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Hi,

In recent years I discovered that coffee is my comfort drink - I love it very much. I currently drink it 2-3 x per day with unsweetened almond vanilla milk in it. I mix it with 1/2 organic decaf. coffee...

I also discovered that I crave "bitter" i.e, the coffee, pomegranate black tea, and I love lemon.

How can I get off of this coffee addiction and love? What can I replace it with?

Hopefully knowing that my body wants something warm soothing and bitter will help you help me to figure this out.

Briefly -- how does stopping caffeine help me in this diet? (I don't want to read an entire book about it) thanks much for your help.

Well, you could definitely replace the bitter with eating more greens like Kale and collards.

I know for myself that coffee exacerbated my autoimmune disease, and I was a lifelong coffee lover, so stopping was hard.

Offhand, caffeine might raise blood pressure and increase appetite in some people, two things that could impede certain health goals for those on the diet, but not for others.

Hi Tru. You could try a coffee substitute like Cafix or a strong herbal tea. But, you may find that with time, your desire for bitter decreases as your digestion improves on this diet. I used to love bitter black coffee after heavy meals (using it like a digestive bitter), and now I find I don't need or want it.

Coffee/caffeine can dehydrate; increase cholesterol, blood pressure, and heart rate; be addictive and can cause headaches if your schedule of consumption is interrupted; increase the desire to consume heavy foods as an accompaniment; contribute to bone demineralization; and so on.

Here is what Dr. McDougall has to say about coffee:

http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougal ... coffee.htm

Good luck!

I got my husband totally off coffee by using Teeccino...

http://teeccino.com/

we used their suggestion of brewing 1/2 coffee and 1/2 teecchino and slowly decreasing the coffee....the last week my husband described sprinkling the coffee as a blessing only...he cannot believe how good he feels off of the caffeine and will never go back...the slow switch led to no headaches and he loves his new drink...you can order at Amazon and it's reasonable...

excellent idea on the Teeccino!

Thanks everyone for your help!

Yes, try Teeccino! At my local grocery store, they only carry the Tee Bags. I bought ground Teeccino at iHerb.com