Is It Time to Quit Coffee for Good? | Hacker News Reader

Is It Time to Quit Coffee for Good?

esquire.com

13 pointsimartin2k23 comments

For anyone reading - the first person's symptoms are not directly linked to coffee - but he was drinking 10 cups a day for years.

Everything in moderation! I highly recommend starting to have half-caf (half decaf-half normal) coffees when it's simply for flavour, to lessen the adverse effects.

You can buy nice decaf coffee in beans to grind yourself, my guests never know it's decaf. Highly recommend anything done with (I think) swedish water method, the beans are decaffed when green, so the flavor is almost not affected.

Edit: Another thing that can help is Maté! Is doesn't taste anywhere near coffee or tea, but it's got a little caffeine and anecdotally the effects are less intense and more long lasting

Decaf runs the risk of contamination by chemicals used in the decaffeinating process

It's not like they just grow beans without caffeine. This is simply a more processed food product. How risky that is depends on the process/quality/brand/etc. You're rolling dice as when consuming any other more processed food. YMMV

I'm sure I'm not aware of something, but from a cursory research it seems they sinply aoak the beans and water and filter the coffee out with carbon filters - do you know more about the contaminants?

You're thinking of the method called '(Swiss) water decaffeination', which does indeed only use water. However, these also exist other methods, some of which do use solvents:

https://www.compoundchem.com/2018/09/26/coffee-decaffeinatio...

The two main processes involved either use just want (Swiss) or DCM, so I'd assume they're referring to the latter process. I personally can't imagine there's any DCM remaining in processed coffee given how incredibly volatile the stuff is, so I'd guess it's only really an issue for environmental reasons (chlorinated solvent) or for the people working in plants doing the extraction.

tl;dr I don't buy that there's any residual solvent in decaf coffee, whether that solvent is water or DCM.

https://www.google.com/search?q=decaf+coffee+contaminants

It escapes my why anyone would bother rolling these particular dice on something they're likely consuming daily, without even experiencing the whole point of the beverage existing in the first place.

Just consume something else if you're not looking to get a caffeine high.

Good call! For me, coffee is simply too strong, but has a very nice flavor, so half caf is the best of both worlds.

And swiss water has no solvents other than water - so I'm feeling quite safe about it.

I'd be more worried about mold in coffee - which is not investigsted a lot and thus it's very difficult to know if there is some in your coffee, and it could potentially be very dangerous - but that's another subject

Those results just say what I did, that DCM is used as the working solvent in some cases and trace amounts can remain. The FDA limit is 10ppm in coffee, and for contrast occupational exposure limits are 100-200 ppm in an 8 hour working period. NO HARM has been seen to come to people exposed to those levels, routinely, in their work.

You might as well worry about the radioactivity of a banana.

> You might as well worry about the radioactivity of a banana.

This is such an asinine false equivalence I can hardly bring myself to even continue this thread.

Bananas are not radioactive as the result of a potentially flawed/misperformed industrial process.

Decaf coffee is always the result of an industrial process, in some cases involving dangerous solvents by design. What do you suppose the rate is of those solvents being impure or just plain mixed up, or improperly utilized? I bet you it's orders of magnitude higher than bananas spuriously evolving dangerously high levels of radioactivity or growing successfully to fruition in otherwise dangerously toxic environments.

Industrially processed foods/ingredients have inherently higher risks, it's a significant part of why consuming processed foods is not recommended AIUI.

*Swiss water method. It's basically healthier version of decaf as most are decaffeinated using some chemical processes (so I learned) ... this one is without chemical use, completely natural. Tastes great too.

I agree with that too. It's also worth to go cold turkey for a month or so and then keep the coffee intake regulated (eg never early in the morning but later before noon after your natural alertness drops) 3x a week or so and whenever you get back on frequent coffee repeat the process - this worked for me better than half/half.

Be ready for headaches early on and couple of lethargic weeks until your brain somewhat resets.

What I missed in decaf the most was, well the caffeine. Caffeine is spicy so what I did to compensate was adding mix of spices (cardamom, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon) to my morning brew and that made it more satisfying.

Btw. I own coffee roastery so I drink my own decaf which I now prefer over caffeinated coffee. With decaf you'll need either a dark roasted one or find some real premium brands. After months of going cold turkey I now only drink before bodybuilding workout or for pleasure socially.

> It's also worth to go cold turkey for a month or so...

> Be ready for headaches early on and couple of lethargic weeks until your brain somewhat resets.

Oh my god no don't do this. Why would you do this?

Just taper your caffeine down by about 5% of your starting caffeine intake over the course of 20 days and you'll get off of it with zero headaches. You'll feel a tiny bit less energy over those 20 days but it's not a big deal. And if even the tiny-bit-less-energy annoys you, you can plateau at any time and then resume the tapering down a few days later.

I've done this several times. I personally gradually change the proportion of caf/decaf beans I grind for each coffee (I like the coffee ritual) but you can also just drink less of a cup of coffee.

The headache you get from cold turkey caffeine withdrawal is so incredibly shockingly painful, I've tried it once and never again. There's no reason to subject your body to a shock like that. The pain is your body telling you don't do this.

(If you're wondering why I've done this so many times, it's because sometimes there are weeks/months where you need coffee to get you through it. But then when I have months where I know I won't need coffee, I then taper back off.)

I'm sharing what worked for me. I tried your method too but ran into same issues and for me I just wanted caffeine out of my life asap. The headache is bad indeed.

Sure, but just because it worked for you doesn't mean it should be presented as general advice. For the average person it is not a good recommendation. I just don't want anyone to read what you wrote and try it for themselves. :)

For some time, we tried drinking decaf coffee. It tasted like coffee, but it just lacked something. We almost stopped drinking coffee because we just didn't feel like drinking it anymore (until we bought regular beans again).

Your guests may not consciously notice it, but I really don't get why you'd offer coffee in the first place if it's decaf.

It's actually just that what I have that's preground is half-caf, since I mix it myself. I don't trick them - we chat about it!

I read this article and thought it was strange. This person drank 10 cups a day plus energy drinks. Of course he developed problems.

Everything in moderation, and ideally no caffeine in the afternoon

Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35818039 (47 comments)

I find coffee products to be a frustrating product category. At least for me, I have adverse reactions to certain blends of coffees--particularly nausea, coldness, and headaches--while other ones don't cause trouble at all, so I have to try different coffee blends with a bit of caution. I notice that any amount of coffee past the second cup in the morning doesn't really add anything to my alertness, productivity, or ability to pretend to be a morning person--with the bulk of the benefit being from the first cup--but anything past the second cup makes it harder to fall asleep later at night. I can only imagine how one gets so far as to put down a pot of coffee a day (and then some!) for years on end.

I used to suffer periodic dizzy spells, switching to decaf eliminated them. Now am also drinking barley tea, for its health benefits. https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/herbs-and-spice...

No.

There have been times in the past when I've had far too much coffee in a day. As I've gotten older, I've noticed a difference in how it affects me. Cutting back is helpful.

This article reminds me of an old wkuk sketch where trevor decides to consume exclusively whiskey for 30 days to prove alcohol is bad for you

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