Giving up coffee. Is it self-defeating if…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Some people need to reduce their caffeine intake: pregnant women, for example, or people who struggle with insomnia.

Tea has less caffeine than coffee, OP, so you could try that. Black tea contains the most caffeine, so if you pick that, make sure not to steep the tea too much.

I am a black tea drinker and don't really like the taste of coffee. When I was pregnant, I reduced my tea intake.

Is there any reputable research indicating that pregnant women should avoid coffee? It has been a few years since my last pregnancy, but I never came across any. Like a prior poster, I’m curious about why anyone would feel the need to give it up and think that the answe will inform posters who wish to respond.

Not necessary to avoid coffee entirely when pregnant, but—depending on how much a person drinks per day— there are advisable ranges. I had to give up coffee while pregnant because it made me nauseous during the first trimester, and baby hated it during second and third trimesters (lots of spastic movement afterward that didn’t feel good ). I encountered many women with similar experiences and many who drank coffee without incident.

I drank no coffee or caffeine in pregnancies! Both kids hyper all the time, one has AHDH. So, maybe if I drank it, they would be less active?
Does that logic make sense?????

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I tried to give up my morning coffee and switch to tea but I just ended up drinking a ton of tea. Presumably my body trying to get the same amount of caffeine. Seemed pointless.

It isn't pointless. While you may consume the same amount of caffeine in a day, the amount in your system at any one time will be lower--especially because caffeine in tea is released into your blood more slowly than caffeine in coffee.

Draw an analogy to booze. Yes, it is totally possible to drink enough beers in a day to consume as much alcohol as you would drinking hard booze. But your blood alcohol level is unlikely to reach the same level as it would drinking shots. I know people who've gotten drunk on beer. I've known people to pass out from chugging beer. I've never heard of people dying from alcohol poisoning from drinking beer.

The difference between coffee and tea is sort of like this. You can get as much caffeine in your system
from tea as coffee if you drink 2-3 times as much tea as coffee in the same amount of time as you would have taken to drink your coffee. But as a practical matter, most people won't do this. It's sort of like spacing out your alcoholic drinks. If you consume three drinks over the course of three hours, you'll probably be considerably less drunk than if you consumed the same 3 drinks in one hour.

The amount of caffeine in your system at any one time matters.

The difference between coffee and tea is that coffee is the nectar of the gods, and tea tastes like dirty socks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would rather die than give up coffee.

Ditto. I would give up booze first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:American coffee consumption contributes to water pollution, soil degradation, and reduced biodiversity. It makes sense to give up coffee for environmental reasons.

Too bad.

[Anonymous]

I just (2 weeks now) gave up a full-pot-per-day coffee habit for one cup of black tea, and I’m not able to get by anymore with 6-6.5 hours of sleep that was totally OK for me before. Seems obvious in retrospect. So for those of you trying to drastically reduce caffeine, maybe consider different bedtimes/wake times.