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coffee withdrawal + constipation

I have up coffee this week. (I’ve been drinking coffee for over 20 years except when I was pregnant ) .. I haven’t had any headaches or anything. ( I usually drink 2 cups in the morning ) .........but I am constipated. I usually go 2-3 times a day and now I’m going only once and not much. I am bloated and miserable! I eat about 70% raw. Any advice would be appreciated.

Comments

  • elizabethhelizabethh Raw Newbie

    don’t take my word for it but from what i know coffee is a diuretic, so the bloating could just be a result of your body getting used to getting rid of water at a normal rate not accelerated by coffee? just a thought, good luck!

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    I used to drink coffee and it made me pee alot and made my stool loose. You may adjust over a short period.

    When I stopped using it, same as you with the poo, but I had terrible headaches for two days, Right after this past Christmas I did a brief Master Cleanse and had terrible headaches for two days. I remember thinking this was like giving up coffee.

    You know what is crazy, my nurse friends (and my SAD friends agree) tell me that most people poop at most once a day. Wow – I would die. I went to my western doctor Fall of last year and the Nurse Practitioner asked me how often I had a bowel movement and I told her 3 – 5 times daily. She looked at me and said “You have irritable bowel syndrome?” I thought, it’s true – people must not poop much any more.

    I drink Yerba Matte in the morning now. Although it has a little caffeine, there doesn’t seem to be much and it is really high in anti-oxidants so I can justify it.

  • WinonaWinona Raw Newbie

    I sympathize. I gave up coffee, had some digestive problems – but fiber pills will take care of that! Buy some fiber pills quickly and start taking them. OR the natural route- drink green smoothies 3x per day. All that fiber is going to clean ya out! Also – and this is very important – sleep a lot. I napped 1 -2 hours a day, and slept 8 hours a night, during the whole two weeks after giving up caffeine.

  • Dain5000: does Yerba Matte taste anything remotely like coffee by chance? i miss the taste of coffee big time too.

    Winona: I just had a green smoothie per your tip. I still might go get some fiber pills as well. thanks.

  • My mom drinks cappucinos because she says they don’t have a bad effect on you and if you take Klamath Wild Blue Green Algae (a natural dialiser, yes, really!!) it will flush the toxic effects of coffee out. She drinks it because it helps her alot, and I even drink a little coffee myself. We just get strong cappucinos iced with alot of foam and no milk.. I know foam is milk but my mom says that it’s no where near as bad as milk, for some reason. So we go out every day for an iced bone dry cappucino and it’s great!! It all depends on how you feel about it..By the way people in the Himalayan Mountains eat a vegetarian diet mostly and are very active and drink coffee and live very long lives…so coffee obviously isn’t like eating five donuts, it’s just a little something that you can indulge in that isn’t really bad for you that much. This is just my opinion,not what I necessarily think is true.

  • joyce – your welcome! I totallt agree with your post :)

  • I think it is really no use of eating all good, but feeling deprived of something you like. So I think if you like coffee it does no harm to drink it. We eat raw to live long, healthy and happy lives, so if your cuppa coffee makes you happy you can drink it

  • thanks for all your support. the reason I’m trying to give up coffee is because I read that even that 1-2 cup I drink in the a.m. will still effect my sleep at night. I wake very easily. ( I sleep with earplugs too ) – but any little thing wakes me up. When I read that the caffeine from just my morning cup could possibly effect my sleep, i decided to give it up. I am always struggling to get my daughter to eat healthier & I felt like a hypocrite. I figure I’d try to give up coffee a good 6mos and if I do not see a difference in my sleep patterns I will be brewing the good stuff again! :o)

  • oh! and thanks rawclaire for the algae info. I’m totally clueless on it so i’m going to go google now :)

  • Good Idea! When you get the Klamath Wild Blue Green Algae, make sure to get the enzyme enhanced version. The best brand I’ve are the dark glass bottles with turquoise-colored labels and a big rainbow diamond on the front.. sorry for the weird descrisption, but I know if you go to www.luckyvitamin.com and search Wild Blue Green Algae. Get the enzyme-enhanced one :)

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    ArtzyFartzy: I don’t think yerba matte tastes like coffee, but I have developed a taste for it and enjoy it every morning. I buy it from the local store and it is chilled, which I like too. It comes in several flavors, The first time I had it, I wasn’t thrilled with it. By the third bottle, I was loving it.

  • lzhptlzhpt Raw Newbie

    flybaby—lovies! Artzyfartzy—exactly why I haven’t been able to let go of the coffee—I sip it until I have to go every morning-1/2-1/4 cup.

  • greeniegreenie Raw Newbie

    I feel better without coffee, but it’s an addiction I tend to go back to at different times. Without it I sleep better, have more energy (and much more sustained energy), and my (ahem) spiritual experiences are better.

    About the constipation. Two words: Green smoothies. Fruit.

    I like the name Artsyfartzy.

  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    artzyfartzy – I hear you, I have a cup a week for fun, but every time I’ve given it up I get a splitting headache and I can’t go as well as before. Coffee does make you go, don’t know what it is that does it, but I have read that besides being a diuretic it prompts your body to go. When I gave up serious coffee drinking my body didn’t know how to do it on it’s own, it had to relearn the skill! I agree with the fiber idea – flax seed and chia seed work well. I would also recommend not as a raw thing, but transition – dandelion root tea. Someone on this site recommended it (it has lots of liver cleansing benefits and is very nutritious) but I was extremely skeptical of how it was going to taste and I ended up LOVING it. It’s roasted.

  • stRAWberry: thanks for that tip from your grandmother. I am trying it tomorrow a.m. for sure!

    greenie: ..thanks :)

    lzhpt: you have incredible willpower 1/4 a cup! I can’t even have coffee in the house ;p

    amysue: I’m still waiting for my body to relearn! I did get some chia seeds & flaxseed -but it hasn’t done much yet. I’m going to get some dandelion root tea at my next trip to the health store.

    • a positive thing I’ve noticed from quitting coffee is my appetite has decreased ( and since I’m struggling with weight loss that is a GOOD thing for me! )
  • amysueamysue Raw Newbie

    Yea – a couple hours after coffee I’m FAMISHED but it must a blood sugar thing. It will take a little time for the other part to get up to speed.

  • JDJD

    Ok, I gave up coffee as well and went through withdrawals which I could deal with but could not stand the constipation so decided to get rid of it slowly. Once the constipation kicked in I would have a cup to relieve it and then continue to kick my habit the next day. Worked fine for me.

  • have you ever heard of a grain beverage that is a coffee substitute.. they arent raw.. but there is a substitute that tastes similar to coffee..Caffix is an instant one and tacchino (spelling?) is one that you brew.

  • loveskale: In my opinion teeccino is the closest thing to an herbal substitute that tastes alot like coffee! I bought some and drink it on occasion.

    I did have some regular coffee today when I went out with my cousin. The first time in almost a month. I felt great at first ( and of course was ‘regular’ finally! )..but later on in the day I noticed I felt irritable and anxious. :( ........I also have a problem with high cholesterol & read on a website that coffee ( regular or decaf ) can slightly raise cholesterol. So I decided to make coffee a rare treat when I’m out with friends/family. that way I don’t feel totally deprived like I have all month..knowing I’m allowing myself to have a little coffee once in awhile sorta helps ;p

  • kandacekandace Raw Newbie

    When I gave up coffee, I started drinking green tea quite a bit. It isn’t raw, of course, but really helped me get over the feeling that I need coffee each day. It has a bit of caffeine, but a nutritionist once told me that the caffeine is counterbalanced by all of the positive effects of drinking green tea.

  • i will have some coffee on occasion. i used to be an addict. i would drink a pepsi on my way to work while i was waiting for my coffee to cool down and then iwould drink pepsi all day long.. only out of a bottle and only if it was ICE cold.. never if it has sat too long.. i was very picky.. now if i have one cup of coffee i become annoyingly hyper and if i have two i actually have to sit down and take deep breaths and give myself a pep talk that i am not goin to have a heart attack!! so i normally make my coffee really weak when i do have some, which is rare

  • angie207angie207 Raw Master

    Anything that is that addictive cannot be a good thing for the body, and coffee makes the body very acidic, which then prompts the body to dump calcium from the bones into the blood in order to re-balance the pH levels.

    If you’re constipated, and even more if you’re taking fiber, make sure to drink a ton of water; without enough water, the fiber just makes you more constipated.

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