Hacker News Reader

Comment by eloff | Hacker News Reader

Normally I'm content to follow the data where it leads, but I opened this with trepidation lest it give me a reason not to enjoy my morning coffee. Fortunately it confirms my pre-existing biases.

I find I can never just have one cup, so I make a 50% decaf mix and have 3-4 cups spaced out over as many hours. Not only does this give a smooth and constant hit of caffeine, but it suppresses my appetite as well and I easily power right through from 5:30 until midday lunch. These are by far the most productive hours of my day.

View on HN

I went 100% decaf. I sleep better at night and no longer wake up groggy. It's amazing.

I always considered myself a "night owl" who didn't like mornings and preferred to stay up late. I often spent the first hour or two of the day waiting for my body to boot up fully and for the caffeine to kick in. Now I like mornings better, and I don't look forward to the sun going down.

Switching wasn't really a problem. I didn't experience headaches or any kind of physical abstinence effects.

There are downsides to eliminating caffeine. One is that one becomes very sensitive to it. Many coffee shops don't serve decaf, and if I happen to drink a double shot of espresso even as early as 2-3pm, I will find myself stupidly awake at 2am. (On the other hand, if I feel tired one morning, some caffeine can be miraculous.)

The other problem is that the pleasure of drinking my daily latte has been greatly diminished. I used to look forward to getting it, even thinking about it before going to bed. Now it's... fine. The taste is still great. But there's something that feels like it's missing. I still crave it, but my body no longer does.

Congrats on kicking the addiction.

I often do this too, but I'm starting to feel what might be the pains of a stomach ulcer.

Has this bothered your stomach? I'm worried about what all that coffee is doing on my empty stomach.

Yes this effects my stomach ulcer. Somedays its good, somedays it fine.

You say that like you just live with a stomach ulcer?

They can be fixed in almost all cases with diet and antibiotics.

you are right. But i need to fix my smoking addiction :/ .

You don't have to quit. The goal is to smoker fewer cigarettes in any five year period.

Given very few quitters remain non-smokers for five years, if you can smoke about the same number of cigarettes as a cyclical quitter would in five years, you're as good.

So, I advocate for the use of multiple methods of nicotine intake. Wear patches / use gum / chewies, and if you feel like a cigarette, have one. Have ten! Rejoice!

Just smoke fewer.

If you have stomach or acid reflux issues due to coffee but want to still feel the effects, you should absolutely look into low acid brewing techniques, you'll find that cold brew / toddy style brewing is much less harsh on your stomach and can be purchased at most coffee shops, at a grocery, or created at home with a super simple glass jar and a simple paper or cloth filter and time.

Toddy / cold brew is not the same as iced coffee (iced coffee does not have the low-acid properties that toddy / cold brew does. There are also different types of beans and a dark roast is lower acidity.

Finally, if that still doesn't work, switch to matcha. You can get culinary grade from ippodo rather than the finest grade and it's the same quality.

Another way to reduce the acidity is to mix in ground up egg shells into the ground coffee. As you brew this mixture, the calcium carbonate of the egg shells (alkaline) partially neutralises the acids from the coffee beans.

You can even combine this with the two usual methods for low acidity coffee that you mentioned (cold brewing and using dark roasts). I haven't actually tried this combo yet but I'm keen to!

You can also just buy calcium carbonate. It comes as a powder.

Yep!

I can’t drink much coffee. Maybe it’s the acids? I don’t know. I find it’s super harsh on my stomach.

I usually just munch whole cocoa beans these days, or drink cocoa powder in hot water with milk and a small amount of sugar. Way more food-like as it’s very high in protein and fats, high in magnesium and anthocyanins, so results in an overall smoother stimulant effect and is way more nutritious.

> stomach ulcer

If you feel stomach aches, you should see a doctor and make sure you don't have H. pylori, "the third highest cause of worldwide cancer mortality as of 2018" [1]. H. pylori is treatable with antibiotics.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori#Cancer

Thanks for looking out, this is scary. I'll be seeing a doctor soon.

My mother had H.pylori, developed cancer at the stomach (and the doctors believe it was because of H.pylori), had her stomach removed, did chemo (which is a version of hell on earth), and she is fine now, 6 years later. But it could all have been avoided if she had taken an antibiotic treatment. Unfortunately, although she had tested positive for H.pylori, she was given a non-antibiotic treatment, and that was simply not enough.

After this episode, I went to a gastroenterologist together with my wife, we both got tested. I didn't have it, my wife did. She took the antibiotic course, which was slightly unpleasant (leaves a metallic taste in your mouth, I think), but it's a small price to pay to avoid a cancer that is quite deadly (about 70% 5-year fatality rate).

yeah, honestly i'm sort of worried about decade+ effects of coffee with intermittent fasting (read: coffee on very empty stomach). i am about 3 years in. i don't eat until the afternoon probably 85% of the time, but typically have 1 cup a few hours before that i eat any "real" calories.

I like my coffee black-no-sugar, but sometimes my stomach doesn't like it as much as I do. I find that a dollop of cream prevents any stomach issues. I suppose by neutralizing the acids int eh coffee, but that's just a guess. Of course, this may not work for you if you're lactose intolerant.

Try a teaspoon of coconut oil in your coffee.

I used to do that every day with my first cup of coffee, but for the perceived health benefits of the coconut oil, not the stomach thing. However, I stopped after my cholesterol shot up in my yearly labs, and this was the only thing I had changed about my diet since my last labs. That was right before the studies started coming out saying coconut oil wasn't as healthy as previously reported, so I just decided to cut it out altogether. For the rare occasion when coffee is bothering my tummy, if I'm going to add something bad, I'll add cream cuz it's yummy.

Stomach ulcers are often H. pylori, so do check into that.

So far I find it's been fine for me. If I get acid reflux it's at night after a heavy meal or alcohol.

Confirmation bias can be nice!

I'm glad not to be alone in using decaf! I too will mix caf and decaf according to how much I feel I need the caf, but the coffee I definitely want because I just love good coffee. A bit of coconut oil in my morning coffee will power me through to lunch. I do also add about ~20g of high-quality 100% cocoa powder to my morning coffee, making it something of a hot chocolate, and the only deeply satisfying coffee/chocolate mix I've found yet.

That said, I've learned to avoid caffeine after noon. So if I have any more coffee after that, it's always decaf. Yes, decaf is never fully decaf, but it's decaf enough to not mess with my sleep.

This matches my experience entirely.

Also, I use a thermis which keeps the coffee hot enough such that I can't actually drink it too quickly. Two cups end up lasting me till about 1pm sometimes (after which I don't want caffeine anyway).

I've replaced all my cups (except the first!) throughout the day with chicory/barley coffee and it's been going well. Lots of folks hate the stuff, but I rather enjoy it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com