This book was great.

I have been addicted to coffee for 12 years and have tried to quit several times. This book gave me the will to try again, and provides an “off the bean” protocol. I weaned down while reading the book and a few days ago had my last tiny cup of coffee. I feel fine and only had minor withdrawal (little headache).

Last time I tried to quit I googled the pros and cons and was only given positive information. There seems to be an extreme bias in the science world in favor of coffee, probably because they all drink coffee. I feel very misled. I even did a podcast about it (Notus & Friends: Coffee is Good for us?!), and I feel I have misled my audience as well (will do a new one soon on this book).

I wasn’t cherry picking looking for good info, but that’s all I was shown. It turns out that there is a mountain of evidence of harm, going back decades. This book goes into all of it. It is fairly long (~400 pages), and covers I think all the necessary points to thoroughly understand the subject.

This topic is interesting from a sociological point of view (scientists literally documenting harm, yet saying “moderation” is fine, even when their own data contradicts that conclusion, presumably because they are simply addicted to coffee), and from a physical point of view. People think that caffeine helps them focus, yet evidence proves it does not; they think it gives them energy, yet it only produces stress hormones; they think it makes them feel good, yet it only stops withdrawal symptoms.

We all know that stress is bad. It causes numerous problems in every system of the body. Yet stress is caused by caffeine. The body doesn’t know the difference between stress hormones being released because you’re being chased by a lion or because you consumed caffeine. The physical harm of chronic stress is the same regardless of the source.

This book is worth your time. If you are one of the rare people who doesn’t use caffeine, chances are you are surrounded by addicts. I know of several people who are on our nutritional program and are not getting the results they desire - caffeine could be a or the reason why.