescribed. Some sort of an oil to apply on my eyes that would slowly seep into my eyes and make them watery. But that’s not what I found.

NOT ALL CURE WORKS FOR ALL

I found that for my body type (Yes, Ayurveda works according to body types. Isn’t that logical that not all cure applies to all?) coffee wasn’t precisely the drink of choice.

The great thing about Ayurveda is, it believes your body could be changed just by consuming what it needed. Needed is an important word here because your body doesn’t necessarily need everything you eat. Need and nourishment are two essential aspects of Ayurveda.

And it turned out that not only did my body not need coffee, it actually did it a lot of harm. All those mid-day palpitations and anxiety—I never thought it was because of coffee.

It wasn’t as innocent as I thought. It wasn’t just a thing I had in the mornings because I enjoyed how it tasted. It had become something I depended on to start my day. It would be awful, wouldn’t it, if I had to have a cigarette each morning just to get on with my day?

But coffee is more acceptable, more, one might even say, fashionable as an addiction. I am not going to point out that back in the day, even cigarette, was touted as being “good for you.” I am not saying coffee is the same thing, but here’s what I didn’t like: I ignored the undeniable signs my body was communicating to me.

YOU DON’T REALLY NEED COFFEE

The problem was, my dependence was the kind of habit that did not have any firm basis to it. I didn’t need coffee like I needed water. I am yet to read any scientific paper or research that my body needs caffeine to do its work.

Did I wake up woozy the first thing in the morning? Sure. Did I give myself time to recover from that wooziness? Hell now! In fact, I assumed, without much thinking, that coffee was my answer, like it was, for most people.

I wasn’t giving my body a chance it needed to recover in the morning, which was why I fell on coffee.

Like most people, I was addicted to the clarity coffee gave me. That clarity was, occasionally, even more important than the taste itself. Those who have had coffee know how one feels after having it.

It’s like someone gave you a shot of excitement and the land of wooziness you woke up in seemed far away after just one cup. Like a good book, coffee had a hold on your from start to finish. Starting with its taste to the haze of anxiety that lasted for hours.

Now, I am a writer and believe time is precious. Waiting for my body to come to its normal state in the morning, took time. Time in which I could have written words. The idea of quitting coffee stressed me, as did consuming it.

THE GET THROUGH THE DAY MENTALITY

And what with everyone around you saying the thing you wanted to hear: I needed it to get through the day.

This thought occurred to me about my coffee consumption: had life become so dull and pointless that I had to “go through it?” Words are important. They matter. Even if we weren’t serious about the words “getting through,” they have become part of our lexicon. You can’t sleepwalk through life—you shouldn’t.

But going back to the “getting through,” which to me has a near torturous connotation, a kind of feeling that your life isn’t just worth the trouble, and just to get through it, you needed a crutch.

I WASN’T LISTENING TO MY BODY

I ask myself each day why I ignored these signs of coffee dependence. Like everyone else, I believed it was body’s response to threat. But the fact that I felt it when I had coffee made no sense at all.

Now that I am off caffeine, it’s no wonder I don’t have palpitations or anxiety attacks. I don’t feel anxious when I am anxious, not when I am happy, not when my brain sends a signal to the heart that something dangerous is about to happen.

COFFEE IS BAD FOR WOMEN

I read some more and found this: coffee affects men and women differently. Don’t believe me? Read this New York Times article that talks about how coffee alters estrogen levels in younger women.

The most shocking part of the studies is that coffee impacts women of different races differently. For Caucasian women, it lowers the estrogen level, and for Asian women, it increases it.

Now, I am not saying ditch your coffee machine and cups. All I am saying is, coffee is not the innocent beverage that many people make it out to be.

Coffee is metabolized differently by different individuals, and you have to see how it works on you. If you are like me, a woman who feels the impact of caffeine sooner than others, you know you’re better off quitting it.

COFFEE CAUSES CANCER (Not a Click Bait)

There are studies to prove that a particular substance that is produced when coffee beans are roasted may cause cancer.

The thing about the food industry is that it’s hard to know what studies to believe and what studies to ignore because there have been instances of industry funding its own research to prove that the things they make are good for health.

IT’S NOT THE COFFEE, IT’S THE FOOD INDUSTRY

Kellogg’s funded several studies to make people believe that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. The food industry has made marketing copy common truth. No wonder coffee has become the beverage of choice for those who are looking to “fix” their mood.

That’s how we see coffee, not as something to be enjoyed occasionally, as mentioned in Ayurveda, but something we must have to “get through the day.” And for now, I am glad I quit.

Do you have any stories about your own coffee dependence? Share them in the comment section!