Caffeine-free

[adderslj]

I have to face the horrible truth. My system can no longer tolerate caffeine. First it was Diet Coke, then coffee and now all green teas. Peppermint? Fine. Camomile? Sure, as long as I can ignore the fact that it looks like warm urine. Otherwise, all teas are out.

I used to chuckle at people with a food intolerance. I used to openly deride those who went decaff. And now, I'm one of them. Ageing is truly underway.

This sucks.

Comments

[sailormur.livejournal.com]

I could have written this.

In college I worked in a coffee shop and we mocked people who bought decaf, calling a skim-decaf latte a "Why Bother?" Later I realized caffeine was making me anxious and freaky, and lately it can turn an annoyed mood into rage.

Chocolate is about the only caffeine I get nowadays. It's heartbreaking. I feel your pain, dude.

[jltraut.livejournal.com]

Green tea actually has quite a bit of caffiene in it. (I vaguely remember this from a little chart on the side of a box I saw.) Are caffiene-free varieties of tea (that is, real tea, not herbal tea that wasn't caffienated to begin with) available in the UK? Here it seems to be about a 50/50 split -- almost anything caffienated has a de-caf version.

Ageing does suck... :-(

[adders.livejournal.com]

There are decaff teas and coffees about, but my wife told me how they decaffienate them, so I decided against them....

[fraserspeirs.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathy. Definitely.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

Hahahahaha! You old man! :0P
Caffeine or death!

[nortysarah.livejournal.com]

Luckily I found out that I wasn't caffeine intollerant, just tanin intollerant, so once I'd cut out normal tea and coffee and cut down on the diet coke I was ok. Tanin headaches are a complete nightmare!

[vocis.livejournal.com]

I've also cut caffeine almost entirely out of my diet after I began developing acid reflux triggered by coffee. (Then I started seeing more about the nasty effects of aspertame and quite the Diet Choke, too.) Since then I've come to discover another kind of tea that you may be interested in - rooibos or African red tea. It's super low in tannins, has no caffeine, and reputedly has more anti-oxidants than green. I've been buying Kalahari red teas for a while now, and particularly like the chai version and the Highlands honey version. (They also have just straight rooibos tea.)

Also, I found that the best way to beat my Diet Choke habit was buying flavored seltzer water. It's water, it's carbonated (so I get the texture I've grown fond of), and it's fruity but without sugar or sugar-substitutes. I don't know if dropping the Diet Choke has been difficult or not for you, but since this discovery really helped me kick it I thought I'd mention it.

[adders.livejournal.com]

I kicked the Diet Choke fairly easily, but coffee will be harder. I've had exactly the same symptoms you describe, though, so I'll check out the African red tea. Many thanks.

dont be sad!

[(Anonymous)]

sometimes food intolerances can be cloaked forms of good. caffiene, although addictive, energetic and at times worse than nicotine...is not good for you...think yourself lucky that you cant drink it now..i only wish the same were prevailant in my own diet, and my intolerances were pizza, burgers, chocolates and fries!!

music the gifts (http://www.albertsgifts.com)

Re: dont be sad!

[ashamel.livejournal.com]

Well, out of that list the only one we can eat is fries (depending on how they're cooked). I'm not convinced the pros outweight the cons, but London thus far has been relatively good to us.