We’ve put together a list of benefits that coffee offers. And for non-coffee drinkers thinking this does not apply to them, think again. Energy drinks, tea [even green tea] and most chocolates too contain caffeine.

1. Coffee can boost your workout sessions

Caffeine may trigger release of adrenaline, a hormone that prepares you for physical exertion. It keeps you alert and also helps in performance. Drinking a cup of black coffee an hour before your workout will help increase your endurance and make you perform better. This can also reduce the soreness you feel after a strenuous workout. Coffee also helps to break down body fat and make it available as fuel.

2. Drinking coffee could reduce feelings of depression

Depression is a serious mental health disorder; we’re in no way suggesting you can cure it with a few cups of coffee. But coffee does have active ingredients that stimulate the nervous system and boost production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. These play a huge role in elevating your mood and keeping you happy. In a study carried out by Harvard school of Public Health it was observed that coffee had reduced the risk of suicide by 50 per cent.

3. It helps you stay attentive

People who consume 200 milligrams of ground coffee or, for instance, the 8oz cup of coffee in Starbucks, have a higher recall level. It improves various aspects of brain functioning such as memory, mood, vigilance, energy levels and your general cognitive function.

4. It may boost your weight loss efforts

As mentioned earlier, caffeine helps to burn fat and that’s the reason why it is a major ingredient in fat burning supplements. Black coffee without sugar is really effective. Of course, drinking coffee must be combined with a healthy diet and exercise. If you’re adding milk, cream or sugar to your coffee with a donut on the side, your weight loss will remain a pipe dream.

5. Coffee may safeguard you from Alzheimer’s and Dementia

A regular habit of drinking up to four cups of coffee a day from the age of 40 years can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s or dementia. Continuous caffeine consumption can help reduce cognitive decline in older adults.

6. The benefits of coffee for skin

Cosmetic companies have woken up to the benefits of coffee because it makes your skin look flawless and reduce cellulite. It is one of the popular ingredients in skin care products. The antioxidants that are present in coffee can help eliminate wrinkles and fine lines. It is also used in scrubs and soaps and has several benefits such as diminishing dark circles, skin softening and skin brightening.

7. Caffeine can reduce the risk of developing cancer

This Cup-of-Joe can help reduce the risk of various oral and throat cancers. Adults who consume about four cups of coffee daily are less likely to fall prey to this treacherous disease. Decaf may have a weaker or slower effect.

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It’s tough being tired all day. I’ve had days where I struggled to make it through the day and didn’t have the energy to tackle anything that matters.

Hell, I’ve had years like that.

When you’re tired, not much seems appealing. Life is dulled, and you don’t get much accomplished. Worse still, you don’t have the energy to change the situation.

These days I don’t have many days like this, but when I do, I rest. We have gotten good at ignoring our body’s signals—much of our lives are spent training our minds to pretend as if our bodies aren’t tired, so we can be more productive.

This is wrong. It ends up in burnout and reduced productivity, because we inevitably run out of energy. Listen to your body—your long-term health and sanity depend on it.

Why we are tired

We are exhausted because we don’t rest enough. We think rest is not as important as other things like waking early, getting stuff done, attending a thousand meetings, being sucked into the world of online connections, reading and of course watching our all-important TV programmes.

So we cut down on our sleep in favour of these other things that are much more essential, and then wonder why our energy levels are low.

Sleep problems

Let’s take a quick look at some of the problems that keep people tossing in bed:

Not tired yet: If your sleeping pattern is set so that you usually sleep later, when you do attempt to go to bed earlier, you’re not tired enough to fall asleep.

Too tired: It’s possible to be so exhausted that falling asleep is difficult. This tends to be a problem less often than ‘not tired enough’ though.

Worries: You’ve got something spinning around in your head, so the sleep doesn’t come. Sometimes it’s replaying something that’s happened, or things that someone said, and at other times it’s worrying about something coming up or planning an event.

Electronic devices: If you’re using your computer, smartphone, tab or any other device in bed, you might be tired but have a hard time sleeping because your mind isn’t unwinding.

There are other issues, but I’ve found these to be the most common.

1. Formula for becoming a baby

So how do we solve these problems and sleep like babies? I don’t have all the answers, but let me share some of the things that have worked for me.

2. Exercise: A good hard workout or run, bike or swim will get you nice and tired. A good yoga workout is a wonderful way to exercise, as you learn mindfulness at the same time. Even if my workout is early in the day, I often go to bed with a tired body, and look forward to the rest. Don’t workout right before bed though.

3. Get up early: You can get your body to shift its sleeping schedule by slowly getting up earlier. Try 15 minutes earlier than normal for a week, then another 15 minutes. If you get up earlier, you’ll be a bit tired during the day, and when it’s time to go to sleep, you’ll enjoy the rest.

4. Establish a bedtime ritual: It takes time to unwind the body and mind. At least an hour before bedtime, start slowing down. Turn off the computer, TV or smartphone. Floss and brush your teeth. Put away things you were using in the evening. Sit down and read a book [not on your laptop]. This kind of ritual helps establish in your mind that it’s time to sleep, and your body takes this cue and begins to prepare itself.

5. Keep your room only for sleeping: Don’t eat, watch TV, use your computer, or do other kinds of activities in your room. Restrict those activities to the living and dining rooms, so that when you go to bed, there’s just one thing to do. Be sure to make the room dark when you go to sleep too—your body reacts to light.

6. Focus your attention: Once you’ve gone through your bedtime ritual and unwound, and your body is nice and tired, you need to quiet your mind. Here’s my trick for doing that—close your eyes and visualise the first thing you did today. That might be opening your eyes and getting out of bed. Then visualise the second thing you did—let’s say you washed your face or drank a glass of water. Then you started the coffee but first had to grind the beans. Visualise these tiny steps in detail. I never get past the first hour of my day before I’m asleep.

7. Change slowly: Be patient with sleeping changes—they are difficult, because when you are tired, your mind doesn’t have the discipline to stick to changes. Your body and mind want to do what it’s used to doing. But if you change a little at a time, and forgive yourself for ‘messing up’ [there’s no messing up, actually], then you can make changes.

This cure for insomnia didn’t work overnight for me. But I don’t think it took that long before it did begin to work. You can only go without adequate sleep for so long before your body and mind force you to catch up. So catch up by going to sleep earlier.

Another thing I noticed was that when I began to sleep earlier and wake earlier, it threw my sleeping patterns off for a while. It was a bit weird and took a little while to adjust, but finally getting a good night’s rest was rewarding.

This was first published in the April 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

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Hence, detox diets—and even weight loss diets—require us to forgo some food groups. While some diets restrict carbohydrates, others say no to sugar or salt, still others forbid caffeine intake.

But evidence suggests that whenever our body observes the lack of supply of a particular ingredient, it reacts in a certain way, sometimes even violently. Let us have a look at the withdrawal symptoms of various food categories.

Withdrawal symptoms of a detox diet

Caffeine detox

Tea/coffee are the most targeted food group in a diet. A lot of people are addicted to tea and coffee and sometimes have several cups a day. On completely discontinuing tea or coffee, some changes take place in the nervous and vascular system, as the body tries to get rid of the poisons and realign its systems according to the new regime.

“Caffeine in coffee, tea, cola and energy drinks is habit-forming. It therefore creates dependability and withdrawal signs show up when it is stopped,” says Sheela Krishnaswamy, an independent diet, nutrition and wellness consultant.

Withdrawal symptoms of caffeine

The first symptom to manifest is a headache that stays for 2 – 3 days. You may also experience pain in the stomach and joints, which subsides after 3 – 4 days [the time taken by the receptors in the brain to be free of caffeine consumption]. Clogged sinuses and a running nose are other symptoms. For many people, tea and coffee work as a laxative, so constipation too is a common occurrence. Besides that, you may feel irritable and drowsy.

Cure: Take a couple of analgesics and ample rest. Having a very small amount of tea or coffee may also alleviate the symptoms. Switch to herbal teas or decaffeinated brews.

Cola detox

Soft drinks can be the primary source of calories and sugar for you. According to dietician Joanne Larsen of dietitian.com, there are nine teaspoons of sugar in each 12 ounce [355 ml] can of soda.

Caffeinated soda and energy drinks may contain other stimulants too, which may make you feel nervous. Reducing or eliminating caffeinated soda and energy drinks with stimulants should reduce feelings of nervousness.

Withdrawal symptoms of cola

Strong cravings and headaches are common symptoms. Dehydration may occur if soda is your main source of water for the body.

Cure: Switch to natural juices and decaffeinated drinks. Drink a lot of water to avoid dehydration.

Simple Carbs detox

Food items made of refined flour such as bread, cake, candy, pasta, noodles, and white rice are associated with a higher incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and even breast cancer. And eating refined carbs, over time, results in almost certain weight gain.

Withdrawal symptoms of refined carbs

The first week is miserable, with a feeling of fatigue and acute craving for carbohydrate-rich food. You may feel constantly hungry and irritable or even experience nausea.

S K Thakur, a senior gastroenterologist, explains, “When your source of income dries up, you utilise assets like gold and silver. Similarly, when the intake of carbohydrates gets restricted, the body starts using the stored fats.” This process is called ketosis. As a result, the insulin levels in the blood drops, stabilising the blood sugar and the body loses weight. After the first week, the person starts to feel better and the craving pangs reduce.

Cure: Drink plenty of water to enable fat metabolism. Eat protein-rich foods like eggs and dal. You can take a teaspoon of good quality MCT oil or even pure coconut oil — it helps ease your cravings for carbs. If you feel nauseous, take adequate rest. “Substitute refined flour with complex carbs such as jowar, bajra or nachni to help you feel fuller without the negative effects,” suggests Mukerjee.

Salt detox

Salt is a chemical compound consisting of sodium, which is detrimental to health. While reducing salt intake is good, when a person drastically restricts his intake of salt for an extended period of time, the old accumulations in the body are excreted through the skin and kidneys.

Withdrawal symptoms of salt

In the initial days, there may be a salty taste in the mouth. “Cramps are initially experienced as salt is removed from the diet or rapidly excreted from the body,” adds nutritionist Honey Khanna. Other withdrawal symptoms include high blood pressure, lethargy and drowsiness, and excessive urination [as salt is water retentive]. In extreme cases, you may experience hypernatremia [electrolyte disturbance in the body] and fits.

Cure: Reduce salt intake slowly. Replace regular salt with rock salt or low-sodium salt.

Meat detox

Meat eaters have a high acid content in their body. When they stop eating meat, the body attempts to revert to the healthier, alkaline condition.

Withdrawal symptoms of meat

As the acids leave the body through the pores, they leave behind a disagreeable smell, foul breath and a bitter taste in the mouth. You may also experience some hair loss and muscular weakness. Once all the acid has been neutralised, these symptoms disappear.

Cure: Consume lots of fruits, vegetables and fluids.

Dairy detox

Milk is considered by many as a complete meal in itself. However, some people become lactose-intolerant and have to cut down on milk. Milk contains tryptophan [essential amino acid], which is sleep-inducing.

Withdrawal symptoms of dairy

Lack of sleep, lethargy, grogginess, mood swing, and headaches are common. You may also experience ailments like multiple bowel syndrome and chronic constipation.

Cure: Replace regular milk [cow or buffalo milk] by soy milk. “By completely eliminating dairy products from our diet, we deprive ourselves of calcium, a mineral that’s imperative for strong bones and teeth. This is an open invitation for diseases like osteoporosis at a later stage in life,” explains Deepika Malik, executive director, LifeCentury, and a qualified Ayurveda practitioner. You can also meet your calcium requirements with the help of supplements.

Sugar detox

Many dieticians treat sugar as slow poison. Not only does it promote weight gain, but it is also deadly for a person with diabetic tendencies. In many ways, what seems harmless is actually a cause of diabetes, obesity, and a variety of other problems.

“We take sugar withdrawal as seriously as addictions to substances like alcohol or drugs,” says Malik.

Withdrawal symptoms of sugar

Due to low blood sugar levels, the first symptom is acute craving for sugar and sugar products. Next is fatigue, in the absence of the energy boost sugar gives.

Depression, anxiety and mood swings may be experienced as sugar enhances these emotions too. It is also common to experience headaches, similar to the ones experienced in caffeine withdrawal. Other withdrawal symptoms include drowsiness, skin rashes and throat discomfort. In extreme cases, fever with tremors, unconsciousness and seizures are observed.

Cure: Cut off sugar slowly instead on stopping all at once. Switch to fresh fruits, salads and nuts.

Fat detox

A major chunk of our population suffers from obesity. The prime suspects are our fat-intensive diet and sedentary lifestyle. However, fats also provide many of the necessary vitamins. Embarking on a fat less or low-fat diet, reduces the level of vitamins like A, D, E and K in the body.

Withdrawal symptoms of fat

All problems related to the deficiencies of vitamins A, D, E and K manifest. You may also suffer from dryness of skin and hair, itching, weakness of bones, and night blindness.

Cure: Eat good fats like almonds and walnuts and fresh fruits.

A word of caution about detox diets

While going on any type of diet, reduce in stages instead of imposing a total stop on the consumption of any food item. “If you are cutting down on the consumption of above foods, you can avoid some of the symptoms by doing it slowly. If the craving persists, substitutes can be used,” suggests Khanna. Some withdrawal symptoms like that associated with wheat/caffeine withdrawal might require medical management.

■ This article was last updated on 18^th February 2021

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