As I was reviewing the stats on my blog, I noticed that my article on the “Dangers of Red Bull” has become one of the most popular over the past few weeks.  I’m not sure what that says (if anything) but it brought the subject of caffeine back up in my mind.

I’ve mentioned before in several posts how addictive caffeine is.  Like refined sugar, the energy “boost” you get from a cup of coffee is short lived – and the subsequent energy “crash” leaves you craving another cup.  As you can imagine, putting your body through this constant up-and-down energy cycle is really hard on your health.

Those of you that regularly follow my blog know that I don’t drink coffee.  I’ve never liked the taste of it so I never developed the habit (and addiction) of drinking it every morning.  But before you say, “What a hypocrite!  It’s easy to advise people to give up something you don’t drink yourself!” let me remind you of my own “caffeine cross:”  Dr. Pepper soft drinks.

A typical cup of coffee contains about 100 mg of caffeine with most cola-based soft drinks (including Dr. Pepper) containing around half that amount (40-50 mg per 12 oz).  As a reference point, a Red Bull contains 80 mg in an 8 oz can and most tea (iced or hot) comes in around 40 mg per serving.  Even a cup of hot cocoa or a glass of chocolate milk is going to contain caffeine (5-10 mg).

So what’s the big deal with a little caffeine?  If it’s in just about everything we drink, what’s the harm?  Well, first off there’s the psychological harm.  Caffeinated drinks are addictive, and any addiction, even a “small” one like caffeine, takes a psychological toll.

The Psychological Toll

Like I mentioned, my addiction is drinking Dr. Pepper (I like his “buddy” Mr. Pibb even better!) and even though I’ve quit drinking them several times before, I can still be occasionally caught drinking one or two.  It’s like they “call” to me, doing everything they can to convince me how good they’ll taste and how wonderful they’ll feel going down my throat – cool, sweet, delicious.  They “tell” me that I can have just one – that just one won’t do any harm.

So what happens when I succumb to the temptation?  I feel guilty and angry at myself.  I criticize myself for being weak.  I beat myself up.

Sounds exactly like a junkie craving their next “fix” or an alcoholic trying to resist taking that next drink, doesn’t it?  That’s my point – it’s exactly the same kind of addiction, and like any addiction, it takes a toll on your psyche, on your self-image and on your feelings of self-worth.

The Physiological Toll

Second, there’s the harm caffeine is doing to your body, the physiological damage.  Caffeinated drinks tend to be very acidic with cola-type soft drinks having a pH of 2.5 (about the same as vinegar – yikes!) and coffee a pH level of 5.  A pH of 7 is considered neutral and anything lower than a 7 is considered to be “acidic.”  Obviously, a diet with a high acidic content isn’t very good for your teeth or digestive system.  Besides, all you have to do is to take a look at the residue inside your coffee maker and just imagine what’s being left inside your body.

However, much more damaging to your body is the effect caffeine has on your adrenal gland, the gland that’s responsible for producing adrenaline.  Getting a shot of adrenaline into the blood stream is what gives you that feeling of alertness and energy.  But keeping your body in this “fight-or-flight” state is extremely exhausting to your body.  In fact, Stephen Cherniske in his book, Caffeine Blues, calls this constant state of alertness “caffeinism.”  He goes on to state that, “After prolonged ‘caffeinism,’ your body enters a state of adrenal exhaustion. Your caffeine consumption has simply pushed your adrenal glands so much that they’ve burned out.”

In the book, Herbal Defense, author Ralph T. Golan, ND, states that, “Caffeine forces your glands to secrete when they don’t have much left to give, and they have to keep digging deeper and deeper, making you more and more tired over time. And over the years, it takes more and more coffee to get the same result. Some people reach the point of drinking half a dozen or more cups of coffee to get the same result and it’s barely keeping them awake. That’s severe adrenal depletion.”

In Active Wellness, by Gayle Reichler MS, RD, CDN, she notes that, “Within five minutes after you drink your morning coffee, the caffeine begins to stimulate your central nervous system, triggering the release of stress hormones in your body, causing a stress (“fight or flight” ) response. The stress hormones are useful if you need to prepare yourself to fight or flee a dangerous situation, but if you are simply sitting at your desk you may feel a short charge of alertness, quickly followed by feelings of agitation. Within the next hour or so, after the stress response dissipates, you will probably feel more tired and hungry. At these low-energy times, many people reach for another cup of coffee, or eat a snack that is often high in sugar to “pep up” and stay alert. However, both caffeine and sugar only give you temporary feelings of increased energy, which quickly dissipate. For some people, this cycle of low energy followed by an infusion of caffeine or food continues the entire day — leaving them feeling exhausted and unable to focus by 3:00 p.m. because they are drained from the ups and downs in energy their body endured throughout the day.”

By the way, I found a great article by Dani Veracity that contains excerpts from quite a few books (including the previous three) on the effects of caffeine on the body.  Rather than try to reproduce them all here, you can read the entire article at:  http://www.naturalnews.com/012352.html

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that caffeine has no part to play in a healthy lifestyle.  That’s it.  You really can’t come to any other conclusion once you know how caffeine effects the body.

Fighting the Beast

So how do you get this monkey off  your back?  How do you fight the “caffeine beast?”  Good question – and if I could honestly say that I never touched another Dr. Pepper after I swore I’d never drink them again, I might have some answers for you.  But I can’t make that claim.  I’ve slid backwards just like everybody else.  But I have made a few distinctions that do help:

• Every day, your battle begins again. There’s no such thing as “I’ve kicked the habit for good and now I’ll never crave caffeine again.”  There’s always going to be a stressful situation, or a deadline, or what seems to be a perfect reason for a quick burst of energy.  These are simply excuses and before you know it, you’re back to several cups (or cans) per day.  Fighting the “caffeine beast” is a constant moment-to-moment, day-to-day battle.
• There’s no such thing as “just one.” Either you control caffeine or it controls you.  There’s no middle ground.  It’s like trying to quit anything – if you have “just one,” then you haven’t really quit.  If you tell yourself, “I can handle it,” you’re just kidding yourself.
• It’s painful. There’s no headache worse than a caffeine headache.  Your head pounds and your entire body aches.  You literally feel like you have the flu – in fact, having the flu is more fun.  But like any physical addiction, your body will react painfully when the drug is removed.  You’ve got to be prepared for this, have strategies to help you deal with it, and be determined to work through it.
• It’s worth it. You don’t realize how much energy caffeine is robbing from you body until you break your addiction from it.  The inevitable energy “crash” that follows the initial adrenaline burst doesn’t bring you back down to “zero” – it falls below that point so after a while, it takes more and more effort just to function.  Breaking the caffeine addiction frees up all this energy for more productive activities.

And what if you backslide?  Don’t beat yourself up over it.  Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and then begin the process again with a little more grit and determination.  It’s a daily battle, but I’m right there fighting along side you!

Hiram

The Balanced Health Guy
Certified Fitness Nutrition Coach and
Personal Fitness Trainer (NESTA)

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