Fifi Rhodes
I LOST a lot of energy during the past few days and I am still trying to find out where it went.
During one of my morning sessions of jogging I ran into an old friend who saw how exhausted I looked at that time of the morning. He asked me if I had my morning coffee already. I told him that I do not drink coffee or tea anymore, but instead I drink a glass of hot water spiced with lemon each day.
He was quite frank saying that’s where my problem of loss of energy lies. He suggested I should drink cofee again but use less sugar, because a high amount of sugar could cause too much fat build-up around my liver.
I am still figuring out if he was right or wrong. Anyway, I kept on jogging home and contemplating if I should start enjoying my cup of coffee again. I quit drinking coffee and tea a year ago.
I know there are many of us who try to avoid it, and many that couldn’t perform without it. Some feel like they can’t function without it and I know it’s a vital component in workplaces throughout the world.
There are even a few who consume it without even knowing it and many plan their days around its consumption. We are talking about the stimulant caffeine, and whether you take it through coffee, tea, energy drinks, chocolate or other foods and drinks.
For some it has become impossible to avoid its impact on our workdays.
As far as I know, caffeine is not that good as too much intake brings with it the negative effects. It leads to the loss of vitamins B and C as well as calcium, iron and zinc. Coffee however is a mild stimulant.
It also leads to increased trips to the gents and eventually to dehydration, which means more time spent at the water cooling machine and toilet instead of production. It increases stress levels among everyday coffee drinkers, which is rarely a good thing.
But to other people, coffee is apparently something that’s vital to everyday office life.
The caffeine in it is an inescapable part of their office culture, even for a small minority that avoid it altogether. Considering that it plays such a pivotal part in our lives, it’s natural to ask ourselves; “Is coffee a miraculous productivity tool, or is it a crutch that ultimately hampers our performance?” It isn’t an overstatement to say that caffeine is everywhere.
As far as I saw over the years, an estimate of 90 percent of Namibians consume some sort of caffeine every day. Take for instance decaf coffee. It turns out that decaf doesn’t mean without caffeine; it simply means it contains less caffeine. Chocolate also contains small amounts of caffeine which rises as the chocolate gets darker. Many pain relievers and weight loss pills also contain caffeine. There are products such as oatmeal and sunflower seeds all packed with caffeine.
On average, before I quit coffee drinking, I consumed about 15 cups per day. If I can guess, about 450 000 cups of coffee are downed each day in our country.
My doctor friend said the chemicals produced by caffeine are very low and affect my receptors in my brain hence the exhaustion which led to my tiredness.
He said we all have different reactions to stimulants and there are no universal effects of caffeine. My late father once told me that drinking coffee before sitting down to work relieved shoulder, neck and arm pain.
He said caffeine increases the effectiveness of social interactions at work, which boost productivity levels. Coffee, he said, improves the health of its drinkers and reduces the risk of a number of health issues.
My doctor said caffeine lowers the chances of diabetes type II, which I was recently diagnosed with. It apparently further lowers heart disease and depression. He said men who drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day have a 10 percent chance of outliving non-coffee drinkers, while women who did the same are 15 percent more likely to outlive their counterparts. While it may be a bit morbid to think this way, and if I lift the cup again, it could reduce my health care costs or empty my pocket.