Caffeine is found in coffee, tea, chocolate and some soft drinks. One cup of coffee has 107mg of caffeine, one cup of tea has 34mg, and one glass of cola has 47mg, assuming all are caffeinated beverages.
Over half the population of the U.S. drinks at least two cups of coffee a day. 25% of coffee drinkers consume about five cups daily, and another 25% drink ten or more cups a day. Coffee is not just a beverage, it’s a drug. Hundreds of thousands of law abiding citizens are physically addicted to coffee.
It is the caffeine in coffee which makes it addictive, and which accounts for most of the known adverse effects of coffee. However, there are hundreds of other chemicals in coffee. Caffeine is a carcinogen, but coffee contains numerous other ones, created by the high heat of roasting, such as creosote, pymdine, tars and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The darker the roast, the greater the potential hazard.
Quitting coffee “cold turkey” can cause mild to severe headaches as well as nausea, anxiety, fatigue and depression, lasting for several days. One method to avoid this is to gradually decrease the amount of coffee you drink by 50% each day. Another way is to keep to your usual number of cups and gradually increase the amount of decaf until it reaches 100%. Eventually you’ll feel more awake and have a more even energy level throughout the day than when you were drinking coffee. A few weeks or months after quitting, most people come to realize that they feel much better without the coffee habit. Then most people can enjoy a cup of coffee on occasion when a boost is really needed, without triggering a recurrence of the craving that one feels when it is consumed regularly.
Excessive coffee intake will also exacerbate the withdrawal symptoms when quitting smoking. This will make it harder for those who need to quit smoking.
There are coffee substitutes available at health food stores or on the Internet such as Soyfee.