Lily's Health Pad

I am a former caffeine junkie.

In college, at the height of my addiction, I typically drank one diet coke with breakfast, lunch, and dinner; 1 to 2 diet cherry cokes during classes; and 1 to 3 cups of venti coffee while spending the afternoon studying in the library.

Umm.  No wonder I had trouble falling asleep at night (and was chronically bloated)!  Research indicates that drinking caffeine anywhere from 4-12 hours before bedtime can delay sleep onset and decrease sleep quality.  At this time in my life, it never even crossed my mind that my extreme caffeine consumption might have been affecting my sleep.  In fact, I believed that I was immune to the coveted caffeine jolt.  No wonder!  I had obviously built up quite a tolerance.

When I began graduate school, I finally made the decision to stop drinking caffeinated beverages after 2 PM.  My daily caffeine source came in the form of one, 24-ounce diet mountain dew bottle that I drank promptly when my feet hit the floor in the morning.  I was addicted.  On this no-caffeine-after-2 PM plan, my sleep did improve monumentally; however, during the day I often felt a general malaise-usually in the form of sleepiness or headaches. 

After a few years of the diet mountain dew obsession, I started to realize how dependent I was upon this morning dose of caffeine.  I had many evening realizations that I was out of the next day’s serving of Dew.  These led to late night trips to the local grocery or convenience store.  God forbid I wake up without immediate access to my green bubbly!  A headache would be certain to surface.  For this reason, I had to remember to pack Diet Mountain Dew when travelling.  Usually, I kept a back-up bottle in my car with me, just in case. The habit was also expensive:  a 6-pack of 24-ounce Mountain Dew costs around $4.50.  (Compare to a single tea bag that costs around 20 cents!) 

Last spring, graduate school classes ended, and I had an entire summer off before I began my internship.  I decided that this was the perfect time to finally wean myself from this caffeine addiction.  I started the task by drinking half of my Diet Mountain Dew bottle in one morning and saving the rest for the next day.  I continued this pattern for roughly two weeks. 

My next plan of attack was delete the Mountain Dew from my diet altogether.   For years, I had been drinking bottle after bottle of a beverage that is unnatural in every way.  Chock full of artificial flavors, artificial color, and artificial sweetener, this drink is a nutritional dud.  I wouldn’t be surprised if its unnatural ingredients were the culprit behind my afternoon drowsiness and headaches.

Let me be clear, it was never my intention to completely wipe caffeine from my diet, as I do believe that drinking it in moderate amounts is actually beneficial for one’s health.  Here are some advantages of caffeine consumption:

1)      Drinking before a workout boosts exercise performance.

2)      Boosts liver health

3)      Improves mental acuity

4)      Increases metabolism

5)      May aid in protection against Parkinson’s Disease*

6)      May aid in protection against Alzheimers*

7)      May aid in protection against Diabetes*

*Studies linking caffeine to protection against these diseases were correlational not causational

I began to replace my daily mountain dew with one cup of caffeinated tea.  Unlike mountain dew, tea has nutritional benefit in the form of antioxidants.  Drinking tea is associated with lowering blood pressure, decreasing sun-induced aging of the skin, and cataract prevention. 

Black and green teas provide the most antioxidants in the form of flavonoids.  Black tea has about 268 mg. of flavonoids per serving, and green tea has around 316 mg.  Decaffeinated varieties contain about 15 % less flavonoid content than their caffeinated counterparts.  Tip: in order to increase the flavonoid content of your tea, squeeze the bag after it has been soaking for a few minutes.

Now when I wake up in the morning, I drink one cup of caffeinated tea.  Occasionally, if I’m still feeling groggy when I get to work, then I will have a cup of coffee with a bit of half and half and some Stevia.  Now when I have an extra dose, I feel the buzz!

Want to know the best part of having tweaked my caffeine consumption?  I don’t need to drink it when I wake up in the mornings.  In fact, yesterday when I was travelling, I was out of my routine, and I forgot to drink my morning tea.  I experienced no symptoms of caffeine withdrawal!

I never thought that I could beat my caffeine addiction.  In fact, I thought it was silly for me to even try because I was positive that I would fail.  I was also afraid of the side effects of caffeine withdrawal that I thought would occur as I tapered my consumption.  Thankfully, I did not experience any problems.  A gradual reduction is key.  If you are considering a decrease in caffeine intake, I hope that this post inspires you to give it a try.  It can be accomplished!

Tags: caffeine, caffeine addiction, coffee, tea