Monday, March 18, 2013

Coffee vs CFS

I LOVE coffee.  I have always LOVED coffee.  The Paleo diet and the autoimmune diet and PWCFS all recommend ditching coffee.  By experimenting with it over the last half year, I have found it to be a double edge sword.

I managed to switch to tea last year.  Then my kid moved back in and he is a coffee addict.  I started with small single cups.  Now I am drinking 3+ cups a day.  I have noticed a couple of things.

My blood sugar tends to crash a few hours after drinking the stuff.  However, it clears the CFS cobwebs out of my head and lets me function more normally for a few hours and occasionally the entire day.

I think I have figured out the blood sugar crash thing: caffeine is an appetite suppressant   If I drink coffee before I eat anything, then I'm not hungry for a long time or I only eat small amounts of food.  For me this is bad, since a few hours later my blood sugar will nosedive from lack of food. This leads to all sorts of nasty side effects including but not limited to nausea and a nasty case of the grumpies.

Ideally, if I had any willpower I would switch back to tea.  But, that isn't going to happen.  I LOVE coffee.  So here is my compromise.  I will continue to drink coffee however I must be mindful to eat as well.  I must have a large protein heavy breakfast preferably prior to the cup of coffee.  I think I have to treat coffee as the dessert course to my meal instead of the traditional starter course.

2 comments:

  1. Oh yes, I'm the same...I know it is a double edged sword. At the same time, Drs are willing to prescribe me provigal and ridalin in the past, so I figure, what's a cup of coffee to help me function for a couple of hours?

    So my compromise is to only drink organic and only 2 cups first thing in the morning. we should allow ourselves a few vices right? esp. when we have given up so much already.

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  2. Hey, I just discovered your blog. And this is the first post I am reading. The thing about coffee is true for me too. It drives away hunger for a while. I drink 2 cups of tea (with ginger as it helps with pain) and a cup of coffee generally everyday. But for some reason these days I am craving for sweets a lot and end up adding extra sugar too. do you face a similar thing too?
    I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a few years ago too and started a blog. I was looking to connect with bloggers with FMS and I am glad I found you.
    Have a good day! Take care. See you around.
    -Anuradha Khanna Pentapalli
    (http://www.fibromyalgiaawareness.com)

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