Coffee & Menopause

The Breakup

For as long as I can remember, I've had a passionate on-and-off love affair with coffee: I like two shots of expresso, hot, with a puffy foam of soy milk, honey and a sprinkling of organic cacao, it's my morning treat, and I perfected this joyous delight to suit me and only me, but alas, we had to break up, yet again.

Over the years, and through many lived experiences, I would find it necessary to give up coffee periodically because it affected my physical health in ways that were worrying to me, meaning that the coffee acidity was restricting joint movement and stressing my nervous system, a few coffees a day were causing heightened anxiety and stiffer muscles, which I first noticed during my yin/yang yoga practice that I've had as a daily routine since I was eighteen.

In my early thirties and well into health and fitness, I became certified as a Holistic Health Coach through New York's Institute of Integrative Nutrition. I became fascinated by the growing Raw Food movement, so I took a deep dive into all of its literature and philosophy, completing several cleanses and detoxes. I began eating raw vegetables in all their many forms and recipe deconstructions, part of the protocol at IIN and the Raw Food Community was to give up coffee.Because of its high acidity, it can cause the body's PH level to become unbalanced, which can ultimately lead to illness and disease.

Surprisingly, after many attempts, I succeeded in giving up the lovely caffeine elixir and became blissfully unaware of its absence, lasting ten years. Feeling the best I'd ever felt in my entire life, the Raw Food lifestyle was difficult to maintain, one day, having drifted towards vegetarianism and on a heavy work day with little sleep, needing to up my adrenaline power I succumbed to the only fuel I knew would help in that time of crisis, oops, I'm back on the caffeine train with that the addiction was back at full force.

I thought it wasn't a big deal because of my level of health and vitality, so a silly little vice like coffee wouldn't hurt me, except that addictive substances whisper little nothings in your ear just like a lover, except these nothings are trouble (just like a lover, ahaha). Years and decades following, I would intermittently abstain from the great god of beans. Our culture insists we consume and bathe in it: face and body masks made from ground beans, it gives us that get up and go we like to feel and think we need every morning, we've let go of the slow waking to the sun coming up, or the unfurling of the mind and all its unnecessary chatter, that's all a thing of the past. The delicious cappuccino, a global treasure that helps sustain economies, is the fuel that energises the planet, but does it help our delicate bodies and nervous system? I would say yes and no.

There are nutritional values in the coffee bean, drunk in moderation, but mostly it's what you put in your coffee that can be harmful, such as sugar and dairy. It also has to do with a person's biology; some people's nervous system can't tolerate it, others drink a double macchiato before bed. Personally, being menopausal, I had to ask myself whether coffee is helping the symptoms or hindering them. I started reading articles from women's blogs that were advising against it, and having embraced the clutches of the brown brew since perimenopause, the addicted side of me was defiant and refused to believe them, classic denial.

Having arrived at my senior years, and having gone through some stressful times, like many of us, I still believed that I was in control and full of knowledge on all things health-related, but instead, I found myself at an impasse and was no longer in touch with what was going on with my body. My mind was foggy, I would run out of breath, and I had so little energy for exercise. I was at a loss after working so hard, only to find that something was sabotaging my efforts. The biggest concern was the foggy brain and loss of energy. I started to believe the whispers that it was old age and inevitable until...it took three months to stop listening to the devil on my shoulder and had my last cup of coffee. I wasn't sad or stressed, only relieved, having fought to make it happen for so long.

The mental fog lifted after three days, my energy returned after four days, and there were physical and emotional symptoms of withdrawal. I had to face the emotions that coffee addiction had been suppressing, which made me sad until they passed. Muscle and tendinous aches came as the body tightened for the last time before its ultimate release. I was determined not to be defeated. And I wasn't.

I replaced my morning cup of coffee with Yerba Mate tea: one tea bag with honey and Soy milk. The PH level of Coffee is around 5, whereas tea is at 7.5, a normal level for our bodies. Also, tea contains a third less caffeine than coffee, and green tea has the added benefits of antioxidants that fight free radicals.

I believe that all good things come in moderation, but at times, moderation needs to pause until the system reboots or until we get the message that our physical, mental and spiritual bodies do not want it. This information is my personal experience and may differ from person to person, as does the menopause experience.

For more help on menopause advice and recipes, visit Tess Masters @Skinny60. For general help with calorie intake and balanced diet advice, I recommend Noom.