July 8, 2021

"What Michael Pollan Learned from Quitting Caffeine for 3 Months."

Posted by Ann Althouse at 7:05 AM
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9 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Birches writes:

"That clip was so interesting to me as someone who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I've never had coffee or caffeinated tea. Some of our people do enjoy Coke or Diet Coke which is not against our Word of Wisdom, but I don't care that much for soda. I'm not even a chocolate fiend. So I cannot comprehend needing anything to think linearly or to stay focused. What a fascinating listen."

7/8/21, 10:16 AM
Ann Althouse said...

David writes:

"I don't seem to be affected in an addictive way to caffeine or nicotine. Good strong coffee and a nice cigar. Both are pleasurable but don't seem to make me more alert or stimulated. I don't do either daily or felt the need to do so regularly or as a pick-me-up. I've never had a problem staying awake or going to sleep after either. I put my head down on a pillow and I'm out in 5-10 minutes (not as fast as my dog, though), usually waking up in 6 hours. 10:30pm to 4:30pm like clockwork. That's why my wife never lets me lay down on the couch if we watch a movie. If I do, she just says, "Good night"."

7/8/21, 2:18 PM
Ann Althouse said...

If I feel groggy in the afternoon and I drink a cup of coffee, it seems to make me *more* likely to fall asleep.

I don't believe coffee has much effect on me at all, other than maybe feeling bad if I had more than 10 cups of it.

I don't think I need it to function, as I often go out on my sunrise run before drinking any coffee. Delaying my first coffee of the day by an hour doesn't make me feel any different at all. And I don't do the run any better on the days when I have my coffee first. Don't feel any better in my head or think more clearly. Getting up at quarter to 4 and getting in the car to drive to my trail with no coffee at all — am I supposed to be a mess? Well, I feel fine!

7/8/21, 2:22 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Ed sums up the video:

"The earth was created without form and void, and without coffee. Then came the Dark Ages and we drank too much. But the Arabs got coffee and invented math. And then everybody got it so we had the Renaissance. But if you've got a few months and true grit, you'll never buy cocaine again!"

7/8/21, 2:25 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Chris writes:

"The video on caffeine is easily the most interesting thing I've watched in a long time. So caffeine facilitated the rise of the modern Western world. There is a line stretching from a few goats in Ethiopia, munching on berries, to a rocket in Florida, centuries later, taking off and depositing a few human beings on the moon.

"I could give myself a significant pay raise by giving up caffeine, but for some reason I never take advantage of this."

7/8/21, 2:32 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Assistant Village Idiot writes:

"Just a mention that the idea that people drank fermented drinks because the water wasn't safe is a myth. It is frequently asserted, but not true. One source of many: https://leslefts.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-great-medieval-water-myth.html"

I'll add:

I'm reading "Drunk" by Edward Slingerland, which goes on at length refuting the "dirty-water thesis." Sample:

"People in the Chinese cultural sphere have been drinking tea forever (well, for at least a few thousand years), and for a long while have also had powerful cultural norms against drinking untreated water. Of course, that’s not how they frame it: According to traditional Chinese medical beliefs, drinking cold water harms the qi, or energy, of the stomach. If you must drink water, it should be “opened water” (kaishui), boiled and drunk warm or at least at room temperature. The theory focuses on temperature and its effect on qi, not on the danger of water-borne pathogens, but it has the same function: Don’t drink water unless it’s been boiled and the nasty stuff has been killed off. It seems, then, that Chinese and Chinese-influenced cultures, which together encompass a pretty impressive proportion of the people who have ever lived on the earth, have solved the pathogen-load problem through the simple expedient of drinking only tea or boiled water. And yet they still have booze. Oceans of it."

7/8/21, 7:07 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Irving writes:

"Forty years ago this summer, I coached women’s gymnastics at Camp Woodward (they have a website). Mid-summer, the camp director – a “devout” Christian man – decided to replace our caffeinated coffee in the dining hall with decaf because in his mind caffeine consumption was a sin and it was his job to keep us on the straight and narrow, so we wouldn’t end up burning in hell. And while it did cause us to be a bit slower at feeling fully awake each morning, we all agreed that while that was kind of annoying, the worst side-effect of the caffeine-free life was that for the better part of the first week, none of us could take a shit."

7/8/21, 7:15 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Paul writes:

"Even before the coffee break part of the conversation his comments on the impact of caffeine on how civilization developed put me in mind some of Virginia Postrel talking about fabrics & civilization."

7/8/21, 7:18 PM
Ann Althouse said...

Audrey Ann writes:

"Interesting that only men’s comments have been posted to this video of a man talking about giving up caffeine. Women routinely give up caffeine for approximately 9 months each time they have a child. If it’s psychedelic to have a cup of coffee after three months of abstaining, what is the word for a new mom who gets to have caffeine just as sleep deprivation sets in?"

I'll answer:

1. Based on names alone Birches, Assistant Village Idiot, Chris all could be female.

2. Back in my pregnancy days, you didn't have to give up caffeine... and you could have one alcoholic drink a week.

3. I agree with your implication that Pollan is a either over-sensitive or exaggerating.

7/9/21, 5:43 AM

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