I don’t have many things in common with the rich, talented, award-winning singer-songwriter Adele. But I did last week when she told an audience in Las Vegas that she has decided to quit coffee.
“I decided this week to stop drinking coffee and I’ve had a migraine all f***ing week,” the 35-year-old told her audience. “I had a splitting headache for two days because I cut it out. My head was pounding. It was like there was a drill inside my head. It was a lot.
“It was harder than giving up cigarettes, harder than when you want to stop drinking. I’m not giving in now,” she said, before explaining that she had drunk “about 25 decafs” in a bid to ease her withdrawal.
I’ve been there. I decided to give up coffee in 2020 after talking to a friend who said she had become less ratty with her children and started sleeping better when she gave it up. Back then — mid-lockdown and juggling work with trying to home school my two young daughters — I was drinking four or five cups a day, often well into the afternoon. For some people this would barely touch the sides, but for me it meant I constantly felt jittery, slightly wired, and struggled to switch off in the evenings and fall asleep at bedtime. Like all those crutches we know aren’t good for us — wine after a bad day, evening snacking, late-night phone scrolling, sugar — caffeine had become another sticking plaster for a stressful life. So I decided to quit.
● Coffee overtakes tea as Britain’s favourite drink
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It seems I’m not alone. Despite research published this month that found that coffee has overtaken tea as the nation’s favourite drink – 63 per cent of us regularly drink coffee, compared with 59 per cent who drink tea, according to the market researcher Statista — increasing numbers of us, like Adele, are trying to cut back. According to Mintel, 39 per cent of regular coffee drinkers are trying to reduce their caffeine consumption, which the researchers found was primarily driven by concerns over caffeine’s effect on health, sleep and emotional wellbeing. So, if you do want to quit — or cut down — how should you do it?
Don’t go cold turkey
I went cold turkey, and had pounding withdrawal headaches for the first week that were so intense I thought I was coming down with the flu (they slowly faded by the end of the week, before disappearing in week two). Then there were other side-effects, including irritability, brain fog and tiredness.
Cold turkey probably wasn’t the smartest move, according to Sam Rice, the nutritionist and author of Supercharge Your Diet. “The best way to cut down or cut it out is gradually, as caffeine withdrawal can lead to symptoms such as headache, anxiety and irritability.”
Rice suggests picking a time to quit when you’re not busy or overwhelmed, and says that you should start by replacing one of your regular cups with decaf, then another, then another, until you’re drinking the amount of caffeine you’re happy with. “And remember to keep an eye on your overall caffeine intake as it’s also found in tea, green tea, energy drinks, cola and chocolate,” she adds.
Work out your caffeine ‘sweet spot’
Rice says that despite many of us thinking we should cut down on caffeine, there’s a solid base of evidence that it’s healthy. “The benefits of coffee have long been debated, but we know that in moderation [about two cups a day] it’s a good source of polyphenols and fibre, which promotes gut health, which in turn has health-protective effects for the rest of the body.”
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According to Rice, it’s all about the tipping point, and while there has been some debate around what excessive coffee consumption is, the British Heart Foundation recommends no more than four or five cups a day.
“Of course coffee does contain caffeine, a stimulant, which may give some people a ‘heart-racing’ feeling, which is not necessarily bad for you but it can be unpleasant,” she says. “This is why it’s not good to consume it later in the day as it can impact on sleep. Ultimately, you need to decide where your caffeine sweet spot is.” Which, she says, is usually somewhere between the joy coffee gives you and the feeling of being awake and alert, and any negative physical reactions such as feeling wired or sleep issues.
Focus on the benefits of less caffeine — such as weight loss
As well as better sleep, one of the unexpected benefits I found when I gave up coffee was weight loss. Perhaps because without coffee artificially powering me through the day I went to bed earlier, which reduced late night snacking.
There was probably another reason: a 2017 study, published in the Journal of Food Science, found that caffeine changes our sense of sweetness, which is why we often crave a biscuit or cake when we drink coffee. The researchers found this didn’t happen in the decaf drinkers. So less coffee means fewer sweet cravings. And then there are the calories in coffee to consider, with a latte clocking up 150 a pop.
Lastly, you’ll be richer too. The cost of living has hit coffee lovers hard. This year the price of a shop-bought latte rose by a record 11 per cent to £3.25, according to the coffee researcher Allegra, while a flat white broke the £3 barrier. If that doesn’t make you want to cut down, nothing will.
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Have you given up caffeine? Tell us about your experience in the comments below
