For the love of coffee
I love coffee. I love the ritual of it, which includes the smell of fresh ground beans, fresh brew, the perfect camel color once you pour in the right amount of half-and-half, the perfect mug, the bitter milky taste, just about everything about coffee makes me think good thoughts. I have been drinking coffee for about 40 years; I rarely drink more than two cups — one in the morning, one in the early afternoon. I am a complete snob about it too. Instant coffee, sugar, and packaged creamers are out of the question, as are Styrofoam cups. Weak coffee is unacceptable and not considered coffee in my world; half-and-half is just as important as the coffee. My obsessive attitude about coffee can be a social deficit. What if someone takes me out for coffee in a diner that considers brown water passable as coffee? What if someone makes me an instant coffee? It is best to avoid those situations altogether. Despite my love and obsession, anxiety is one good reason to avoid coffee.
Anxiety is one good reason to avoid coffee
After checking WebMD benefits and deficits of coffee, I came away with more reasons to drink it than not – it is good for the heart, lowers your chance of breast cancer, heart attack, Alzheimer’s and dementia, keeps you alert. . . But there is a however to every good thing. Caffeine causes insomnia, which in turn causes anxiety. If you are prone to either one of these issues, you know it as a fact. You can feel it when you break into a sweat, see it in a person’s reaction to your irritability, and experience it in sleepless nights and daily fatigue.
Personal or scientific scrutiny
Some people can drink coffee all day or night and feel nothing. Others can be overwhelmed by its effect. In this case, the science of the effects of caffeine is not important. What is important is your awareness of what it does to you personally. If you can drink it without negative effects then drink away. However, when the effects of caffeine start taking over your life it is probably time to stop. Even if the virtues are greater than its vices, if it turns you into an insomniac, which in turn leaves you depleted and edgy, then the resulting anxiety is a good reason to avoid coffee.
Sacrilege
The fourth tag on my Google screen rests on an on-line anxiety test, on which I got a fifty. The validity of the test is irrelevant. What is relevant is that that is where my coffee-quitting dilemma took me. No one wants to prove that coffee is bad for you. 80% of America drinks it. Why would anyone want to even hint that coffee is a bad thing? That would be sacrilege. But for some of us, it is best to say good-bye to that which makes us not so good to be around.
So goodbye my strong, camel-covered café. It has been a delicious ride.
