An Unexpected Benefit from Quitting Coffee – 10 Months In

Decaf works great for this.

I'm like 100% a rat pulling levers now that I'm vaping 0% nicotine and drinking decaf in the morning. If they start ringing bells before lunch I'm done for.

If you like a hot, bitter drink with roasted notes, roasted dandelion root tea is an incredible, low acid (and good for you) coffee substitute.

FWIW, I got these same benefits from cutting down to one espresso some time before lunch from who knows how many cups of coffee throughout the day.

And the new and unexpected benefit which manifested after 10 months is just that second bullet, Don't need caffeine to start doing things (no zombie feel).

Yeah caffeine doesn't stay in the body all that long. If you stop all intake it will basically all be metabolized or eliminated within 24 hours. For most people, the effects diminish earlier than that, usually from 6-12 hours. It's not something that requires a long detox period. If you want to quit and are getting headaches, take an aspirin/tylenol/advil (check that they don't contain caffeine!) and drink plenty of water. I've found the headaches pass after a day or two.

The important rule is that this works for you, but everyone has to discover their own rules.

Most days, I drink 5 to 7 expressos, though there are days I don't drink any coffee, e.g. when not at home. I often drink one (sometimes two) expressos in the hour before going to bed. I'm almost always asleep in a couple of minutes after switching off the lights.

Most doc's in the US recommend cutting coffee after 14:00, so you're pretty on the mark.

Is a reasonable rule, I'd replace a specific time with $YOUR_TIME which you probably have to experiment to find, seems to differ a lot per person. My time is 18:00, any later and sleep is screwed, 17:45 seems fine.

Ugh, reading this comment at 15:34 with cup of espresso in one hand and phone in the other.

When I was younger it was 1700 for me but now it's 1300. I get up at 0500.

Probably caffeine. You might have looked this up and found that cold brew generally has more caffeine than these other types of coffee (although, "traditional" is awfully vague). Keep in mind, different drinks have different levels of caffeine, especially if you're making them yourself. For example, you could be drinking particularly strong or particularly large "traditionally" brewed coffee/espresso relative to the other options.

I found the same thing with aeropress. I can drink coffee all day, and have the occasional Americano no problem, but twice had a shot from an aeropress over ice and it gave me awful anxiety attacks both times.

Interestingly, cold brew makes me a bit anxious but doesn't really satisfy the caffeine craving the way a traditional cup of coffee does.

YMMV I guess

Probably L-theanine? It's found naturally in teas and it's not uncommon in energy drinks/preworkouts. I'm not sure about cold brew though.

Acidity hitting the stomach?

Yeah, the difference is naturally occurring L-theanine.

Energy drinks like Monster add it in to prevent the "jittery" feeling that is associated with coffee. Teas like assam and mate have l-theanine, but I'm not sure about cold brew - maybe it allows for more extraction with the longer brew time?

Some nootropic-minded folks supplement with powdered l-theanine for this reason.

That's quite typical. Given that raw caffeine feels closer to tea than coffee, I'd exclude theanine as a reason for the perceived differences. More likely, it's any of the hundreds of other molecules in coffee, such as MAO inhibitors.

And STOP having sleep disorders!

Put down your screens several hours before bedtime, pick up a book instead.

I am so looking forward to my approaching retirement, when I need never again concern myself with your final directive.

You can frame anything as being good for you if you search for reasons and ignore any downsides:

- "Coffee reduces risk of developing Parkinson's"

- "Wine helps reduce heart disease"

- "Nicotine stimulates cognitive function"

Like many other drugs, caffeine has some upsides, but also some pretty significant downsides (its dependency-forming properties being one of the big ones).

And since this is HN, adding new dependencies to your life seems analogous to code: Introducing new dependencies to your repo should be done thoughtfully and carefully. Sometimes the pros outweigh the cons (the dependency does something that would save you a ton of work), but there are usually downsides to taking on dependencies as well (increased security liability, relinquished control over part of your stack, more build complexity, slower builds, etc)

From the data I've seen I'd take it as far as if you're not drinking coffee and you care about improving your health, you should really consider starting

The main downside is it effecting your sleep, which for most people can be controlled by not having it after a certain time

It seems that coffee has a health benefit for preventing gout. Gout used to be quite a common health problem in the past, and apparently coffee may offer some protection.

Conflation is very easy to do here. If you are very sick, you probably aren't drinking coffee (it's a mild stomach irritant).

So there is a correlation between coffee and being healthy, but causation is very messy.

An important point is that caffeine is a drug, and like any drug should be used for a desired purpose. If you’re going to need that extra focus, then use it. Other days you might not. Make a conscious choice about it.

Why do you even want to quit? Coffee has strong evidence pointing to it having health benefits

Me with cigarettes and heroin.

I think you've probably got to pester your local bottler and see if there are any retailers that stock it, or if you can special order it (possibly through a patient retailer). I've seen HFCS Coke and Pepsi available without caffeine as well, although less frequently, I can find some product listings but none with availability. In my (wide) area, it looks like Target has Diet Pepsi without caffeine in some stores, and diet coke without caffeine in more.

That stuff is awful anyway. I used to drink a lot of diet coke and gave it up. Tastes like insecticide now if I try it.

Are you simply describing the slowing of metabolism for everything consumed, or stating caffeine itself is metabolized slower with age? Curious about a source for the latter.