It’s Monday morning and I’ve dragged myself out of bed and into work. It’s a beautiful autumn morning, but I would love nothing more than to crawl back into bed and sleep a few more hours. Yes, even I, a self proclaimed morning person wants to sleep the morning away every once and a while. So what now, you ask? I do what any self-respecting New York resident would do; I stand in line at Starbucks and order my latte (I prefer soy, and yes, they use organic ;)
See the thing is I’ve quit coffee. It’s been about 3 or 4 years since I could call myself a regular coffee drinker. It was honestly one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. For me the constant headaches and extreme sluggishness without caffeine was almost unbearable. It took me 3 tries over a year and a half to completely give up the habit. So when I slip and start sipping again, I feel incredibly guilty; like I’m letting myself down. Sure there are worse habits: smoking, drinking, meth. But it was messing with my quality of life and my health. In that respect, it’s not any different than any other addiction.
Coffee is scrumptious, at least when made well. But even with it's beneficial effects, it may not be suitable for everyone. Everyone's body is built differently and we have to be aware of what works for each of us. Allow me to explain a little more why I personally wanted out of that relationship:
- My stomach hurt. It doesn’t hurt all the time, but depending on the type of coffee I drink, I will end up with a pretty bad case of sour stomach or even reflux. I have less of a problem with espresso and lattes. The extra milk (in my case soy) in a latte helps protect my stomach from the caffeine. Espresso is absorbs differently than traditional drip coffee, and it isn’t as aggressive on the GI.
- I realized one day I was spending on average $3 to $8 a day on my caffeine habit. That’s more than $150 a month! Put your calculator away, I’ll do the math… that’s $1,800 a year! In case you were wondering, no I can’t make my own coffee. Of all the life skills and talents I’ve been blessed with, making coffee is not one of them.
- I never realized how much better I sleep when I’m not hopped up on caffeine. I always thought I slept OK, but once I gave up the coffee all together, the quality of my sleep improved markedly. So apparently, my body doesn’t handle caffeine very well. It takes a while for the effects to clear my system, and therefore I can’t get into a really deep sleep even if my last cup was hours before bedtime.
- I really don’t need the extra empty calories and sugar. When I finally cut sugar out of my diet 3 years ago, my coffee was a huge part of the problem. Even cutting out the sugary frozen coffee concoctions, I still was taking in a significant amount of extra sugar in the form of sweetener, milk and creamer. In fact I’ve found coffee to be a vehicle for other less-than-ideal ingredients, not just refined sugar, but also traditionally farmed dairy (more about that below) and GMO soy milk.
Now, all that being said, I’m not going to tell you one way or another if you should stop drinking coffee. But I will make some suggestions that will hopefully make your experience more healthy and green:
- If you find that coffee is aggravating your stomach, cut back, or switch to espresso. Also, you might want to examine if you’re possibly allergic to dairy.
- Keep an eye on what you put in your coffee. Try to cut back on the amount of sugar you use, and eliminate artificial sweeteners. And those frapa-latta-chino sugar bombs, stay away from them.
- As much as possible, frequent coffee shops that use organic cow and soy milk. “Regular” dairy cows are often injected with hormones and fed an inappropriate diet in order to stimulate milk production. These hormones enter our bodies and have been linked to various illnesses including cancer. Organic milk will usually bear the marking “from cows not injected with rBh.” Soy products, non-organic ones, are produced from GMO soy beans. Check the “No Mo GMO" article for more on that.
- Buy organic coffee. Traditionally farmer coffee is one of the most contaminated crops produced due to the high absorption of pesticides sprayed.
- When purchasing coffee, look for the “Fair Trade”symbol. Coffee farmers are often cheated out of a fair compensation for their crops by the mega-corporations, causing them to have a hard time making ends meet. The “Fair Trade” agreement ensures those farmers are being compensated at a rate that is appropriate.
There’s no clear line on the topic of whether coffee is good or bad for you. There are many studies touting the benefits of caffeine (such as reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s) as well as others for the negative effects. If you crave caffeine, you might want to consider trying tea as an alternative to coffee. It's less caustic to the GI tract and has more antioxidant power as well. But the most thing to come away with today is to listen to make sure you listen to your body and, as always, respect its needs.
