22 ms·
How coffee became a modern necessity
- dzonga 6y agoalso one surprising thing was the shortage of coffee during this pandemic
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.md/1mPIc https://archive.md/1mPIc
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- flatTheCurve 6y agoOne day coffee/caffeine (and alcohol) culture will be heavier scrutinized. Similar to nicotine. My caffeine addiction has caused gastrointestinal problems and I can't stay off the drug. (This is already acknowledged scientifically) But as long as authority figures consume caffeine, they will justify it.
- colechristensen 6y agoYou need somebody to ban it to make your own choices?
- __blockcipher__ 6y agoI hope this comment of mine isn’t considered too low-quality, but is it any surprise that someone whose name is “flatTheCurve” would advocate compulsion over personal responsibility? :P (And to avoid misinterpretation here, the original intent of flattening the curve to avoid hospital overrun I was fully behind. Now that we have more data, I find the people shrieking at their fellow citizens for going to the beach or public parks and demanding that they be prohibited from doing so to be detestable)
- scubbo 6y agoCan you elaborate on what data has led you to believe that socializing during a pandemic isn't contemptible and selfish?
- __blockcipher__ 6y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22961835&goto=threads%3Fid%3D__blockcipher__%2322961835 https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=22961835&goto=threads%... See my previous comment here, that is a good starting point for my position. Happy to answer any questions. (BTW I made a statement in that post that covid is an order of magnitude less deadly than the flu for those under 30, I no longer stand by that statement because it’s been hard to get age-stratified influenza IFR data as well as the uncertainty of covid-related mortality data. I still think the statement is true for <18 due to the varying risk distributions that I explained in that post) — Incidentally, I should have listened to my gut and not posted in this thread originally since I fear I might be derailing this discussion. So, I’m sorry for that. But for now I don’t think deleting my comment in this thread is a good idea at this point since we might end up having a useful discussion.
- scubbo 6y agoI must admit, this was a much more cogent and well-reasoned argument than I expected to receive - and, in fact, the only argument more coherent than "but muh freedoms/portfolio!" that I've heard in favour of ending quarantine orders. Thank you for that - and I apologise for prejudging you. If I could summarize your argument, it appears to be that "a large segment of the population are at low-risk from infection, and unemployment (which quarantine often causes) and isolation have a larger negative impact on mental health"? That certainly hangs together. The filthy European socialist in me naturally responds "Great, so have the government actually do its job and provide UBI or some other form of financial support, and permit going outside so long as safe distances are maintained, and you've solved a large chunk of the latter problems while still minimizing infections" - but I know that that's sadly unlikely.
- 6y ago
- badfrog 6y ago> You need somebody to ban it to make your own choices? It shouldn't be surprising that some people think that. Most people still feel that way about most narcotics.
- Ididntdothis 6y agoI can’t see anything about a ban.
- livre 6y agoI think it's implied in: >But as long as authority figures consume caffeine, they will justify it. I may be wrong though.
- colechristensen 6y agoPlenty of people choose not to consume caffeine, they just don't make an issue of it, which is as it should be. Your personal choices don't have to be a cause.
- Ididntdothis 6y agoTo me the post sounded like there should be scrutiny of caffeine consumption as there was scrutiny of alcohol and nicotine. And I tend to agree with that. It’s a psychoactive substance that causes physical addiction so people should know the facts.
- colechristensen 6y agoThere aren't interest groups buying ad time for scaremongering or people beating the drum for moral superiority about the evils of caffeine... no. But energy drinks have gotten a bit of a bad wrap, and four loko with the caffeine and alcohol got banned... and if you have a heart condition or anxiety your doctor is going to advise you to lay off the coffee. Isn't that enough? Or does it have to become a social evil for it to count?
- flatTheCurve 6y agoNot a ban, but I wish my doctor didn't tell me I could drink all the coffee I wanted.
- isoprophlex 6y agoIf you always make your own coffee at home: - pick a number of cups you may drink each day, say four. - brew your own coffee with a drip infuser, from ground coffee. - get a container to hold, say, 90:10 caffeinated:decaf coffee grounds. After four days, move to 80:20. Etc. Don't exceed your daily limit. You'll be cured in ~ a month. You can do it.
- nsl73 6y agoThat’s a method on how to get off caffeine. Staying off caffeine is something different. The phenomenon of returning to an addictive substance is known colloquially as “relapse”
- noizejoy 6y agoI’m genuinely happy for you, that you’ve figured out, that coffee was bad for you and that you were able to overcome using it. However I also think it’s being unkind to your fellow humans, who’s metabolism may tolerate or even benefit from coffee (or whatever other substance) to extrapolate from your experience to our entire species. And it seems maybe we’re not the only animals enjoying stimulants [0]. [0] https://duckduckgo.com/?q=drug+use+in+animals+in+the+wild https://duckduckgo.com/?q=drug+use+in+animals+in+the+wild
- lhuser123 6y agoI like these kind of comments. For some reason, in most discussions, We fail to address the fact that we all don’t react similarly to foods, drugs, etc.
- joefourier 6y agoCaffeine is incredibly benign compared to alcohol and nicotine, and so far research has shown that it may actually be a net positive in moderate amounts in terms of cardiovascular health. If you're worried about gastrointestinal problems, you can switch to tea. Much less acidic and harsh on the stomach, and some varieties have enough l-theanine to counter the negative effects of caffeine. If you're worried about the caffeine content not being concentrated enough, you can even drink matcha, which typically has more caffeine per ml than American filtered coffee.
- toomanybeersies 6y agoNicotine is also fairly benign, it's tobacco (especially smoking it) that's bad for you. Chewing nicotine gum or using patches can give you the focus and clarity that smoking or vaping does without filling your lungs with shit.
- irrational 6y agoI am so glad I never got on the coffee bandwagon. I once surreptitiously added up how much my coworkers spent on coffee during a typical work week (not even including what they might have spent at home). Crazy (to me) amounts of money.
- keiferski 6y agoBuying a grinder, French press and bags of beans is not very expensive. Maybe $0.25 a cup depending on the quality of beans you get, plus an initial investment of ~$50 for equipment. Spending $5 on a blended pseudo coffee drink at Starbucks is not the only option.
- floren 6y ago> Spending $5 on a blended pseudo coffee drink at Starbucks is not the only option. The price per ounce of coffee on those drinks has got to be astronomical! I didn't drink coffee when I first moved to New Mexico, but after trying to local piñon coffee I'm a convert--luckily, I can get a 5 lb bag of the beans at Costco for about $30!
- keiferski 6y agoHaving worked at a few cafes in my day, you’d be amazed at the profit margins on coffee. It costs pennies for the typical cafe to sell a cup of black coffee at ~$2.50.
- 1123581321 6y agoI call black coffee my table rental fee.
- Tagbert 6y agoThe cost in a coffee shop is the labor, not the coffee. It takes a long time to make an espresso-based drink.
- 6y ago
- tyre 6y agoExcellent piece by Adam Gopnik a few years ago about why coffee and cafés specifically we such a drastic social change: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/24/what-cafes-did-for-liberalism https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/24/what-cafes-did...
- jzer0cool 6y agoReferencing from this article here: https://www.ncausa.org/About-Coffee/History-of-Coffee https://www.ncausa.org/About-Coffee/History-of-Coffee > "No one knows exactly how or when coffee was discovered, though there are many legends about its origin" And interestingly: > "After crude oil, coffee is the most sought commodity in the world"
- benibela 6y agoSince the oil price went negative, coffee must be the most sought commodity now
- ThisIsTheWay 6y agoPrices for a specific group of oil purchase contracts went negative, but that is quite a bit different than saying "the oil price is negative."
- partyboat1586 6y agoGood read. Kellogg and Post might have been right about coffee causing 'enervation'. Afternoon coffee breaks can lower sleep quality in some people which leads to long term reduction in energy due to low grade sleep deprivation.
- emsign 6y agoYeah, people go into withdrawal during the night which leads to bad quality sleep which leads to the desire to drink coffee earlier in the day, since you feel very unwell after you wake up. A downward spiral.
- thirteenfingers 6y agoVery disappointed that the article doesn't mention that about 1734 Johann Sebastian Bach actually wrote a secular cantata (often called the "Coffee Cantata") telling the story of a father trying to get his daughter to stop drinking coffee. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweigt_stille,_plaudert_nicht,_BWV_211 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schweigt_stille,_plaudert_nich... https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-211/ https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/bwv/bwv-211/
- acheron 6y agoIf I don’t get my coffee I shall shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.
- mcswell 6y agoI came here to post about that, and you beat me to it. I was provoked by the article's title, "coffee...a modern necessity." Unless of course you consider Bach modern!
- inawarminister 6y agoWell, historians broadly agree th 1700s were firmly in the Early Modern period.
- meerita 6y agoI just drink coffee at the morning and probably, after a nap. I never drink more than 2 cups a day. How are you habits?
- monkeydust 6y agoBeen hooked on V60 drip for my morning coffee. Really gets the flavour out of the coffee. Worth watching a few vids on youtube to get the technique right.
- beckingz 6y ago2-3 cups a day, unless it's crunch time.
- oh_sigh 6y agoI drink up to 4 cups a day or zero per day. I might be a daily drinker for 2 months and then go a month or two without a cup or any caffeine source at all. I've never had a problem with caffeine withdrawal headache which is interesting. 23andme says I'm 'likely to slightly more coffee than average' and I am a slow caffeine metabolizer based on my genetics. The only coffee rules I really follow are 1) don't drink it if I'm tired - for whatever reason I feel nauseous if I drink it when I am actually tired, and 2) don't drink any after 3PM or else I probably won't go to sleep until 1-2AM.
- meerita 6y agoI need to clarify I drink americano style. Expresso was barely 1 a day before the corona virus
- vbezhenar 6y agoI'm drinking one cup every 1-2 hours. But my coffee is not usual, it's a very hard coffee from moka pot mixed with fresh milk in proportion 1:9, so it's not a lot of coffee actually, but rather a lot of milk. I'm really addicted to the taste of this beverage and caffeine makes me feel a little bit better.
- bob1029 6y agoI just cut back to zero caffeine as of a week ago. It was hell, but I finally hit break-even today. It became obvious the coffee consumption was impacting productivity and sleep quality so I had to hit the reset button. Just had my first "normal" day and it was far more productive than any other day in 2020. I will try to stay off the coffee indefinitely.
- troughway 6y agoCalling coffee a mind-altering substance is pretty rich. I've heard this sentiment before and it's so flippant in it's lack of perspective (intentionally so) that its not worth discussing further. This is as far as I got because of the paywall anyway. I really wish HN would just outright reject submissions from domains known to have paywalls. Forget trying to fish it from Google or some archive/cache.
- shawnz 6y agoIf you don't think so, try quitting caffeine use for a few weeks and then jump back to your regular dose. I find that stimulants in general are subtle drugs in the sense that it's not obvious to inexperienced users how affected they are by them.
- badfrog 6y ago> Calling coffee a mind-altering substance is pretty rich. What? Why? It literally is one. From wikipedia: > Caffeine is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant of the methylxanthine class.[10] It is the world's most widely consumed psychoactive drug.
- piyh 6y ago> everything is a drug except my drugs
- GuiA 6y agoWhat is rich about calling coffee a mind altering substance? Sensibility varies across people, but as an occasional drinker, if I drink a cup of coffee (especially on an empty stomach), I get a strong buzz going for a solid 30 minutes or so. Not so different from a hit of nicotine (which I do not consume with any regularity either). As far as my own body goes, I have no problem working and focusing while drinking a beer. For coffee, I may have to wait until the caffeine buzz subsided before I can really focus again.
- wpietri 6y agoIt is absolutely mind-altering. If you'd like to hear more, you can just check out the work this is based on, Michael Pollan's Caffeine: https://michaelpollan.com/books/caffeine-how-coffee-and-tea-created-the-modern-world/ https://michaelpollan.com/books/caffeine-how-coffee-and-tea-... He was recently on Fresh Air discussing the book; the transcript is here: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/803394030 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/803394030
- keiferski 6y agoI hope that someday cafe culture makes a comeback. As much as I love sitting in a cafe working on my laptop, the current iteration of cafes is but a pale imitation of what they were in the past. Revolutions were plotted, art movements invented, and history made in places like Cafe Central in Vienna. I recommend reading literature from the 1880s-1930s to get a sense of how important they were for the time period. A Moveable Feast by Hemingway is a good start. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_culture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_culture https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffeehouse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffeehouse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Central https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Central
- chrisseaton 6y ago> Revolutions were plotted, art movements invented, and history made in places like Cafe Central in Vienna. What makes you think people aren't doing this on their laptops? The person you think is doing corporate work on their MacBook could be changing the world.
- keiferski 6y agoThe culture simply isn’t there anymore in any focused form. Reddit, HN or wherever probably isn’t comparable to having an entire empire’s brightest minds in the same cafe on a daily basis.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Barrin92 6y agoI think that's mostly because today there are so many bright minds they don't fit in a coffee house. Go to the cafeteria of any large business or university and you'll probably find more highly educated people than you found in all of Vienna 150 years ago. I think what you're yearning for is really the bourgeois culture of high-minded intellectuals participating in exclusive clubs rather than facilitating good discourse between intelligent people. Access to the latter nowadays is thankfully much easier than it was in the past.
- headcanon 6y agoCoffee has a good number of health benefits - plenty of antioxidants and its good for your liver. Naturally, overuse can be bad for you because of its dehydrating effects. I've had conversations with some people who mention they're on their 4th or 5th cup a day, and I've said that I found that 1 or 2 cups a day coupled with plenty of water are much more effective. Just like anything, a little bit can be good for you, but don't take too much - and stay hydrated! Preferably with plenty of sleep but I understand thats not always realistic for some.
- lhuser123 6y agoMaybe is the placebo effect, I don’t know, but coffee helps me keep my asthma under control.
- mlavin 6y agoCaffeine seems to be a known bronchodilator, so you're not wrong there.
- winrid 6y agoHelps me too. I maybe drink a couple cups a week, but when I visit my grandparents I might drink 5 a day to keep the asthma down...
- tedmiston 6y agoIt looks like there may be something to this. > About a hundred sixty years after Dr. Salter’s book was published, a review of studies was performed to see if coffee had any true impact on lung function and asthma. The authors wrote: > “Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, cola drinks and cocoa. Caffeine is a drug that is very similar to theophylline. Theophylline is a bronchodilator drug that is taken to open up the airways in the lungs and therefore relieve the symptoms of asthma, such as wheezing, coughing and breathlessness. Scientists are interested in finding out whether caffeine has the same effect on the lungs as theophylline.”2 > And they concluded: > “This review found that even small amounts of caffeine can improve lung function for up to four hours.”2 > Caffeine is a methylxanthine. It falls into the same family of medicine as theophylline, a strong bronchodilator that was a top-line asthma remedy during the 1970’s through the 1990’s. I was chronically dependent on theophylline from the mid 1970’s until 2007. https://asthma.net/living/the-effects-of-coffee-on-asthma/ https://asthma.net/living/the-effects-of-coffee-on-asthma/
- pdog 6y agoSince when is caffeine routinely served to children? I didn't have my first cup of coffee until I was an adult.
- thevenkataswamy 6y agoCoke?
- jolmg 6y agoDo people serve coke to children? My generation wasn't allowed to drink soda until we were teenagers.
- ducttapecrown 6y agoYour experience might not be as universal as you think, depending on what you mean by generation.
- asdff 6y agoMy dad grew up in the 60s and went from the milk bottle to the coke bottle. My parents were more strict with me on soda, but most of my friends had free reign on the beverage and were not drinking water at all. We all turned out fine, minus a few teeth.
- lotsofpulp 6y agoI would think growing up drinking a bottle of sugar water and the habits it causes would have something to do with the overweight, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension statistics all over the world.
- oarabbus_ 6y agoSodas, chocolates, tea... if you didn't frequently have caffeine as a child, you're probably in the minority.
- 6y ago
- dzonga 6y agofor those that have an issue consuming coffee e.g headaches, stomach issues. my non-medical advice based on personal experiences is: try lighter to medium roasts. course grounds - french press | traditional brews. 100% arabica beans. flush with water i.e after a cup of coffee drink two - 4 cups of water. also mixing decaf n caffeinated coffee
- emsign 6y agomy advice: avoid caffeine altogether, everything decaf, if you insist on consuming those beverages.
- pivo 6y agoMy understanding is that lighter roasts can actually have more caffeine than dark roasts because the roasting process gradually removes caffeine from the beans. That’s from George Howell who is kind of a coffee legend here in the US north east. Haven’t tested this myself.
- bgutierrez 6y agoThis is what everyone at Starbucks is taught.
- standardUser 6y agoThe way in which the beans are ground and the coffee brewed has a vastly larger impact on how caffeinated the drink will be.
- elwell 6y agoFrench press could hurt your stomach more than a method that uses a paper filter.
- fxtentacle 6y agoI feel like the article didn't really answer that question. Also, given that some of the most successful people I know don't drink coffeine at all, I wonder if the assumption is even correct.
- emsign 6y agoAh, just today I had a caffeine withdrawal induced headache, because I had been drinking tea the last three days. It was so bad I had to pop a Thomapyrin tablet with a Coke. For all non-Germans: it's a fixed combination drug that includes Aspirin (250mg), Paracetamol (200mg) and Caffeine (50mg).
- mturmon 6y agoThis cocktail is called Excedrin in the US (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin/paracetamol/caffeine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirin/paracetamol/caffeine).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- outime 6y agoI came to the same conclusion after seeing all my family drinking at least 3 cups daily. Then all my friend, then me being 15 years old started. About 13 years later I’ve quit cold turkey after having some anxiety problems and headaches. I did some research and read a book which is from the nineties and a bit outdated but holds up pretty good. It basically cured both problems (but withdrawal symptoms the first days were tough, I admit). For many people it’s ok to drink coffee I guess, but consider that it can affect you and almost no doctor will look into coffee consumption when you pay them a visit to see what could be the reason of some of those ailments. Also I saved a good chunk of money. So no, you don’t need coffee. You need to give your brain a break (sleep properly) if it asks for it, and you don’t need to drug yourself with substances to “focus” and go on with your life. If life isn’t exciting then you may want to change it. I recommend reading r/decaf for some interesting testimonies.
- hammock 6y agoWhat was the book?
- outime 6y agoThe book is “Caffeine blues”. There may be better ones or just more up-to-date but this is a popular one among decaf circles and I had easy access to it.
- el_dev_hell 6y ago+1 sounds like something a lot of HN readers could use (myself included)
- robocat 6y ago> I’ve quit cold turkey after having some anxiety problems and headaches Use no-doz pills to quit without side effects: reduce/taper/titrate the dose down from one pill per morning to, part-pills, to none over a few weeks. I quit every few years, and just stopping is very unpleasant. Using caffeine-only No-doz pills as above is cheap and easy. I’ve also done it by using instant coffee and reducing the size of the spoonful of coffee, although it’s mentally harder to break the habit that way. Edit: I guess heavy coffee drinkers might need to start at two pills (check dosage info on package: I've always been fine starting at one). They taste nasty bitter, but OK if quickly washed down with water.
- Arjuna 6y agoCoffee, and its associated caffeine effects, has an interesting history in the battle theater. These comments regarding coffee are from the American Civil War: "Perhaps the North's access to caffeine gave its soldiers a strategic advantage. At least that's what one Union officer, Gen. Benjamin Butler, thought. He ordered his men to carry coffee in their canteens and planned attacks based on when his men would be most wired. His advice to other generals was: 'If your men get their coffee early in the morning, you can hold.'" [1] "In 1859 Sharps Rifle Co. began to manufacture a carbine with a hand-cranked grinder built into the butt stock — or handle — of the rifle. Union soldiers would fill the stock with beans, grind them up, dump them out and use the grounds to cook the coffee. As the morning began, one Civil War diarist described a scene of 'little campfires rapidly increasing to hundreds in numbers that would shoot up along the hills and plains.' The encampment would buzz with the sound of thousands of grinders simultaneously crushing beans. Soon, tens of thousands of muckets (coffee pots) gurgled with fresh brew." [2] [1][2] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/25/485227943/if-war-is-hell-then-coffee-has-offered-u-s-soldiers-some-salvation https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/25/485227943/if...
- sandworm101 6y agoSame is true of amphetamines. US Fighter pilots were taking them as recently as 2002. I heard an interesting story about Elvis on NPR. He took two things from his time in the military: Karate, which colored his dance moves, and drugs. He got fat after coming back from the military, after he stopped the amphetamines. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substituted_amphetamines#Military_use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_and_culture_of_substit...
- Scipio_Afri 6y agoFirst time amphetamines were used was by Nazi troops in WWII. The show I was watching that mentioned it was invented in Germany and used for the push into France by the Nazis also mentioned an interesting side effect of it also reducing empathy.
- 6y ago
- enitihas 6y agoAre there any studies on the impact and benefits of tea vs coffee?
- justlexi93 6y agoCoffee is life, I can't start a day without a good cup of it. My brain won't function well without coffee. It's okay if this drink is only my breakfast before going to work.
- rv-de 6y agoAttempted to quit twice - failed twice. For me the quitting symptoms come in four phases: 1) very slight uncomfortableness (nothing severe) [~3 days] 2) more vivdness, alertness, euphoria, calmness [1 to 2 weeks] 3) weird chest / heart issues (nothing too severe but very unpleasant and first time was quite worrying) [2 to 3 weeks] 4) I'm feeling down, unmotivated, dull [starting at about week 4 or 5] --- stage 4 is what I never survived so far. it's just taking too much of a toll. then again it's an up and down so I once managed to stop for 4 months. but it brings me to a pre-depressive state where I just don't see much point in working. otoh I very much enjoy just relaxing, chilling - if I can do that I'm happy. if not it's a chore - no productiveness at all. very slow mental processing. --- I started drinking coffee during puberty. So, I guess my brain is not just chemically hooked on it but actually neurologically developed around it. --- then the first cup - what a bliss.
- Cactus2018 6y agoI try to go through your first phase once a month. Going several months without a rest leads to intense withdrawal headaches when I finally take a break - comparable to allergy induced sinus pain. This comic summarizes my experience with caffeine withdrawal exactly https://www.stickycomics.com/inside-caffeine-withdrawal/ https://www.stickycomics.com/inside-caffeine-withdrawal/
- elliekelly 6y agoI often wonder whether quitting caffeine is just as difficult as quitting tobacco but a much more socially acceptable vice. Oddly enough I’ve yet to meet someone who has been hooked and then managed to quit both who can compare the experiences.
- asdff 6y agoChiming in. For me, caffeine withdrawl happens hours after not having coffee in the form of a splitting migrane. With nicotine, it was the exact same splitting migrane, only it started a half hour after the last dose. Both migranes lasted constantly for about a week, felt like I couldn't think, but afterwards I was no longer physically addicted.
- adamgluck 6y agoI quit coffee almost a year ago and can never see myself going back. I basically have noticed improvements on all the dimensions that people typically drink coffee to "solve." Some of the effects I have noticed: - Less anxiety throughout the day. - Fewer "highs" and "lows" throughout the day. My energy level is pretty constant. - Easier to wake up. I rarely snooze my alarm more than once. - Easier to focus. My level of focus (over time) is more consistent. - Better hydration. This means less headaches, etc. - More energy. I generally have the energy I need to do what I want basically up until I go to sleep. - I can burn sleep. It's very easy for me now to go 2-3 days with very limited sleep, and then sleep 12 hours to recover. - Coffee "works." The one or two times I needed coffee, it actually worked to keep me awake and energized. The reason for this is pretty obvious. Coffee stresses your adrenals and sends your body an "awake" signal. Caffeine's half life is 6 hours, which means even if you have it "before noon" you'll still have a substantial amount in your system while you sleep. This impacts sleep quality, which means you are accumulating micro amounts of sleep debt every night which you never pay off. Eventually, you struggle to get up in the mornings until you have had some coffee in your system. The "I can't function without coffee" effect. This is a pretty much ubiquitous 21st century experience, as far as I can tell. Furthermore, coffee impacts your body's natural processes that it uses to wake up. Your body produces cortisol in order to wake up in the morning, which is a "stress" hormone, which is also induced by drinking coffee (which overall impacts the endocrine system). Hacking this system to overproduce hormones everyday isn't great for when your body actually needs this system to wake you up. For people considering quitting coffee I have the following advice: - You will get a headache 24-36 hours after you quit. Take ibuprofen. (By the way, this should give you a hint to how long coffee actually meaningfully stays in your system.) - You will feel weird for probably 2 weeks. - You will have coffee cravings. (I found these hit when I was tired. I felt like I needed to drink coffee to fix my tiredness. I tried to replace this impulse with drinking water or herbal tea a lot of tiredness is caused by dehydration.) - You will be tired sometimes. You'll just have to deal with that, but it's really not that bad of a sensation, and the solution: sleep :) People often think cutting coffee out is "impossible" but many people also haven't gone a day or two without drinking coffee since they were 18, so, I would say it's worth a try at least.
- ycombinete 6y ago
- didibus 6y agoI love coffee, brings me joy every morning. Feel it's worth it for me. That said, I drink specialty coffee only, have my own espresso machine, use only high quality freshly roasted beans, etc. I also don't drink more than 2 cups a day, and rarely drink coffee after noon. Sometimes I do a 3rd one later in the day, but will often go decaf for it. With the principal cost of the espresso machine and equipment, the maintainance cost, the price of grass fed whole milk and top quality beans, it comes to about 1$ per cup for me. Since I have 1 to 2 cups a day, that averages around 600$ a year I spend on coffee. Which for the pleasure I get from it is well well worth the price in my opinion.
- sunsetSamurai 6y agoMost people don't like coffee, they like caffeine, it's an addiction. To me, coffee smells bad, tastes ok, and leaves my mouth feeling dirty after drinking it. I just don't see the point in coffee, especially with all the disposable containers from Starbucks and the like that go straight to the trash every day.
- chousuke 6y agoI'll concede it's likely that most people drink coffee for the caffeine, but I would venture a guess that most people don't drink very good or well-brewed coffee. It doesn't really make sense to say that "coffee" in general smells or tastes bad because the range is enormous; it's similar to lumping all citrus fruits together. I've had a hard time lately restricting my coffee intake to reasonable levels because I've had a lot of time to practice coffee brewing and some of the batches I've managed to brew have felt like drinking liquid chocolate. Even the same coffee beans will taste completely different depending on how you brew it. I don't regret it at all though. Coffee is a luxury where a small investment goes a long way.
- ip26 6y agoSetting aside the workplace- where I drink coffee for enjoyment and could function without it- I have discovered that a dose of caffeine makes a tremendous difference when I go running at 6AM. (Roll out of bed at 5:50) I go from feeling like I can't make it a half mile, to feeling like the world is happy & beautiful, as the caffeine kicks in. It's been quite stark once I realized what was going on.
- asdff 6y agoDo what pilots do. Wake up at 5:20, take a caffeine pill, go back to sleep, wake up at 5:50 fully caffeinated and feeling like a living god.
- asdff 6y agoI was forced to start drinking coffee. I had to drive myself to high school at 7am, didn't get much sleep with extracurriculars and homework and work. Eventually it got too dangerous to drive in the morning being that drowsy so I had to start consuming massive amounts of caffeine. The withdraw symptoms were in some ways worse than nicotine imo.
- nsilvestri 6y agoI don't drink coffee for caffeine. I like the flavor, and enjoy the process behind brewing and experimenting with different parameters to make a cup that tastes better or worse or simply different. I like going to coffeeshops just because. It's a hobby for me. And although I drink two cups of coffee almost every day, I don't feel any kind of withdrawal when I stop drinking it. The caffeine just happens to be a nice benefit.
- franze 6y agoYou could pretty much replace the word coffee/caffeine with similar words for beer, alcohol, crack, heroin, .... Addiction does not feel like an addiction. That's the problem with addiction. Said that, some addiction is be life-enriching, from the impact on mind, body and social. (I love my coffee, I am so addicted to it that I stop drinking it for 2 months a year.)
- bryanrasmussen 6y ago"On the contrary" I stated. "People who drink coffee are insane. Insane and possessed and, what is worse, willing to be possessed. Most people in asylums drink coffee. If you let them stop drinking it, they would regain enough equanimity to leave. But, no, they don't stop. In fact, they drink more and more, and they get crazier and crazier. They're dehumanized with every single goddamned drop, and although they sense it, they're like lemmings, or buffalo who jump off cliffs. People drink coffee and it makes them insane. "Must you drink coffee? Why not cocoa, tea, cola tea, mate, yoco infusion, or guarana? Why caffeine? Why not theobromine or theophylline? I have had an occasional square of chocolate. It is the cause of uncontrolled ecstasy, but, afterward, you sink into Promethean despair. "Note," I demanded, "that caffeine was introduced to Europe in the seventeenth century, post-Renaissance. Why is it, do you think, that the art of the Renaissance and the classical period has never been surpassed? The great heights were reached on angels' wings, not via a filthy corruption brewed from a bean that poisons its own tree." From Memoir From Antproof Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir_From_Antproof_Case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoir_From_Antproof_Case as for serving coffee to children, my son can have some when he is able to go a minute without excitedly trying to kill himself in a new and innovative way - so about when he is 30. on edit: added a closing quotation mark I forgot before, haven't had my morning cup yet.
- lihaciudaniel 6y ago>Renaissance and the classical period has never been surpassed? The great heights were reached on angels' wings, not via a filthy corruption brewed from a bean that poisons its own tree. People drink coffee to cope with fatique, Also i thought reinassance was about not using same Christian beliefs, thus named Renaissance. Anyways Caffeine isn't as bad as the article says
- hoseja 6y agoDude, chill, it's a mild stimulant.
- bryanrasmussen 6y agothe quotation was from a work of fiction, which I provided a link to, and not meant to represent my own view of reality. on edit: my son, however, is a menace, and giving him a mild stimulant would make him a nuclear level threat to the surrounding environment.
- throwcaffeine 6y agoI don’t drink coffee or any other form of caffeine. Am I a failure?
- devin 6y agoCoffee makes me sick. I would never tell anyone they shouldn't drink it, but I think it's kind of a gross habit. Let the downvotes begin!
- mirimir 6y agoAlso see Forces of Habit by David E. Courtwright for discussion about why coffee has been so commercially successful.[0] https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forces+of+Habit+Courtwright&open=0&res=25&view=simple&phrase=1&column=def https://libgen.is/search.php?req=Forces+of+Habit+Courtwright...
- DrScump 6y ago"(Coffeehouses are) nurseries of sedition and rebellion." -- Charles II
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoNo advice about using/stopping using coffee. Just this: Don't say "I'm giving up caffeine!" Because, you know you will start again and folks will all crow "I thought you gave that up!?!" Instead say "I'm taking a break from caffeine." Both true and defensible when you start again. Thanks to my buddy Tom for this advice.
- blackrock 6y agoDoes anyone get intense withdrawal symptoms from coffee? I ran out of coffee, and two days later, I had the most intensive headache. I couldn’t seem to pinpoint what could’ve given me such a bad headache, except that I stopped drinking coffee. I suspect a lot of people are going to have it bad, when the supply chains starts to melt down.
- ohnope 6y agoThis is very common (but not everyone experiences it when coming off). It’s called caffeine withdrawal.
- snazz 6y agoYes. It is a very neurologically addictive drug. It's possible for the withdrawal symptoms to last for months in some people.
- blackrock 6y agoI’ve heard of caffeine withdrawal. I didn’t think it was real. Or I thought I could handle it. But if caffeine withdrawal, was what I got, then it is very real. After I ran out of coffee, on day 1, I had a slight headache. On day 2, I had a very intensive headache, as if my brain was jello. I took some Tylenol for it, and it felt better, for a while. On day 3, I still felt uneasy, my brain still felt like it was swimming in jello. Not a good feeling. I gave up. On day 4, I made my coffee again, and consumed it. I was back to normal again. It seemed as if coffee is some type of anti-inflammatory, that helps to keep your brain cells nice and tightly bound together. If social order breaks down, then coffee is going to be short supply. People are going to have some bad days ahead. Hopefully, Trump can order that coffee farms stay open, and Starbucks can remain open as an essential business.
- tsujp 6y agoIs there a mirror I don't have to subscribe or sign in to read?
- scoot_718 6y agoYou might as well just link to the archive.is or outline.com version of this story and save us all the hassle.
- adultSwim 6y agoColonialism?