Drinking a lot of coffee can be detrimental, but even one or two cups a day can have plenty of unwanted effects on the way you look and feel. Kicking your caffeine habit is a good idea for many reasons.
From the effects coffee has on your teeth, cardiovascular system and even your weight to the way it can impact fertility, discover the best reasons to give up coffee. While many of these effects would be reduced by switching to decaf, remember that it poses plenty of risks for your health.
1. Avoid Dehydration
Coffee is a natural diuretic, which means that you risk getting dehydrated and also lowering your levels of electrolytes. Research conducted at the University of Alabama has also shown that women who drink three cups of coffee every day have a 70% higher risk of developing bladder problems, including incontinence.
2. Lose Weight
Drinking coffee every day can also decrease insulin sensitivity, so one of the best reasons to give up coffee is to reduce the risk of weight gain. Even if you’re drinking it black, without the hundreds of calories from sugar in flavored coffees, it’s the caffeine that contributes to a lower insulin sensitivity, which is also linked to cardiovascular disease, because raised blood sugar levels contribute to arterial problems.
3. Keep Your Teeth White
Plenty of drinks, including tea and red wine, can stain your teeth, but coffee is definitely a big problem if you want a perfect smile, because it contains tannins that affect the color of your teeth. If you use bleaching products, you’ll end up eroding tooth enamel, and causing more problems. So skipping your morning cup of coffee can have a positive effect on your teeth, even if you’re very careful about your oral hygiene.
4. Sleep Better
One of the best reasons to give up coffee is the fact that it can disturb your sleep patterns, particularly if you drink it after lunch. Without getting the rest you need, your stress hormone levels rise, and that means a lot of problems, from lowered immunity to the visible changes when it comes to your skin. Get the best beauty sleep by skipping caffeine.
5. Keep Your Bowel in Check
Coffee is one of the triggers for constipation associated with irritable bowel syndrome, but it can also cause problems if your intestines are perfectly healthy. By stimulating muscles in your colon, coffee can mean more bowel movements, particularly in the first hour after drinking it. So unless you have constipation issues that you can’t solve without it, your digestive system is better off without coffee.
More: You Could Replace It with Healthy Herbal Teas
6. Avoid Bad Breath
Even if you drink coffee through a straw, to minimize any teeth stains, it will still give you bad breath. It reduces moisture in your mouth, which means more bacteria. This is a problem whether you drink your coffee black or with sugar and dairy, but those additions increase the risk of bad breath even more. Keeping your teeth white and your breath fresh naturally is definitely one of the top reasons to give up coffee.
7. Manage Stress and Anxiety
If you think you “need” coffee to function, then you already know how caffeine withdrawal can cause anxiety and stress. However, while the withdrawal symptoms are just temporary, daily caffeine intake can increase your levels of stress hormones as well.
8. Reduce Acid Reflux and Heartburn
While coffee is acidic so you shouldn’t expect anything good from it when it comes to your mouth, it can also contribute to GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), along with acid reflux and heartburn, so that’s one of the most important reasons to give up coffee.
9. Avoid Fertility Issues
Multiple studies have shown that caffeine can cause fertility problems. Dutch researchers from Radbout University found that women who drank two cups of coffee daily had a 27% lower shot at getting pregnant, and other studies also show in increases the risk of miscarriage.
See also: You Can Still Use Coffee to Reduce Cellulite
10. Increase the Potency of Medication
Prescription medication that includes caffeine can help treat migraines and restrict blood vessels, so one of the best reasons to give up coffee is to make caffeine more effective when you really need it.
