20 Awesome Benefits of Quitting Caffeine or Coffee

Billions of people worldwide drink coffee or some form of caffeine every day.

Although caffeine is generally accepted as safe for consumption in moderation, there are some solid benefits to breaking the habit and quitting.

For some its coffee, for others energy drinks, but both tea and many sodas are also caffeinated.

1. Break the Addiction

For most people, caffeine is an addictive substance to some degree, although some would describe it as even highly addictive.

Dependence on a substance to function normally or to even stay awake becomes a vicious cycle. Caffeine changes our brain’s chemistry resulting in the need for more of the substance to achieve the desired effects.

Quitting caffeine or coffee breaks the cycle and frees us from needing a daily drug to function normally.

Need help reducing caffeine (or quitting entirely)?

Take the Overcoming Caffeine Withdrawal course.
Use Wean Caffeine (something we helped get to market). It helps avoid the painful withdrawal symptoms that occur when quitting caffeine.

2. Financial Savings

The cost of a caffeine addiction can really add up, thus thousands of dollars a year could be saved by quitting.

A Grande Starbucks Latte: $3.85 a day | $27 a week | $1,405 a year
Monster Energy Drink: $3 a day | $21 a week | $1,095 a year
Home-brewed coffee: $.71 a day | $5 per week | $259 a year
K-cups: $.65 a day | $4.55 a week | $237 a year
5 hour energy: $3 a day | $21 a week | $1,095 a year

Above we have listed the average cost of just one beverage a day, now multiply that by the number you have each day and it quickly adds up.

Two Starbucks Lattes per day would cost $2,810 a year!

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3. Lower Blood Pressure

Caffeine can raise your blood pressure a few points and even more in some people.¹

Quitting coffee or caffeine can lower your blood pressure and keep your heart from working as hard.
better sleep

4. Better Sleep

Caffeine can greatly reduce the amount and quality of a person’s sleep.² Drinking coffee or energy drinks too late in the day can interfere with getting to sleep quickly since the half-life of caffeine is 4-6 hours.

Caffeine can stay in your system for quite some time. If you have any issues with insomnia, it is worth trying to restrict you caffeine intake to mornings only.

Even people who have no caffeine after twelve noon report better quality of sleep after quitting caffeine.

5. Better Mood

Caffeine alters the mood. Many people report being grumpy until they’ve had their morning coffee and others feel lethargic when the caffeine begins to wear off in the afternoon.

Probably everyone has been around a grumpy person who hasn’t had their caffeine yet. Medical Daily does a good job of summarizing the research behind this.

Quitting can even out the ups and downs.

6. Decreased Anxiety

Many people report that caffeine increases their anxiety levels. This has to do with how caffeine affects the adenosine receptors in our brain and because caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands.³

Quitting coffee or caffeine can make you feel less anxious, especially if you are prone to anxiety issues.

7. Fewer Headaches

Caffeine is a major trigger for headaches. Any alteration in your normal daily caffeine consumption can result in a caffeine withdrawal headache.

Caffeine can also be a migraine trigger so people prone to migraines should avoid caffeine.

8. Convenience

Imagine never having to stop at Starbucks on the way to work?
Imagine never having to stop by the convenience store for a Red Bull?
Imagine erasing making coffee from your morning routine?
Imagine a backpacking trip without packing caffeine pills or the extra weight of coffee making equipment?

Being addicted to coffee, energy drinks, or soda creates inconvenience in our lives since we must have the drug to function normally.

However, this entirely subjective. For some, the process of grinding beans, and extracting a coffee can be an enjoyable one!

9. Fewer Trips to the Bathroom

Caffeinated beverages cause us to urinate more often and in some people can even cause incontinence.

Caffeine also stimulates the smooth muscle tissue of the colon, which causes it to contract.

This can be challenging during meetings, road trips, or when bathrooms aren’t convenient.

Quitting can reduce the need to use the bathroom as often, especially in the mornings.

10. Healthier Teeth

Coffee and tea stain teeth and acidic & sweet energy drinks or sodas erode tooth enamel which causes tooth decay more readily.

Eliminating these beverages results in whiter and healthier teeth.

11. Weight Loss

Unless you drink your coffee black. Caffeinated beverages generally add empty calories to our diets that we don’t really need.

Many experts say that sugary beverages are a huge component of the obesity epidemic plaguing the western world.⁴

A study from Victoria University found that when caffeine is in a sugary beverage it causes people to consume more of that sugary beverage compared to a sugary beverage without caffeine.⁵

Quitting just a one Monster Energy Drink/day habit saves 200 calories per day, 1,400 calories a week, or 73,000 calories a year!
Quitting just 1 Starbucks Vanilla Latte/day saves 250 calories per day, 1,750 calories a week, or 91,250 calories a year!
Quitting a 16 fl.oz. Coke/day habit saves 239 calories a day, 1,673 calories a week, or 87,235 calories a year!

1 pound of fat contains the equivalent of 3500 calories, so do the math…

12. Healthier Diet

Bottled coffees, teas, energy drinks, and sodas often contain an assortment of preservatives designed to give them a longer shelf-life.

These preservatives can have adverse health effects and some are even banned by some countries.

Sugar-free energy drinks and sodas contain artificial sweeteners that also can negatively affect our health.

Cutting these out of your diet can be beneficial to one’s overall long-term good health.

13. Cleaner Environment

Caffeine addiction places a tremendous strain on our natural resources. Just think of the number of plastic bottles, cans, and cups that have to be produced in order to meet the demand.

“Americans discard about 33.6 million tons of plastic each year, but only 6.5 percent of it is recycled and 7.7 percent is combusted in waste-to-energy facilities, which create electricity or heat from garbage. The rest ends up in landfills where it may take up to 1,000 years to decompose..” – State of The Planet

Also, caffeine has been showing up in municipal water supplies because of all the discarded coffee grounds.

Quitting caffeine reduces your environmental footprint.

14. Caffeine Will Work Again

Consuming caffeine daily quickly causes the human body to build up a tolerance to the drug. The same dose of caffeine then causes a person to achieve a sense of normal rather than the euphoric feelings it once did.

Quitting resets your body’s caffeine tolerance, allowing it to work really well on the occasions you really need it to.

15. Possible Drug Interactions

Caffeine can interact with other medications causing them to not work as they should.

Giving up caffeine eliminates this risk.

16. No More Jitters

One of the leading side-effects of caffeine or coffee consumption is jitters or shaky hands. This can range from annoying to even debilitating for some people.

Quitting can give you your steady hands back.

17. Less Risk of Cardiac Events

Caffeine stimulates the heart muscle causing it to beat with more forceful contractions.

While this isn’t problematic for most people, those with underlying heart conditions can be at risk. People can be unaware that they even have a heart disorder until they begin to consume caffeine and the damage is done.

18. Increased Productivity

What would you do with an extra hour every day?

Those addicted to caffeine can easily waste an hour standing in line at the coffee shop, making trips to the break room talking to coworkers along the way, and stopping at convenience stores. Also, the “productivity effect” caffeine provides quickly diminishes if you’re addicted.

The time saved could be used for an extra hour of sleep instead!

19. Reduced Type 2 Diabetes Risk

While black coffee actually has been shown to reduce diabetes risk, drinking sugary coffee and caffeinated beverages actually increase your risk of diabetes.

“People who consume sugary drinks regularly—1 to 2 cans a day or more—have a 26% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes” – Harvard School of Public Health⁶

20. Better Health

Many research studies point to the health benefits of coffee and tea because of their antioxidant properties. However, this isn’t true for all caffeinated beverages.

Soda, energy drinks, and processed coffee and tea products most likely have a negative impact on your long-term health.

People who drink mainly water report more natural energy, better overall feelings of wellness, better sleep, and healthier skin.

Even though coffee is high in antioxidants, people would be better off eating more blueberries or other highly nutritious foods and focus on an overall healthier diet.

Should You Quit?

If you are a slave to your coffee mug or energy drink, then you already know the answer. The real question becomes, how am I going to quit without failing my day-to-day responsibilities?!