Hey Lady, Step Away From The Caffeine!
Shortly after signing up for the Longest Game of Hockey for CF, I came to a stark and unwelcome realization: I have to stop consuming caffeine! Playing hockey all day, every day means I won’t have time for such things as drinking coffee. And I know that whenever I go a day without drinking coffee, I get a caffeine withdrawal headache. From what I’ve read, those last for several days – unless of course, you go back on the caffeine, which I won’t have the option to do given the aforementioned playing of hockey all day, every day. Since the last thing I want is do is suffer through several days of headache while I play hockey, I figure I should stop with the caffeine already.
Consuming less caffeine – ur doing it wrong.
I have been a caffeine addict ((Technically, I should say that I’m “dependent” on caffeine rather than addicted, as my requirement for caffeine does not really fit the definition of addiction, primarily in that I don’t “compulsive[ly] drug seek[…] and use, despite harmful consequences.”)) for my entire adult life. It started when I got a job in a coffee shop at 14 years of age. Having to be up at 5 a.m. to get the store opened + access to an unlimited supply of free coffee = one bad coffee habit. University didn’t help, with its several all nighters per week in undergrad and its round-the-clock lab sessions in my doctoral studies ((When we had experiments running, our schedules were totally dependent on the circadian rhythms of the rats – we needed to weigh and feed them in the afternoon, take blood samples at midnight, and be back in the lab very early for the morning sampling, which would last until it was time to weigh and feed them again.)). Thus, coffee has long been a staple in my life. In addition to coffee, I’m also a big drinker of diet Pepsi. And black tea. A typical day of caffeine consumption ((Source of these caffeine contents data: Centre for Science in the Public Interest. It was easier to Google it than to get up and retrieve one of my textbooks.)) for me looks like this:
| Item | Amount of Caffeine |
| pot of coffee in the morning ((I drink one mugful while I’m getting ready in the morning and put the rest in my travel mug to take to the office)) (800 mL) | 450 mg |
| Diet Pepsi at lunch ((Or sometimes at dinner, if I don’t have one at lunch)) (355 mL) | 38 mg |
| Pot of tea at night (1000 mL) | 224 mg |
| TOTAL: | 712 mg |
To put that into context for you, Health Canada’s recommendation is:
For women of childbearing age, the recommendation is a maximum daily caffeine intake of no more than 300 mg, or a little over two 8-oz (237 ml) cups of coffee. For the rest of the general population of healthy adults, Health Canada advises a daily intake of no more than 400 mg.
Holy crap. I knew I consumed a lot of caffeine, but I didn’t realize I was getting more than TWICE as much as is recommended ((Even if I go with the fact that I know I’m not knocked up and use the “regular” healthy adults recommendation, rather than the one for “women of childbearing age,” I’m still consuming 178% of the recommended amount!!)). And this doesn’t even count days that I go to Starbucks or Esquires ((Which are rare, thanks to my cheapness.)) for an afternoon cup of joe.
Coworker came into my office with chocolate covered espresso beans. Mmm, chocolate covered espresso beans!
Obviously, I need to do something to bring my caffeine consumption into check. My first action on this front has been to mix my regular coffee beans with decaf ones ((This was something that a naturopath recommended to my ages ago.)). This brings my daily total down to a mere 487 mg. Still too much, but it’s a start. My initial plan was that I would gradually up the decaf-to-regular ratio over the course of the spring/summer, and switch to decaf Diet Pepsi ((Or, really, just cut out the Diet Pepsi altogether.)) and decaf tea in order to gradually wean myself off caffeine. But now I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be better to just go cold turkey, suffer through a week long headache and be done with it. I guess I still have some time to decide. But I’m curious – anyone out there have any experience with giving up caffeine? Any thoughts/recommendations for me?
Comments |4|
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Tags: caffeine, coffee, diet Pepsi, food, health, hockey, Longest Game, tea
I… don’t understand why you won’t be able to have at least some caffeine while playing hockey. Have they banned Diet Pepsi and coffee from the tournament?
That is a SHOCKING amount of caffeine. The definition of “addiction” is a bit suspect, though: given how legalized and normalized caffeine (and other legal drugs are), it seems like the definition makes it very difficult for cravings for those legal drugs to ever be classified as an addiction.
Anyway, glad to see how little caffeine is in cola! I always worry about how much is in Coke and Pepsi but it seems like I’d be hard-pressed to even remotely hit the daily limit given I don’t drink coffee or black tea. And if I recall correctly, green tea has less caffeine than black tea? That must be why I never get headaches when I go a few days without cola/green tea.
I drink a lot of coffee. One at breakfast, then a coffee or tea when I get to school for lecture. A latte around 10:30, coffee or tea after lunch, another around 2:30’ish, then another when I get home from school, one in the evening, and usually one right before bed. I don’t drink coke or pepsi or any soda for that matter (unless we’re talking tonic in my G&T – but I’m not sure that it has any of the caffeine awesomeness in it).
Thankfully, I don’t suffer the headaches or such that most people complain about when they quit. I’ve quit or cut my consumption before and nothing. In fact, drinking coffee before bed (or at other times) often makes me sleepy. How does that work?
I can’t quit coffee. I’ve tried, but then my head hurts :(. I know this is the advice you’ve been seeking…
YOWZA that’s a lot of caffeine! I don’t recommend cold turkey – I had bad headaches weaning myself off a much lower daily dose than that! I’m now on three big mugs of black tea per day, and rarely anything else.