Ulysses
Member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2018
- Messages
- 340
I've had coffee tolerance issues for a long time. I just assumed they should be attributed to the caffeine content of coffee, since caffeine is the compound that gets stereotyped as being responsible for all the symptoms I had -- anxiety, jitters , brain fog, etc.
But I noticed that drinking decaf didn't make me feel any better than drinking regular coffee, and I also noticed less sensitivity to tea, so I hypothesized that perhaps I was sensitive to something other than the caffeine itself. To test this, I ordered 200 mg pills of pure caffeine and used them for a week instead of coffee. The result was that all of my negative symptoms disappeared, while the mild buzz and enhanced focus remained.
I brought this up with my dad, who told me this runs in the family: his brother has the same issue with both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.
I understand that coffee contains many dozens of active compounds, so it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing the adverse reaction, but I love the sight, smell, and taste of coffee, and I also love the ritual of brewing it, so I'd rather not give it up.
Does anyone have some ideas about what's going on, or how to fix it? The first thing I'm going to try is switching from French press, which I suppose is the "dirtiest" method of brewing coffee, to something with a very fine filter, like Chemex. I think I also do better with espresso, but getting my own espresso machine is just not in the cards right now.
But I noticed that drinking decaf didn't make me feel any better than drinking regular coffee, and I also noticed less sensitivity to tea, so I hypothesized that perhaps I was sensitive to something other than the caffeine itself. To test this, I ordered 200 mg pills of pure caffeine and used them for a week instead of coffee. The result was that all of my negative symptoms disappeared, while the mild buzz and enhanced focus remained.
I brought this up with my dad, who told me this runs in the family: his brother has the same issue with both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.
I understand that coffee contains many dozens of active compounds, so it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly what is causing the adverse reaction, but I love the sight, smell, and taste of coffee, and I also love the ritual of brewing it, so I'd rather not give it up.
Does anyone have some ideas about what's going on, or how to fix it? The first thing I'm going to try is switching from French press, which I suppose is the "dirtiest" method of brewing coffee, to something with a very fine filter, like Chemex. I think I also do better with espresso, but getting my own espresso machine is just not in the cards right now.