One of the most accomplished nutritional biochemists and medical writers in his field reveals the truth about caffeine and helps you kick the habit forever.Nearly 80% of all Americans are hooked on caffeine, this country's #1 addiction. A natural component of coffee, tea and chocolate, and added to drugs, soft drinks, candy and many other products, the truth about caffeine is that it can affect brain function, hormone balance, and sleep patterns, while increasing your risk of osteoporosis, diabetes, ulcers, PMS, stroke, heart disease and certain types of cancer. Discover a step-by-step, clinically-proven program that reduces your caffeine intake, and effective ways to boost your energy with nutrients, healthy beverages, better sleep and high-energy habits.
This book will "open your eyes" about what we've been doing to ourselves with that morning indulgence! This well-researched and well-reasoned book methodically goes through all the reasons caffeine is far from harmless. And he also debunks the myth of moderation. How can we moderate our intake when corporations put caffeine in all kinds of things, like chocolate, and don't even put how much it is on the label?
The author made such a persuasive case for caffeine's addictive and detrimental qualities I have completed a two week tapering off process, as recommended in his "Getting off the Bean" program. (Though I only had one big mug in the morning, and don't drink soda at all.) I've had fatigue issues and already hope I'm right in feeling a difference already, though he warns it can take weeks to divest all the caffeine aftereffects from our systems. That's right... it takes a lot longer to metabolize coffee than we think, and the bodily changes take even longer to right themselves.
The most frightening part, to me, was the ability of coffee to be a "stress multiplier." The effects of stress and pressure and fatigue only seem to be relieved by caffeine. In fact, research indicates that the stress hormones released from caffeine undermine our ability to think, sleep, and cope.
Very convincing and enlightening book. A must read!
Terrible nonsense. http://www.mlmwatch.org/06FTC/Oasis/o... Pyramid scammer and a quack. He has a nonaccredited degree and has been subject to regulatory enforcement.
Half of what he says isn't even real evidence. Lots of faulty science and pulling together studies to show that every malady known to man is due to caffeine when the connections are tenuous at best.
I don't doubt caffeine, especially in excess, can have downsides but don't listen to this guy. He's full of it.
I didn’t think I consumed much caffeine until this book opened my eyes to the fact that there is quite a lot of caffeine in tea, not just coffee and other known sources. My many teas a day habit was contributing to my mood swings. I quit tea and coffee cold turkey (in 2006) and boy did I have a headache for a few days. It is recommended that you reduce your intake gradually but I am a bit of an all or nothing girl so just got it over with. It was worth it, I discovered that it’s possible to go to bed and just fall asleep – I thought it was normal to toss and turn for a few hours first. I discovered that ones mood can hold steady through the day and doesn’t need to plummet down and then be “fixed” up by the next drink of tea or coffee. I drank various herbal teas for a while when I quit but now I pretty much just drink rooibus (redbush) a naturally caffeine free tea that, to me, tastes sweet without milk or sugar.
I kept hearing about this title as a support product for a wean/cessation of caffeine. Crazy to try it, right? I felt it had all the information I needed to make the transition, and while I did feel so bad that I ended up going cold turkey (I wanted it to be over sooner), the book’s data made it much easier to understand.
There was a tendency of the author to blame almost all of our afflictions on caffeine, which may or may not be true, but as a Physician, he does understand the body. It was motivating, informative, and very eye-opening. I’d say it’s a must read for anyone who drinks caffeine.
A post I made, just for my memory of the experience:
Today it’s been just over two days since I stopped drinking caffeine, likely for good. The three days before that I was “weaning off” and got so tired of feeling awful that I stopped completely. I don’t recommend the experience. 😂
Coffee.. uff it’s my favorite. I know. Why would I stop? Is it really that big of a deal? For me it was. At first, I started with one cup on mornings I worked, that quickly escalated to one cup daily (a 6oz “cup” being much less than I was actually drinking), then I would have a couple, maybe one later at work, sometimes more. Since I’ve started night shift, I found myself drinking coffee at work, then during the day on my off days. I celebrated that it “wouldn’t even keep me up” when I had a coffee on the way home. It was part of my routine, it was pleasurable... I’ve learned more about this now.
I really enjoy lifestyle experiments and paying attention to how my body responds. Stopping caffeine completely (and I was consuming *a lot*) gave me brutal headaches, fatigue akin to the flu, and zero mood tolerance. I have no desire to drink it (I don’t feel addicted in that sense), but I do have a desire to feel better - to not “need” it to feel well! It angers me to know how addicted my body actually is, but that is over. Today I feel much more like myself and am out of bed 😅. I don’t want to be a prisoner to any substance, even when it’s (sigh) delicious.
Part of my inspiration for this was a Doctor I follow closely who advises against caffeine. I started investigating more and read the book Caffeine Blues - very interesting, especially for those of us in the medical field or those who don’t mind the details. Essentially, caffeine ignites a stress response rather than an energetic one. Yes, we feel more energy, but it comes at a physiologic cost that eventually just makes us more tired, among other things. I want to be peaceful, I want to sleep deeply, and I want to be well. Maybe this will be another step in my journey - we’ll see.
Has anyone been through this same process? I’d love to have someone to bounce ideas off of. It’s been fun learning.
This book is shelved under the section of "food for thought" in my own library.
I used to drink a pot or two of coffee daily. I stopped drinking coffee for a while after reading this one. In that experiment I was able to realize how strong an influence it has on me. I am mindful about how and when I drink coffee. I warn you, you may feel like kicking the caffeine habit for awhile after reading this one.
This is my second time reading this book. It really is a wake-up call when you realize how much caffeine affects your body. Now, getting off the caffeine is another story - though the author does layout a plan to help the reader reach this goal as well as providing alternatives to coffee and decaf coffee. The book is very well written - an easy page turner. I highly recommend this book.
Надявам се осъзнавате, че кофеинът е най-разпространеният наркотик. По-голямата част от хората са пристрастени към него и психо-физиологичния му ефект и получават симптоми на абстиненция, ако не го приемат редовно, дори ако дозата закъснее само с час-два: главоболие, раздразнителност, липса на енергия.
Всъщност, кофеинът кара тялото да премине в стресов режим - нещо като "тубро" бутон, който обичайно е запазен за опасни ситуации, в които организмът мобилизира всички сили, за да се справим с тях. Само че като смучем кафе и енергийни напитки постоянно, сме постоянно в тоя стресов режим и това дава само негативни ефекти. Които са прилежно описани в книгата.
Тя самата е малко прекалено популярно написана, макар и от лекар и прекалено много промотира неговата програма за спиране на кафето. Също така ми се струва, че доста едностранчиво гледа на въпроса и си подбира научните източници само да подкрепят възгледите му. Но си остава факт, че няма НИТО ЕДНО изследване, което да намира някакви положителни ефекти в кофеина - всички до едно изследват доколко е вреден и всички до едно заключават, че е вреден, но "може да се приема" "в умерени дози".
Какво означава "може да се приема"? Че няма да умреш веднага или скоро от него. Какво означава "умерени дози"? Според лекарите правещи изследванията - една чаша кафе на ден. Сами знаете, че повечето хора пият много повече кафе, освен това пият и безалкохолни, които също имат добавен кофеин, ядат десерти с шоколад, да не говорим за енергийните напитки. Нито една от тия храни няма в етикета си количеството кофеин, които съдържат.
Това което не бях се замислял преди е, че в кока-колата и другите кола-напитки, както и в шоколада има кофеин - не толкова много на пръв поглед, примерно 1 малка бутилка кола има 1/3 от кофеина на чаша кафе. Но ако си дете, което тежи 20 килограма, тоя кофеин ти идва толкова, колкото са две силни кафета за голям мъж. После що децата били "хиперактивни"...
Overwhelming evidence by way of medical studies and market research all wrapped up in one rather large volume. Whether you find your caffeine fix in coffee, soda, power drinks, or pills, the results are still the same. This has been the go-to book for most health related topics for over fifteen years and is still relevant today. Without going into adrenal fatigue, depression, obesity, brain problems, and everything else imaginable, caffeine is as much a poison as is sugar -- and just as desirable. You don't need to read it from start to finish like a novel. I've been picking through it for months and finally drove through the whole thing to get the full sense of this work. Not to fear, there is an end section on how to beat this addiction with real world substitutes to redirect that pesky muscle memory ritual. Seriously, read this.
50% facts and interesting data , 50% stress-inducing fear-mongering... You may or may not wish to quit caffeine… If you do there's enough facts and fear in this book to help you quit.
If you don't want to quit caffeine there are also books out there that recommend caffeine and all of its health benefits…
This was a real eye-opener. I’ve been drinking coffee every day for about 5 years now. I thought it was harmless based on a handful of Internet articles, but we all know how trustworthy those can be. This book goes deep into the scientific literature about caffeine’s harmful effects when consumed over a long-term period. Sometimes, the book reads like a sales pitch, but Cherniske is clearly an expert in his field and cites hundreds of sources. I still love coffee; it’s delicious, it’s fun to make, and it brings people together. But after reading this, I’ll only have the occasional cup as a hobby, not a dependency.
I want to start out by saying that this is a terribly written book. hALF oF tHE tITLES aRE fORMATTED lIKE tHIS; there are spelling mistakes, random punctuation marks and there is no coherent editing. It is also, very clearly, a way to pitch his "Off The Bean" scheme for getting off caffeine, and it's very coffee and America heavy. It's also WAY too long. However, I genuinely believe that caffeine is to mental health what alcohol or smoking is to physical health. And this guy gave me a lot of ammo to support my beliefs. Caffeine is a stressor - it actively stresses out your body to give you those short term gains that we all know and love - the alertness, the abatement of tiredness, the focus. However, in the long run it is severely addictive, and forces our body to live under chronic and ongoing stressful conditions. It is a cyclic thing, too, as it makes us sleep more poorly and then need caffeine more the next day. It lowers our base alertness so that we reach for the kettle when we need to concentrate again. And when we don't have the caffeine we need to function at our basic level, we are incredibly impaired. Measurably. There are surgeons out there who will do a demonstrably worse job without their drug hit before operating! This is terrifying! There is loads on how it affects our physical health too, all side effects of living under this intense stress, and a whole chapter on why it is worse for women than men. The information in this is definitely worth sifting through the terrible editing if you want to understand the most common and addictive drug (that we encourage children to indulge in too!). I'd given up by the end of the introduction. The comedown was REAL. I had the worst panic attacks of my life, but out of the other end, I feel so, so much better for it and am sleeping better than ever (WITH A TODDLER!).
Author did a great job at going down an extensive list of bodily functions/systems that have either a direct or secondary impact due to caffeine intake. Challenges many commonly accepted viewpoints on the "benefits" or harmlessness on caffeine by referencing back to the original studies as well as exposing many leading caffeine industry players for the lobbying they've done to influence the world around us that caffeine is not bad/possibly good for us.
The biggest takeaway is that caffeine is an amplifier of stress, and stress has lots of negative health consequences. If you are prone to experiencing stress in your day to day environment then cutting back your caffeine will stop the stress from becoming distress, therefore not having so much negative impacts on your body and overall health.
I would encourage for all who are regular consumers of caffeine, whether or not you plan to quit it is always valuable to see the other side of the coin and make a fully informed decision if quitting or cutting back is right for you.
Despite a light touch of being preached by the author in his Holy War against caffeine, this book answers all questions about my addition which I earlier addressed to Google. I was shocked to discover each and every health problem from which I’m suffering to be covered in the book. It’s not surprising that nowadays you won’t find this book on shelves among productivity bestsellers, but I believe that every coffee drinker must at least skim across it to understand his body needs and reactions better.
This book changed my life. I struggled with fatigue for years, paying a lot of money to doctors who said I was depressed or not eating properly. Now I regret paying money to these professionals who didn't know the basics of human metabolism in order to identify the true cause of my fatigue. I am 30, but for the first time in years, I finally feel I am inside the body I had when I was a teen.
A very good read that explains a great deal about what caffeine is doing to your body; how you may be ingesting much more of the stuff than you realized; and why it is making you tired, depressed and hurting all over, rather than the opposite. Explains how to get off the stuff as easily as possible.
I'm a believer now. I've been off of caffeine for over 3 months now-- a big deal for me! This book was zealous in its promotion of a caffeine free lifestyle, but I found it informative and motivational.
This book will open your eyes. Together with another, much shorter book by Allen Carr called "The Easy Way to Quit Caffeine: Live a healthier, happier life" helped me kick-out my long-standing caffeine addiction (including soda and tea, even green). The book describes negative consequences of drinking old Joe in details and shows how we were fooled by the big manufacturers (mainly Cola and Pepsi producers) to believe that caffeine is practically harmless, which is far from being true. In short, a cup of coffee causes an adrenal response ("fight-or-flight") that is useful when we are being attacked or in danger but absolutely harmful in our daily environment. I could never understand why coffee made me lose my emotional intelligence and become "numb" to my feelings and the feelings of others and now I know. Read the book with an open mind and you will not want to drink coffee again.
PS. If you already decided you want to quit go to Chapter 10 with a detailed and painless plan of how to gradually cut down.
The parts of the book that gives direction on how to quit caffeine are simple and effective. However, I would take much of the "scientific" portions with a grain of salt. He makes a good point as to why certain scientific studies cannot be trusted because they are funded by companies that benefit from caffeine's positive findings (specifically in the coffee and soda industry). However, he couples his argument with a lot of "you should believe me because I was in the industry" or "you can trust me, I've been doing this for years."
I picked this book up to learn how to create a healthier relationship with caffeine, and with his advice on how to ween off of coffee, I believe that I can achieve this healthier relationship.
This book made me quit coffee for about a month, which was my longest record to date.
Then I started new ADHD medication that is potentially deadly when paired with caffeine, so I did manage to quit coffee altogether. At last. By being forced to.
Pro-tip: if quitting coffee has been a lifelong struggle, and relapses are constant, see your doctor about a possible ADHD diagnosis. Your brain's craving for constant caffeine stimulation might just be telling you something.
Very repetitive but I will give it a 4 because it is still a perspective that you never see online... Coffee is bad. I am always googling around looking at nutritional studies and whatnot... Somehow I think I have only ever seen studies on the benefits of caffeine. The book makes the point that there is a reason for that $$$.
If you arent interested in learning about coffee or the reasons for addiction... Do as the book begs you every 4 sentences... SKIP TO CHAPTER 10!
I read this book and it was amazing to me how much I didn't know about what caffeine does to our bodies. After reading this, I was totally off caffeine for 6 months. But it is a slippery slope and I have slipped to the bottom. Maybe I should reread this, or review my notes from reading it to regain my motivation!
It's pretty interesting for a technical book on nutrition. The evidence is quite compelling that caffeine and coffee are not good for you and I was convinced to stop drinking coffee, even decaf. I feel much better, sleep better, and have more energy since quitting drinking coffee after having drunk it for about 15 years.
Thorough description of the far-reaching effects of caffeine usage. Everyone is aware of the obvious things like jitters and heartburn, but impaired liver function, adrenal exhaustion, hypertension, reduced cerebral circulation... are more concerning.
Amazing! This book is a must read for everyone who drinks coffee, soda, tea, takes medication... actually everyone should just read this. Not reading this book is like driving in the dark with no headlights on. You will be surprised by what you don't know. I was.
Good, but lots of confusion about correlation and causation here, with tons of confounding variables. Still, everyone should try not drinking it for a month and see how they feel--I'm guessing it would be better, not worse.
I enjoyed the book and got a lot out of it. I knocked 2 stars for typos on almost every page, with some completely changing the meaning of a sentence. I don't know if this is only present in the kindle version but there's no excuse for it being that bad.