Deprivation

[Gettingbysomehow]

My life has ended. I am massive coffee drinker and Ive been told in no uncertain terms I must give tea and coffee up for medical reasons.
How the heck can I live without coffee? Im going to have a last bank holiday bender then stop. .
Anyone got any tips for the inevitable headaches?

Stop gradually if you can. Don't go cold Turkey - the headaches are awful!

When I stopped I alternated between caffeinated and decaffeinated for a while, then eventually got down to just one caffeinated one per morning, then I was able to stop.

Could you wean yourself off somehow? And find a decent decaf?

I really feel for you. It's horrible 😞

No idea and I couldn't think of anything worse! Decaffeinated coffee still has about 3% caffeine btw just in case you're supposed to completely give it up

I cant have decaff either its the tannin. Ive bought some dandelion root "coffee" but havent tried it yet. I think Ill have to have one a day then decrease just to avoid the headaches. The last time I tried cold turkey I still had a headache 4 weeks after stopping.

So the headache is likely the caffeine withdrawal. If you have time, switch to decaf first. Mix decaf and normal coffee together, in a small tub. As there’s room in the tub, top up with decaf. It will gradually get you down to full decaf then you can drop that without headaches.

Check out alternatives- I like liquorice tea, slices of ginger and lemon, lemon and rose…

And I think sprite contains caffeine. So you could give up coffee but take up sprite.

So if It’s the tannin and not the caffeine ????

then
caffeinated soft drinks / water
yaupon tea
guarana ( high levels of caffeine )
hot chocolate ( good cocoa)

They all have caffeine but no tannins

I thought this was correct, but guarana contains large amounts of tannins.

Caffeine tablets don't, though 😆

I don't know how you'll do it

Green tea is vile let's face it

Wine??

No, Sprite doesn’t have caffeine. Colas do though.

That's a blow. I would hate to give up coffee entirely. But you could experiment with fruit and herbal teas.

That's too bad, OP.

Drink lots of water and get some electrolytes. Applied Nutrition do some good electrolytes which are good for assisting with headaches.

Most fruits & herbs have tannin ...

What is it in the tannins ? I only ask because I am convinced that there is something in decaf tea and coffee that makes me absolutely wired and affects my digestion, to the extent that I no longer drink decaf tea anymore. After lunch I switch to hot water, or sometimes a can of sprite (the new minty version is lovely)

Rooibos tea is quite low in tannins and caffeine, but still feels like a grown up drink, if that’s any use.

I have chronic debilitating anaemia. Iron transfusions only last 3 months. I drink tons of tea and coffee both of which stop iron absorption as does calcium.
The transfusion clinic told me to give it up. I need more surgery and they wont operate until my iron and ferritin is normal so the tea and coffee has to go. I can have calcium but 2 hours separate from any iron ingested. Drinking coffee all day as I do wipes out the supplements I take.

Anything you drink that isn’t tea and coffee will be a huge improvement, so experiment with rooibosh ginger etc. If you need to totally exclude it, avoid the teas made with leaves in favour of slices of lemon, ginger etc.

Caffeine tablets are easy to get, or Mountain Dew or a monster can. Once you’ve reduced the caffeine it’s easy to stop all together.

Vitamin c helps absorb it, doesn’t it? DS drinks those fizzy vitamin tablets made with hot water.

You can buy caffeine tablets ?!?!?!

Yep, generations of schoolkids have used them to get through all-night revision! Brand name Pro-Plus and there are others now, too.

Ah yes < light bulb moment >

I used them drawing up for Uni hand-ins on all nighters

🤢 that sick feeling after 🤮

Yes indeed. I used ghem when I was on ights as a nurse. They make you all sweaty and weird though.

Sorry, edited as I replied to the wrong post. You must have thought that was bonkers if you saw it! Good luck though, hope you find a solution that works for you.

You can drink other caffeinated drinks? Just not coffee or tea?
Or you can have decaf coffee?
You can get used to herbal teas if you try and reduce the sugar/sweetners in your drinks. Then the herbal flavours really start to feel stronger. And those are very low calorie.

I personally didn't suffer any withdrawals when I stopped drinking coffee after having it since 2 years old! But I could just be lucky.

I'd say gradually cut down as PP say. That should ease any symptoms.

There are also tannins in coke im afraid

Also in wine 😥green tea, grapes, blueberries, pomegranate and chocolate- milk is probably ok but I'd steer clear of dark.

DC cant have too many tannins due to kidney issues so isn't allowed any of the above list too often.
Lucky for him he's 11 so has never needed half of it.

Poor you OP its awful having to change your diet.

I recently had to come off dairy and gluten and I hate it!
I also cant stand black tea. I do like black coffee but it gives me heartburn

Peppermint tea isn't bad. Dandelion is no substitute for coffee - and a very aquired taste
I do quite like the ginger tea as a warm substitute but nothing really hits like a proper cup of tea.

I live on coffee it helps with my migraines.
However i have milk in mine and i have to give up dairy so since yesterday ive had black coffee with a tiny bit of sugar only had 2 large cups so far.
I was told to cut my coffee intake down untill i cut it out or get it down to 2 small ones aday.

So ive gone from 10 maybe more large coffees aday to 2 large balck ones.

Ive started to get all the migraine symtoms coming back and im so drowsy, tbh i feel crap.

Does it?
3% of the amount in real coffee?