Give us a coffee break… Your employer give you a drug and time for you to ingest it…
Michael Pollan
Often we recognise the need to drink less coffee. We can feel the side effects like the jitters, heart palpitations, anxiety and even feel addicted. But it tastes so good and smells like great conversation or super focused work. If you have heard of replacing it with matcha or bone broth*, then you might swing two ways. Yeah, I can try that. Or hell no. I don’t even know what you are talking about.
On the Joe Rogan video/podcast I enjoyed this clip on coffee and its history. Michael Pollan is a big influencer on diet history and makes you think about where does our food come from. His past book The Omnivore’s Dilemma is bible thick with goodness. After this, he came out with a short book called Food Rules which I use as rules to decide where to buy my foods… “If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.” If you want the rules email me or google. They are great!
But back to the coffee… In the video, Michael Pollan took a challenge to not drink coffee for three months. He then talks about that first cup after the hiatus. It was truly psychedelic he says. It makes me think, do we really know our brain on coffee? When I was training and racing, caffeine and beetroot juice where definitely ergogenic for me.
If you are considering less coffee, perhaps it is no small deal, and you can give yourself grace if you find it hard to do. Often coffee is also associated with other things, like connection and concentration as I mentioned and when trying to drink less those things will also be affected. So being clear on the reasons and motivation will give you the whole picture!
I am curious to try this three-month challenge though… If you are keen, remember no caffeine is the goal. Most teas have caffeine. Matcha has a lot of caffeine. Green tea has caffeine. So do your homework, check the labels. And watch the video.
*Side note: what is matcha (how much do you love green tea) | drink a cup of bone broth (make it yourself)