Caffeine: what, when, how much?
Posted by kathryn in Myths
Most of my clients worry about how much caffeine they drink. But they’re usually even more anxious I might take their coffee away from them!
I’m not a particularly puritanical practitioner. If you really enjoy something and get pleasure from a food or drink then there’s generally a place for it in your diet. You might need to address how much and how often, but there’s rarely a need to forbid foods. And the same goes for coffee.
But it is worthwhile keeping a check on how much you are drinking and the effect it’s having on you.
I’ve written about caffeine a number of times on Limes & Lycopene, so rather than re-hashing that information, here are some links:
- Which food and drinks contain caffeine?
- Some thoughts on how much coffee is too much
- Does coffee affect the absorption of other nutrients?
- Caffeine in pregnancy
- Catherine Saxelby on how much caffeine is too much?
- From the BBC: does caffeine give you a mental edge?
- From ScienceDaily caffeine withdrawal headaches explained
- From New Scientist how caffeine can cure a headache
Personally I love coffee. It is one of my daily routines and pleasures. I stick to a maximum of two cups per day and try to make those moments away from my desk and the daily deadlines.
What about you, are you a coffee drinker?
Caffeine chemical symbol by"Icey from Wikipedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caffeine.svg. Cup of coffee photograph by your teacher.
08 September, 2009
Comments
Great post Kathryn!
I love a cup of plunger coffee in the morning, but totally stopped when I was pregnant with both my girls. Not because I thought of the negative effects, but because the taste became abhorrent. In fact, when I did have it, it made me vomit. I always thought this was my bodies natural response to caffeine and pregnancy. Like some sort of instinctual protection. Could that be the case?
I have a soy latte every morning. Instead of breakfast usually – naughty me, I know! I feel like I can’t live without my morning coffee, but probably it’s the habit as much as anything…
Very interesting Kathryn!
I often worry I drink too much coffee. Thanks for all the links and info!
Chantel
I’m really looking forward to reading through those links later today, Kathryn (and will probably do so over a cuppa!). I’m a two-cup-a-day girl. I have one cup in the morning and one during my son’s nap time (if I’m not napping with him). I love everything about coffee-it’s smell, it’s taste, the comfort it brings. I <3 it.
The one thing I’ve found is that I really need to increase my water intake during the day. Many times, coffee fills me up so much that I forget to drink otherwise. For me, it takes a bit of effort to remember to fill up my water bottle, but I feel so much better when I do!
Cheers!
Jillian
Em – I’ve heard the same thing from a number of pregnant women. It is interesting that even the most fervent coffee lover can hate the smell and taste of it when pregnant. I think there’s something to the idea of it being an instinctive response.
Lisa – with breakfast would be fine, but not instead of breakfast. It’s not the most nutritious way to start the day. Try having something small, like a piece of fruit or a vita-weat with honey?
Chantel – lovely to hear from you and also thank you for leaving your blog address. I shall look forward to investigating your site.
Jillian – yes it is easy to forget the water sometimes, good idea though to carry a water bottle around and keep that full. Then you can take regular sips throughout the day.
1 long black, once a day. Maybe two on a Friday and Saturday! But that’s it, and no softdrinks with caffeine…
1-3cups a day for me. beans ground to as close to Turkish as possible in my little spice grinder, then brewed in a plunger.
The chemical symbol is on one of my fav tshirts, gets me a lot of interesting looks, most people who comment have assumed that it is a symbol for something much naughtier.
Dylwah – my partner has the above symbol on a t-shirt as well. It does look good. Will have to ask him about the comments he gets . . .
I’m trying to increase coffee to reduce the amount of coke I drink.
I never have more than 2 coffees in a day, whereas coke I could drink like water
Here’s hoping the coffee doesn’t rot my teeth quite so much
I love coffee too – usually only have one cup a day so it has to be really good coffee! I tend to very easily get addicted to it (sad, isn’t it with just one cup a day?!) and tend to get headaches, grumpy, etc if I miss having it at my regular time. I get so cross about the addiction part of it that I then go through weeks of pain (withdrawl) to kill that time based addiction. Then I try to vary the time that I drink it so I don’t get that 9.30am craving…but usually fall back into a pattern of drinking it at the same time. And so the cycle continues. My husband drinks 4 or 5 cups a day and can give it up very easily with just a day or two of ‘suffering’. Not fair!
Leave a comment