4 reasons why you should give up your caffeine habit

Everywhere you look at, caffeine is on the acid food list. It is highly acidifying and provides only a semblance of goodness. Though caffeine produces a pseudo-energy boost and mental acceleration, in the long run, it offers only negative side effects. Also, you grow addictive to the caffeine habit, become dependent on it and arrive at a stage wherein you cannot quit coffee without headaches, backaches and a constant feeling of irritability.

Whatever your relationship with caffeine, here are some reasons why you should quit your good-old coffee habit:

1. Highly acidifying: Caffeine is highly acidifying. A quick glance at all the alkaline food lists will tell you that coffee is not alkaline and energizing as you think.

2. Pseudo energy and mental acceleration: Of course, no one can ignore the energizing effects of caffeine. It gives you an instant mental boost and freshness. But remember, this comes with a cost of a lot of negative side effects.

3. Dehydration, nervousness and headaches: It’s hard to relax after a cup of caffeine. Your mental energy is that high. But if you observe carefully, caffeine never gives you proper hydration. Also, it causes lot of side effects like nervousness and headaches if you fail to get your daily dose of caffeine.

4. Health crises: Caffeine causes a lot of health related problems. It is one of the reasons for heart disease, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high inflammatory conditions like homocysteine, acid reflux, GERD etc.

Many of these reasons affect your body in the long run. Added to all these is the most crucial fact that caffeine is non-alkaline and leaves a lot of acid ash in your body. In fact, caffeine’s acid content is the cause of a few other conditions that make the body worse and caffeine an unhealthy beverage. Other reasons why you should quit caffeine:

5. Caffeine kills diet plans: Caffeine kills all your diet plans. It elevates your stress hormones, triggers hypoglycemia and improving your appetite. It also aggravates insulin resistance in the body, causing obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and cellular insensitivity.

6. Caffeine and Pregnancy: Caffeine is not healthy during pregnancy. It affects fetal development, decreases fertility and complicates infertility problems.

7. Aging, sleep disturbance and stress: Caffeine or lack of caffeine can cause a lot of other side effects like early aging, mood and sleep disorders and chronic stress. It can also affect bowels, causing intestinal cystitis. Fatigue is again a byproduct of caffeine consumption.

How to quit your caffeine habit: Quitting is easier said than done. As always, let the change happen gradually. Replace coffee with tea. Take tea that has less amount of caffeine. Then, slowly shift to tea that is caffeine-free. After sometime, take green tea or herbal tea. Alternatively, you can replace your coffee time with fresh juices. Take a lot of fresh, instant-energizing juices. If you feel a drain in your energy or side effects like headaches or migraines, persevere. Rome was not built in a day. Take your time, but quit caffeine as it is a highly acidifying beverage that you turn to frequently. Once you overcome your caffeine habit, quitting other acidifying foods will be darn simple.