Giving up caffeine

I have a number of friends who are giving up caffeine, and one who remains truculent, in the "oh no, no way" camp.

Along with cheese, I have a love-guilt relationship with coffee. I am well aware of the benefits of coffee-- a freshly brewed pot has antioxidants on a par with wine or blueberries. That, along with the ritual, the scent and the sheer palate-pleasing hedonism, makes this a battle I am not willing to fight. Losing cheese would be easier.

My friends are correct and right to release themselves from coffee. It's an anti-nutrient in many ways. It leaches our hard-won calcium from our bones and it stains our teeth. It's an addictive substance on which many a Mom becomes woefully dependent and for those of us who actually enjoy it's taste, it is an expensive dependency at that. For me, who takes my coffee blonde and sweet, it also becomes a delivery system for more fat (no fake milk here) and sugar (or, splenda) into my body. If I could even wean myself to black coffee, I would be satisfied.

But no.

I sit here with the proverbial angels on my shoulders, with the golden haloed one smiling sagely at my words, and the feisty red one staring off into space unconcerned, knowing that my idle musings here won't amount to a hill of (coffee) beans.