TEA  AND COFFEE – KICK THE HABIT BEFORE RAMADHAN

By karimah bint Dawoud

karimahscuisina@live.co.uk

 

when I encourage people to give up tea and coffee before Ramadhan, sometime people say “there’s nothing wrong with drinking tea and coffee!” it’s so interesting how we often  let these kind of comments fall out of our mouth without thinking and without realizing we have not actually done any research into the thing we are wrongly defending.

so I decided to set the record straight and practice what I preach and write this article.

JUST A QUICK NOTE, if you drink tea or coffee at Suhour pre-fast time, it will actually help make you more thirsty, dehydrate you throughout the day…interesting

 

We all love a good cup of tea and coffee, it’s something we have grown up with, something that nations have been built on. As the world has become smaller and people travel more we have become connoisseurs of different types of tea  and coffee and the rise of commercial coffee franchised are seen on many a street corner.

tea and coffee are addictive and more than three cups a day are actually harmful to your health.

tea and coffee contain tannin  and caffeine, these natural chemicals are actually stimulants and that the part we find addictive. caffeine stimulates the nervous system, alleviates tiredness, increases feeling more awake and in doing so improves focus and concentration.

some people like myself are more sensitive to caffeine than others  so regularly one cup a day can produce side effects.

even for those with tough stomach and no so sensitive  nervous system more than three cups of coffee can produce the following side effects :-

• insomnia
• nervousness
• restless
• irritability
• stomach upset
• faster heart beat
• muscles tremors

 

if you are suffering from  restless sleep and drink coffee, you are perhaps putting yourself in a vicious cycle , a catch 22. if you then rely on coffee in the morning to get you going and through eh day, you are then going to face another day of restless sleep.

once you start to see the sense in what I am saying ,  and stop coffee and tea , just until Ramadhan is over, you can experience withdrawal symptoms as early as 12 hours after your last cup. At their least these withdrawal symptoms can last 24-48 hours , at their worst they can last up to a week.

withdrawal symptoms included:

• restlessness
• muscle stiffness
• headaches moderate /severe
• chills and hot flushes

if you drink allot of coffee or tea you may experience the following more severe withdrawal symptoms:

• nervous edgy
• problems sleeping
• severe headaches
• anxiety worrying
• flushed face
• feeling nauseous sick like vomiting
• notably faster heart beat

if you drink allot of coffee cut it down to one cup till you can reduce complete, drink de-caff but personally that doesn’t  work for me, there are alternative teas like rooibush which you make with milk and sugar like ordinary black tea but instead of the harmful effects of tannin, it has wonderful relaxing anti oxidant properties and is actually good food you.

you can buy it from health shops

http://www.hollandandbarrett.com/rooibos-tea-334