Should You Skip the Caffeine?
You wake up every morning, wishing you had a brewing machine that would start preparing your hot cuppa joe when the alarm sounds. What a perfect life! All the coffee lovers out there who dream of this, you might be getting seriously dependent on caffeine. With all the talk of “skipping caffeine” going around, you have innumerable questions, so let’s break it down for you.
Coffee our Bro!
Your coffee basically contains Caffeine which works to block adenosine (a neurotransmitter).
As adenosine inhibits certain actions, it leads to your brain firing “feel good” transmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine instead. This gives you a reason to relate to the habit of drinking coffee to stay active.
Let us give you some good news. Your coffee can actually help you lose more weight! The adrenaline rush boosts your metabolic rate, which makes your body burn fat faster. However, the effects are diminishing once you start getting tolerant of caffeine as you age.
A cup of coffee is more than just caffeine. Some essential nutrients that are found in regular coffee are Magnesium, Riboflavin, Potassium, and Niacin. The latest research also supports the benefits of drinking coffee that include lowering the risk of getting diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, Liver Cirrhosis, and even depression.
On Side Effects of Skipping it
When you take away coffee from your diet, you are bound to feel irritable and fatigued. Add a lack of concentration, and you experience a decrease in your productivity. With all that lack of stimulants which your body gets used to with regular consumption of excessive coffee, there is nothing to block adenosine, which is the main reason you feel tired.
For many, withdrawal symptoms also include headaches and a drop in their blood pressure. All in all, you feel low and life just feels too sad!
Skipping it – way forward
You get pumped up after your morning cup, which is one of the reasons you are hooked on to it. Caffeine is a classic stimulant that raises your adrenaline. So skipping that mug can actually make you calmer and less anxious throughout the day!
Remember the lack of productivity we talked about? Well, a week without caffeine, your productivity starts getting back to normal because you are no longer hooked to a temporary rollercoaster. The crash after the morning “high” is no longer troubling you.
Conclusion
Although Caffeine can make you feel energized, alert, and less depressed, and it can even improve your motor skills and learning ability, there’s nothing great about being addicted to anything. The same goes for Caffeine. Even though you can’t be scientifically “addicted” to caffeine, you can still be aggressively dependent on it.
If you decide to really try cutting it down, doing it gradually is the right way.
