Over the years before LC my coffee ingestion had stabilised at around 7 or 8 mugs per day. That's quite a lot. At the time I started on LC I did Atkins induction and cold turkey-ed from all methyl xanthines. The headache was tolerable, especially as I knew exactly why it was there and that it would be gone by about seven days in, which it was. The need for an evening stimulant also disappeared because I no longer fell asleep during the hyperinsulinaemic phase of the post prandial period.
For which I was infamous.
Over the years I have reintroduced coffee a couple of times but stopped it again due to either minor lower GI upsets or worsening of either low back pain or finger arthritis.
I had done a desultory Pubmed search to see if there was any evidence for clear cut, lectin induced GI damage from coffee which might explain my own signs. When the penny dropped that coffee "beans" were actually seeds rather than legume-like beans I sort of gave up hunting.
So I was avoiding coffee and expected to do so long term. My issue was that I quite like the jittery restlessness which comes from an acute large dose.
In the aftermath of chatting to Ally I received an e-mail for Mason about Dr Paul Mason, his local Dr in Sydney. I have a lot of time for Dr Mason and I really enjoyed his lecture from the 2019 Carnivory.com conference.
It turns out that Dr Mason is pretty sure there is a lectin in coffee. Not only that but the lectin is heat labile.
If you boil your coffee for 10 minutes you appear to pretty well destroy the lectin.
So....
I can boil down a double strength cafetiere of coffee to the volume and bitterness of a double espresso in 10 minutes.
The caffeine is still there and absolutely produces the desired pharmacological effect.
For myself, drinking two or three double espressos per day produces tachyphilaxis to the caffeine within a week or two. Withdrawal is mild and sensitivity is pretty well restored within about 4-5 days. I have no interest in using caffeine to blunt caffeine withdrawal, so coffee is probably a weekend treat.
Plant poison, undoubtedly. Contains disgusting antioxidants too, no doubt. At the moment I feel that there is an acceptable trade-off.
Peter
For those who enjoy confirmation bias and worm studies:
Lifespan Extension Induced by Caffeine in Caenorhabditis elegans is Partially Dependent on Adenosine Signaling
