For many years my goal has been to drink a maximum of two cups of coffee per day, which translates to about 2 x 65 = 130 mg of caffeine. This has always been a difficult goal for me and I’m struggling to understand why that is so. Is coffee, or rather caffeine, really so addictive? Or are there some other social aspects in play here? Or is it just me and a serious lack of self-discipline?
The smell of fresh good coffee can be intoxicating. Photo by Sahand Hoseini on Unsplash.
I believe there are many good reasons for limiting the amount of caffeine intake per day. The fact that it’s classified by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) doesn’t change my opinion about it. It’s a stimulant to the central nervous system and due to its toxicity, lethal doses can be reached with ingestion of approximately 10 grams. Then again, almost anything can be lethal when consumed in large quantities.
There are many myths and facts about caffeine and occasionally you read some article claiming that it’s bad for you because it increases the risk of osteoporosis, heart disease, or something else. But then another article comes along claiming that there are proven health benefits, like reducing the risk of Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, and dementia. Who knows, it’s all very confusing.
For me there’s definitely an addictive dimension to coffee. It’s not just that I love the smell and taste of it, but in the morning I really feel like I need it in order to get “fully operational”. As said, caffeine is a stimulant and it also taps into the brain's dopamine stores, causing very pleasant feelings. There’s also a habitual, and for me almost ritualistic, part to preparing coffee. It brings me great joy to grind the beans, fill up the portafilter's basket and do the tamping, and then finally extract a shot of espresso at exactly 9 bars of pressure. It’s a beautiful process and feels almost scientific.
Perhaps addictiveness is too strong of a word in this context, especially as coffee seldom threatens people’s physical, social, or economic health the way addictive drugs do. But it’s definitely appropriate to talk about a dependence – and anybody who’s gone “cold turkey” on coffee knows what I’m talking about. You will suffer from symptoms like headache, fatigue and irritability for a few days.
In any case, I’d love to find out how I could reliably limit myself to having only those two cups of coffee per day. Perhaps I should consider entering a “habit contract” as described by James Clear in his excellent book Atomic Habits. Apparently such a contract can be used to add a “social cost” to almost any negative behavior, making the cost of violating your promises both public and painful.