COFFEE DRINKING AND WEIGHT GAIN. . .
The Difference Between Real Hunger and Detox Hunger

By Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

There are many reasons why you should eliminate or greatly reduce the amount of coffee you drink. These include heart disease, endometriosis, menstrual disorders, breast pain, and possibly even breast cancer. But if you are overweight, there is another compelling reason to abstain from coffee-eliminating your caffeine intake can help you lose weight. I have noticed that overweight patients who drink coffee (tea and cola are also culprits) are drawn to eat more frequently than necessary. They eat extra meals and snacks because they are mistaking caffeine withdrawal symptoms-including weakness, shakes, mental fatigue, headaches, lightheadedness, stomach cramping, and esophageal spasm-for hunger. Why? They can't tell the difference between true hunger and the discomfort that accompanies caffeine withdrawal. True hunger is a mouth and throat sensation. It is a pleasant signal that tells you when food is needed. I call the unpleasant withdrawal sensations that coffee drinkers experience "detox hunger,"but these symptoms are not signs of hunger. There are signs of ill health.

People who consume unhealthful diets and ingest tissue-irritating substances, such as coffeine, develop symptoms that routinely are mistaken for hunger. After your body finishes digesting a meal, it begins to shift it's efforts toward mobilizing and eliminating irritants. This process often is accompanied by the unpleaseant symptoms described above. Since these symptoms can be relieved by eating, most people mistakenly think of them as "hunger pains."

Caffeine is a stimulant; it gives you a false sense of increased energy. As you become addicted to it, you set in motion a vicious cycle. You drink coffee (or other caffeinated beverages) and you experience a false, temporary sensation of increased energy. When the drug effects of the caffeine begin to wear off, you may experience headache and other withdrawal symptoms. Since eating is an effective way to suppress these sensations, you are prodded to eat again, consuming more food than you would if you weren't a caffeine addict.

Fortunately, by eliminating all or most of your intake of caffeine and switching to my healthful, high-nutrient eating plan, you can say good-bye to this unhappy and unhealthful scenario. My experience with thousands of patients who have followed my dietary plan is that most of them happily report that they no longer get the discomfort tht they formerly mistook for hunger. Even when they have a long wait between meals and get very hungry, these patients no longer experience stomach cramping, headaches or fatigue that used to accompany their falling blood sugar. They report that they merely experience true hunger. What's more, these patients say that their new, healthful meals taste better than ever before. They enjoy the pleasure of satisfying that hunger with delicious, healthful foods.

Very few Americans have ever experienced true hunger. But you will, when you start eating my healthful, high-nutrient-per-calorie diet and your body reaches a high enough level of health. There is no comparison between eating in response to true hunger and eating due to habit, cravings, boredom, or the withdrawal symptoms that most people mistake for hunger. To experience the day-to day enjoyment of satisfying your body's true hunger signals with delicious foods, you need to put my dietary recommendations into practice. You will never experience it while still addicted to caffeine or other stimulants.

Some people find it easier to follow my strictest dietary recommendations than give up coffee. What are they to do? If drinking a little coffee would make it possible for you remain true to my dietary recommendations, I would not have a strong objection. After all, losing weight is much more important for your overall health than giving up coffee. It is just that caffeine does not make it easier to control your appetite and food cravings, it makes it harder.

Since caffeine consumption makes it harder to lose weight, I suggest that if you are attempting to follow my dietary recommendations for health or weight loss, seriously consider quitting or weaning yourself off coffee. Keep in mind it takes four to five days for the caffeine withdrawal headaches to resolve once you stop drinking coffee. If the symptoms are too severe, try reducing your coffee consumption slowly, cutting back by about one cup every three days. Make a firm commitment right now to eliminate caffeine- in all of its forms. It will make a huge difference in the way you feel- and how quickly you can lose weight!