Caffeine: How Much is Too Much?
8 years ago by
Ever since the blessed days I spent in LA (says the girl who’s idealizing it like crazy) I’ve really tried to maintain my good habits. No more cigarettes, healthier eating, less alcohol, more exercise, and I told you recently about meditation and all the blah blah blah of the annoying girl who goes around with a travel scale that I’m becoming.
The thing I’m questioning like crazy right now, though, is my consumption of tea and coffee.
I’m not the type to believe you can do everything right.
I even think deep down, I’m really attached to my “bad” habits (I say bad, but let’s not go overboard) – that’s why I stayed attached to my daily cigarette and my glass of wine for so long. There’s no one in the world who can freak me out about how much caffeine I’m drinking, enough with trying to have the perfect lifestyle… Except…
On a normal day, I have two mugs of coffee at breakfast, a mug after lunch, and at least two black teas in the afternoon. I have a collection of Mariage Freres teas that are super aromatic that I adore. In the evenings, I drink a delicious caffeine free herbal tea, Kava Stress Relief by Yogi tea.
So that’s really a lot.
I always told myself my system was probably used to it and it didn’t have an effect on me, but is that really possible?
And since I’m going through a really stressful time right now, I wonder if limiting my caffeine might help me to…be a little more chill.
Have you ever tried to reduce your caffeine intake? What effect did it have on you?
Translated by Andrea Perdue
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I can relate to that~
during my university days I worked as a barista in a local coffee shop and got used to have at least 4-6 big mugs of (good) coffee every day. Afterwards it took me quite a while to tone it down again. I had to since my stomach became upset in combination with an unhealthy amount of stress.
I still love and insist to have a mug of good black coffee in the morning and a cup in the afternoon, plus green tea in between and herb tea before bed. But I also insist to use these moments to drink in a calm manner – enjoying the taste, allowing myself to take a short break. My stomach was thankful for less coffee but even more for the conscious breaks
I think everybody needs to find his/her own level before stressing out over not to be stressed ;)
i have never drunk coffee in my life and i’ll be 40 in june. i guess i’m just a morning person! :)
http://littleaesthete.com/
At first, headache, then (after about 12-15 days) elation. Things taste better :)
Oui et ca fait mal au crane… ! Je te conseille d’y aller progressivement, c’est un vrai sevrage. J’etais a 5 cafes par jour, au moins, et j’avais comme toi l’impression que cela ne me faisait rien du tout, jusqu’au jour ou j’ai voulu arreter net. Et la bonjour les maux de tete ! Je suis aujourd’hui a 1 cafe le matin, un deca l’apres-midi et un the noir le soir. Bye !
I’m a serious coffee lover.
I tried to transfer to decafe and it lasted for about a year.
Then someone who knows a lot about coffee explained me that the less time the coffee grounds are in contact with the water the less caffeine there will be in your drink.
(I guess the same goes for tea.)
It all comes down to preparation.
So espresso is actually not loaded with caffeine.
I think you should just enjoy your coffee!
Just listen to your inner voice – sometimes I feel that I’ve had too much coffee and I still take more. And then I understand that I don’t enjoy that cup and I just took it out of habit.
https://sofaundermapletree.wordpress.com
un cappuccino au réveil, un café noir après la douche, un café après le déjeuner et puis tisane !
Oui! Je ne bois plus de caffeine. J’ai arrête quand j’etais enceinte et je n’ai pas repris apres. Par contre j’aime le gout du café, alors je bois un (ou deux) decaf latte le matin et un après le dejeuner. Le reste de la journee c’est tisane. Parfois a midi je bois du the vert dans les restaurants asiatiques. Les deux 1ers mois ont ete suivis de maux de tete. Maintenant mon corps est habitué. Et il est devenu sensible a la caffeine, ce qui me parrait plus normal. Je suis beaucoup moins stressee et je n’ai plus de palpitations accelerees, ce que j’avais parfois a l’epoque ou je buvais beaucoup de café. Et le deca du matin me reveille toujours autant!
Bonjour Garance,
Mon astuce pour diminuer ma consommation de café : le café d’orge. C’est une boisson chaude à base d’orge torréfié, une sorte de “faux café”. Du coup, j’y retrouve le goût de la torréfaction sans la présence de caféine. C’est très bon le matin ou l’après-midi, cela me réveille bien.
Je prends la marque de café d’orge yorzo Lima.
Merci pour tes articles !
Garance, désolée de répondre à côté mais… Ca y est tu t’es mise au café filtre américain jus de chaussettes ?! Mais ?! Et ton côté français, tu as abandonné l’espresso ?
C’est marrant je viens juste de réduire le café. Ou plutôt je devrais dire que je suis revenue à ma conso “d’avant”, c’est-à-dire seulement le matin, et celui-là impossible de m’en passer.
J’étais effectivement super énervée à force d’en boire plusieurs dans la journée au boulot. Depuis que j’ai réduit, je n’ai plus les espèces de piques au coeur que j’avais en cas de stress.
J’en profite pour répondre à Clémence que la moitié des cafés (établissements) français servent des cafés (boissons) bourrés de Robusta, et même lorsque ce n’est que de l’Arabica il est le plus souvent absolument infect et donne mal à la tête. J’habite près de l’Italie et les espressos (espressi?) y sont excellentissimes, absolument rien à voir.
Je trouve ça honteux de devoir chercher partout du bon café à Nice, tout ça parce qu’ils veulent économiser trois francs six sous. On en trouve heureusement dans les cafés… tenus par des italiens ha ha ! A Paris, c’est guère mieux à mon avis !
Cela dit, je suis d’accord avec toi Clémence, le vrai café américain, c’est de la pisse de miaou ! :D
Vivement le café! Et le verre hebdo de vin por favor ????
I once decided to go Caffeine free for two months, those months were miserable , cause once you try to cut off something, everything seem to have caffeine on it, like chocolate, tea and certain type of snack, no coffee and no tea = no fun ! But I realised my skin was better, my heartbeat was more stable when I feel stress out and less bloated ! it really did change my health , now I just restricted myself to one coffee and one tea a day ! x
hello, je viens de faire un bilan complet et le médecin m’a conseillé de ne boire qu’un café le matin (à la place de 5 ou 6 par jour)… et du thé dans la journée ou des tisanes… ça fait 1 mois que j’applique cela, je me sens en pleine forme et ma peau a changé!
Garance! Thats a lot of caffeine! definetely try to reduce to one cup of coffe a day and 1 caffeneted tea and 1 decaf… Caffeine dehidrates you, equal bad for your organs and SKIN!! DRink plenty of water if you CANT cut off, good luck!
I naturally stopped consuming caffeine when I graduated from university. Lucky for me, I start work at a decent time – 9:30am. Even when I sleep 6 hours or less, I don’t usually use caffeine. I’ve been off it for so long that I have really low tolerance for it. It makes me feel even more tired despite making me feel more alert (but in a crazy kind of way).
http://www.dressupchowdown.com
Everyone metabolizes caffeine differently. I limit my caffeinated drinks (including matcha) to 1-2 a day. Any more and I get anxiety and dehydrated. I’m very sensitive to it and cacao too (which some now claim is toxic). My bf on the other hand, drinks up to 10 cups a day without any effects but I’ve convinced him that can’t be good so even he is cutting back.
I rarely drink coffee.
To me it is clear that caffeine gives us a false sense of alertness, to the point where we don’t know when we actually need to rest.
How can that be healthy?
I’d rather rely on 7 hours sleep, a brisk power walk, a chat with a friend for the energy!
Salut Garance!
Il y a quelques temps j’ai dû complètement de consommer du café, car mon corps me faisait défaut. Je me suis mise au earl grey que j’adore et c’est le bonheur! Je prend un café de temps en temps, mas dans tout ça, je crois que le plus important est d’écouter son corps. Bisous xxx
Une ou deux tasses de café le matin, une petite théière de thé à siroter dans l’après-midi, et beaucoup d’eau (je n’aime pas le vin).
Je bois du café et du thé principalement pour le goût, parce qu’ils ne me réveillent pas du tout – et ne m’empêchent pas du tout de dormir non plus.
Vu les quantités, aucune raison de changer de si bonnes habitudes :-)
Belle soirée
I drink a small cup of coffee in the morning and a couple of caffeinated teas throughout the day. I find that gradually replacing coffee with tea helps balance things out if you want to consume less. I recently got more careful about how much sugar I consume and realized I often use caffeinate to dig myself out of a sugar crash.
I always think more caffeine will help me get stuff done but I find myself anxious and underslept, so I try to take mini exercise/dance breaks to keep myself going. That and citrus!
Je consomme 5 a 6 tasses de thé par jour plus un espresso apres le dejeuner et fume une cigarette voire 2 ou 3 quand bon me semble. Faire fi de ce qui est “sensément mauvais” est très bon pour le moral. Manger de tout, en raisonnable quantité, se faire plaisir et cesser de croire que le “dairy free, fat free, sugar free, gluten free, caffeine free etc etc bla bla bla bla” est bon pour la santé .
I drink two cups a day as well. Sometimes I try to restrict it because I get headaches.
Paula- http://www.livingpaula.com
I get you so well! I can drink, I don’t know, up to 7 cups of black tea a day if I’m staying in working on my laptop? Not to mention I’m starting to get why everybody loves coffee… The least I can do right now is balance it all out with enough still water intake!
http://www.appelezmoiana.com
I used to drink 2-3 mugs of coffe and as much cups of black tea with milk. But 3 years ago I changed my way of nutrition. Since then I drink only a mug of cofee (in the morning) and 2 or 3 cups of caffeine free herbal tea per day.
I would say that my body like it!
I can’t say that I’ve became more calmly, but I fell “lighter” (don’t know how to explain it exactly)))
Sometimes I can drink 2 or 3 cups of coffe? a day, but it’s very very rare.
I love my coffee and drink about 2 at most during the day otherwise I feel too wired.
My boyfriend on the other hand, has the same habit as you and is always quite stressed. He once cut out all caffeine and only drank herbal teas for about 2 weeks and immediately noticed that he was sleeping better and feeling calmer. Didn’t last though and is now back to his usual habit.
I think limiting your caffeine intake will help you to be more chill.I reduced my caffeine intake for a month and I felt great actually,but it wasn’t easy as I love coffee.Perhaps you could try to drink just 1 coffee at breacfast and one after lunch,but I would skip those 2 black afternoon teas and perhaps replaced them with 100% pure chicory drink,or Roibos tea without caffeine.Abstaining from coffee after 2 p.m. is a good guideline. Good luck!
Wait a minute. As reported in the press, many studies are demonstrating that coffee is not only NOT bad for people, but also, after comparing the health of people who drink coffee and those who do not, appears to provide health benefits.
For many years after I started drinking coffee–my grandmother introduced me to it in the 6th grade and I never looked back–there had been a steady drumbeat of press stories about studies suggesting bad consequences of caffeine. I simply refused to believe these studies, and now current medical research is doing a better job assessing the impact of caffeine and has basically debunked the earlier studies.
Unless one’s particular metabolism has negative reactions–insomnia, jitters–there is every reason to drink coffee, which, like wine, is one of nature’s gifts to man.
I would say it’s not too much coffee until it keeps you up at night when you want to sleep or if you feel jittery in a bad way. Moderation in all things really is the best way.
I am writing here for the first time because I was finishing my second cup at breakfast as I was reading this post. Pretty coffee cups!
Bonjour Garance,
Je n’ai pas d’addiction au café (je n’en bois qu’un par jour, sinon je me fais traiter d’hyperactive) mais par contre j’ai du mal à me limiter pour le thé et surtout pour le sucre. Donc, comme Maria, j’en fais des moments privilégiés, calmes (= 10 minutes pendant que je lis, qui est mon moment de silence intérieur à moi). Avec la vie que l’on mène tous, ça limite ces moments là!
Le jus de bouleau Weleda m’aide à limiter mes envies de sucré quand je sens que j’ai un peu abusé (à Noël par exemple): je me rends compte que j’ai beaucoup moins envie de sucré et même de thé au bout de quelques jours. Ca peut marcher pour le café…
Pour le thé, contrairement à ce que j’ai lu dans les commentaires, plus tu le laisses infuser, moins il y a de théine (car d’autres substances qui la contrent se libèrent), donc si tu as du thé en vrac tu peux facilement éviter de consommer trop de théine en te faisant quand même plaisir…
Voilà, tu vas sûrement trouver le dosage qui te correspond, mais je crois qu’il faut quand même y aller progressivement, et se faire plaisir aussi!
Garance,
That does seem a bit much. I adore the yogi teas too, the digestive one is excellent.
I started drinking better coffee, something a bit more special and I can do one or two mugs and I’m good. On occasion I can add a treat like a latte or cafe au la but that’s about it, my chai tea lattes were more calories then my lunch- so they are gone!
When I did my first cleanse I cut out coffee for a week, it wasn’t awful but I missed the warmth from that morning cup. I think making adjustments it’s best, you seem to be balancing more and more out in your life just do the same with your coffee and tea. Add more water.
In the end of the day you need to be enjoying it all right..
I stopped drinking black tea (with milk and sugar) cold turkey, thinking that it was affecting my breakouts. Dairy definitely has an effect on my skin.
I still drink tea now, but only herbal, caffeine-free. I like lemon ginger and peppermint–while they don’t have caffeine, the zing from the ginger and freshness of peppermint help me feel more awake.
I actually don’t drink caffeine. I prefer natural remedies and Berroca or just a good night’s sleep! x
http://www.wonkylauren.com
Je ne bois pas de café parce que je n’aime pas ça. Du coup, n’y étant pas habituée, les rares fois où j’en prend, j’ai la tremblotte 2 heures plus tard. Mais après avoir vécu 4 ans à Londres, je buvais pas mal de thé. Et récemment je suis de plus en plus flipée que mes dents jaunissent donc je me suis mise au jus de citron et eau chaude. Et bien je ne bois plus que ça maintenant !
Manon je suis comme toi, accro au thé (depuis un séjour en Angleterre aussi !), j’essaie de réduire et je bois aussi de l’eau chaude avec une rondelle de citron, sauf que siroter ça toute la journée…attaque l’émail des dents ! comme quoi….
You might as well join the convent. Don’t like all this self denial. Live a little for goodness sake. My grandmother is 84 ( Italian) and drinks maybe 6 double shots of coffee daily. Wine with dinner every single day. She does not travel with a scales, either.
Could we please know where those beautiful gold coffee cups can be found???
It absolutely makes a difference. I love coffee so very much. It is my favorite part of the day! If I am strong or on vacation, I am not affected at all but once I get a bit too much on my plate or having been consuming too much for too long- it burns out my adrenals, leaving me frazzled and fried. I think I quit coffee every month or every 6 weeks and every time I do I claim that “I am a much better human being off of coffee,” and I preach to everyone the benefits of not drinking it. I sleep better, my blood sugar is stable (which makes you eat better), I am grounded and calm and then after a few weeks of feeling blissed out and strong, I inevitably feel so good, that I go back to drinking coffee and the cycle repeats itself. But, it IS sooo good to give your adrenals a break, especially when you are going through a stressful time!
Do everything in moderation and you will be fine- but only make the changes for yourself and not anyone else. You seem a little lost and stressed lately. Take care of yourself.
I am with Monique here. I am also worried about all that scales-meditation-coffeecutting stuff that is going on here lately. For all those years, Garance you have been the sanity of fashion, beauty and blah bloggers, and that was good! Maybe you should not get away to LA but to your roots in old Europe and remind us all that meditation is what we do with our good friends (and our men are friends, too, they are there for those five minutes), and drinking a lot of coffee starts with more than ten cups. And that tea is not coffee. And that if you do what you like and live how you love (read your own book for reference, for gods sake), you really do not need scales.
J’ai aussi réduit le café (parce que ça me fait mal à l’estomac), j’ai remplacé par du thé matcha, matin et / ou après-midi et je suis une nouvelle fan de ce thé ! Il apporte beaucoup d’énergie sans les palpitations et est plein de bonnes choses.
Ceci dit, une tasse de café par jour, ou deux max, c’est plein d’anti oxydants aussi, quand on le supporte bien il n’y pas de raison de s’en priver je pense.
Once I cut all caffeinated drinks at once, for a half a year, I substituted it with such things like water plus lemon in the morning, fresh grapefruit juice, which actually gives the same amount of energy. But the first cup of coffee after this was amazing, still remember its smell, taste and the splash of unconditionally good mood. Now I cut coffee cause of stomach problems, but still drink tea, actually, lot of it and very strong
yes, I wonder about coffee health benefits vs consequences. sometimes I tried to go on a coffee diet (although I love it) and swap with green tea.
if you’re accustomed to several cups of caffeine a day, I think it would be difficult, well, if you reduce that suddenly, you would get withdrawal headaches. also I think the body can sometimes acclimate to a certain amount of caffeine you’re used to and it’s not strong enough as before and so you feel like you want more and more. so for some people I think if you drink a little less from time to time, it would make the caffeine more effective again. but I’m not an MD, it is kind of my personal experience, reading (on the brain), and intuition.
lately I’m into sparkling water (ideally mineral water for some health benefits but citrus flavored will do). also I sometimes consume these sugar free vanilla mints addictively. I feel like cold mineral water just wakes up my mind and feels fresh. I also feel like mint flavors do something similar psychologically. maybe it is just my emotional association but they are kind of a substitute for coffee. (sugar-free is probably not that great over the long haul but it will do for now)
lastly, I’m getting back to chickory coffee lately. I read it’s supposed to be a little healthy for your gut (not sure if my brand has significant chickory) but I’m very interested in the health of my gut microbiome (bacteria) lately b/c it affects things like your weight and psychological state.
edit to first comment. not to sound as if someone has to get rid of all vices. I think people need to have some vices (minor ones at least). otherwise you might do something really horrible all at once and go to jail.
I don’t think caffeine for me leads to increased stress. I just get a quick buzz from it and it probably only lasts for 30-60 min. but if I don’t drink coffee in the morning, I just miss the taste (it doesn’t make me more calm or more sleepy generally). the taste of coffee with cream just comforts me in the morning. and I like that beige color it creates when the cream goes in (on a coat I guess you would call it camel). it’s pretty.
From my experience… When life is stressful, don’t take away the comforts of coffee or a coffee break. But you should do what you want, I’ve tried cutting it out, without much to say about it really. So I’ve kept drinking it, maybe try this and see how you feel so you don’t feel the guilt for having coffee, wine, or the odd cigarette. I have 3 espressos a day, wine when i either need to unwind or celebrate a few times a week or month, and a few cigarettes a year. No biggie.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Enjoy your success, you deserve it, you work very hard and its amazing. I love your blog.
Révolution depuis que je ne bois plus de café : plus de sensation physique d’angoisse, plus de ventre gonflé, plus d’anxiété “gratuite”, moins de pensées tournoyantes, une énergie plus constante… À remplacer par un jus de légumes le matin !
Alors, ca ne va pas t’aider mais te permettra sans doute de relativiser.
Je bois au moins 3 fois plus de cafés que toi chaque jour, du petit déjeuner jusque tard dans la soirée (le dernier vers 23h en général).
Je ne pense pas que ça me stresse ou que ça m’empêche de dormir.
Par contre, je suis DEpEnDANTE !
C’est à dire que je ne peux PAs boire moins de 3-4 cafés dans une journée, sinon j’ai des migraines terribles (=signe de dépendance).
Quand je suis malade, je dois prévoir un minimum de cafés pour ne pas aggraver mon état.
En vacances, je repère les spots où on sert de vrais cafés…
À oui, j’oubliais, je ne bois que : des doubles expressos.
Les cafés américains (=allongés ) me rendent malades.
Donc je n’ai pas de conseil, mais j’espère que ça t’aide de savoir qu’il y a pire que toi !!
Bises
Essaye le thé vert à la place c’est super bien ! J’en bois à peu près 6 tasses par jour et il y a aucun effet indésirables (sur moi en tout cas )
http://mademoiselleglamour.fr/blog/
Non, moi je ne peux pas vivre sans café, je sais ainsi que c’est une drogue; la seule fois dans ma vie où je n’ai pas pu en boire, c’est quand j’étais enceinte de ma fille, tout d’un coup ça me dégoûtait, enfin seulement les 3 premiers mois, hein, ma fille avait bien compris qu’il ne fallait pas que ça dure cette histoire! En revanche, j’ai totalement arrêté le thé, du jour au lendemain alors que j’en buvais 2 par jour, quand j’ai su que j’étais très anémiée, car le thé noir empêche de fixer le fer… Et ça ne me manque pas, pas du tout, c’est étonnant car j’en buvais tous les jours depuis des années! Mais le café, ça j’aurai du mal à m’en passer, c’est sûr! Bises toutes les café-lovers!! ;)
Just my topic recently. I used to drink one big tea in the morning and if the morning was extra tough I bought coffee latte on my way to work. During the day it was 1-4 espressos and some black tea. I used to drink more coffee when under stress and it wasn’t helping either. After I read an article few moths ago on coffeine effect on the body, I decided to go without coffee or tea when under pressure as it increase my anxiety.
Now my goal is to keep my old morning routine (tea and coffee latte) but drink just tea (good tea) and water during the day. I also skip coffee completely when under pressure. When I am able to stick to these rules I feel much better.
That does not sound like a lot to me. Read into that whatever you would like about my own coffee intake. Plus, “they” say coffee is good for you. So, science.
Je trouve ça hyper flippant quand j’arrête la cafféine car je deviens un vrai zombie! Limite je dors debout. Donc même si je n’ai pas l’impression d’être hyperactive avec tout mon café, clairement cela a un effet car je dors debout sans!
I used to drink 6-7 big cups of coffee every day. Then, as part of New Year’s resolutions I ate only raw food for a week and drank water only :-) After seven days, I realised I don’t need so much coffee and I now drink only one cup in the morning and very rarely one espresso after lunch. Try it, your skin will appreciate it!
La caféine est mauvaise pour la santé, c’est un faux stimulant pour le systéme nerveux et le café / thé noir sont trés acidifiants pour l’organisme. Plus un organisme est acidifié, plus il y a des chances qu’on tombe malade, et plus notre corps va demander ces faux stimulants (café, chocolat, thé noir, alcool, cigarettes). Idéalement, il vaut mieux boire des smoothies et manger des fruits frais (seuls) pour retrouver du tonus et des jus de légumes, et remplacer le thé et le café par des tisanes comme la menthe ou le romarin (stimulantes le matin), du thé vert (ou maté, mais pas trop) voire du “faux café” (petit-épeautre torréfié). Voici les conseils d’une future naturopathe ;)
Hi Garance, I hope going through a really stressful time doesn’t mean you are feeling overworked… I am going through such a thing right now and recognize your urge to try to tackle every single thing that might have gotten you out of balance, or stressed out (or to try every single thing that might get you back in balance, like meditation). I’ve read somewhere that if we are under continuous stress, we focus on completing our to do lists, reaching our deadlines (creating shortime order in the chaos), but on a cognitive level are not able to reflect and listen to our needs (which sucks – if only our body would have a loud voice all the time, but I guess then we would not get to high levels at all, which would be a pitty too… ). Anyhow, take it easy, you have been building for such a long time, that taking some time to just harvest and reset should be ok, don’t you think? We won’t walk away. I promise ;-)
p.s. my hearts starts pounding like a bass drum the moment I have finished my morning cappuccino, so I guess from my perspective, your daily caffeine take is a little much. ;) I don’t drink coffee from 4 pm or so, definitely not after diner (although after-diner espresso’s are my favorite :)) and in the evening take only herbal tea like you do – otherwise I have difficulties falling asleep at night.
I had to stop coffee due to severe stomach aches and, well, it was tough, but I feel in much better shape since I stop.
I miss the taste/ smell of it, though, but my body says thank you to the green tea diet I’ve been on since.
I love Mariage Freres teas, especially thé vert Marco Polo and thé a L’Opera. Do you get them in the US?
Hey Garance, I switched from drinking a couple of cups of coffee to drinking black tea – even though it also consists of stimualting substances, I feel much better with it. Most of the days I don’t get the afternoon-tiredness as I feel like black tea does not affect the body that “volatile” (from super hyper to snoozy tired) and I often got quite jittery from too much coffee. Another plus: nowadays, drinking a real good cup of coffee (I got much more choosy) is so much more of a treat as it is not about fighting the tiredness.
Let us know how it is going for you, if you are making any changes.
Le thé noir (voire vert) a étrangement l’effet inverse du café: il fait baisser le cortisol, hormone du stress et est en même temps un très bon récupérateurs ( expérience faite sur des sportifs)…
Medical studies have demonstrated that caffeine is good for your brain, your blood ….etc So feel free to drink coffee, you should try espresso without sugar of course, better taste and less caffeine than in those big mugs. Another point is that tea is worst than coffee and not so good for your health unless you get some green or herbal ones.
So strong coffees in the morning, one after lunch of course then water and herb tea ! We all need to get rid of those “préjugés”…..
Dear Garance
I love coffee … For me I like to have a beautiful sit down mid or late morning with fresh coffee made in my black cafetiere &
black pretty portugese ceramic jug & beautiful handmade bowl ( made by a local potter ) … Usually at my pretty round table with a fashion magazine & where I can see the trees through the kitchen window!
Any more than two large beautiful bowls of coffee is too much for me, in that I wont sleep. I tend to have a rule of no coffee beyond midday / one-ish!
In the morning when I wake up I like to make a big pot of rooibush tea & put this on a tray with a cup & saucer & jug of milk & take to my bed & light a candle, sometimes meditate & have what I read recently somewhere ‘ Goddess Hour’!
I love coffee soooo much but too much can make me manic & really even more bonkers than I am already!
If your life is going super hectic then maybe less caffiene & more yogi tea is the way!!!
Big love & a bow
Nicole X
Hi Garance! I too drink a lot of coffee (I justify this because it’s almost always black Greek/Turkish coffee so it’s totally fine ;-) ) and apparently there is a study that shows you are genetically predisposed to your coffee/caffeine tolerance. (http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/v20/n5/full/mp2014107a.html)
Some people can drink three+ cups/servings no problem, some people can’t have any and some are in between that. If it doesn’t make you jittery/queasy then you’re probably fine!
-AK
Garance, I am working with a Harvard Medical School Professor right now on a Wellness training course-let, and she says that caffeine has a half-life of 6 hours, which means those late afternoon coffees and black teas may well be continuing to excite your system well into the evening hours. (I feel like I should be waggling my finger now!)
Bonne Chance!