PrintWould you rather give up coffee or pasta?
I'm having an anxiety attack even thinking of having to make this choice:) Never eating mac & cheese, lasagna or raviola would be painful but...a day without coffee would be unbearable! I'd give up the pasta. If you had to make the choice...which could you live without, coffee or pasta?
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29 Comments:
This is a tough one! I think a life without pasta would be very sad but without my daily Cup'0 Joe would just be miserable! For me and everyone around me. On second thought....I probably COULD get my caffiene from another source but I would still be sad ...sigh
Sindy at 7:38AM on 01/21/08
Pasta. I'd miss it but I'd miss coffee more.
jasonbrink at 7:41AM on 01/21/08
I'd definitely choose the pasta, but here's another "would you rather" type of question that my friends and I find ourselves pondering:
Choose one to give up: chocolate, wine, or cheese.
Emily Koh at 10:33AM on 01/21/08
That's like asking if I'd like to give up oxygen or water. OMG. This is a tough one. I think I'd have to have a gun to my head to pick one over the other - I can't live without either.
Simply from an addiction standpoint, I would probably give up my beloved "macaroni" for my necessary cuppa joe. Too many things depend on it.
chiff0nade at 10:45AM on 01/21/08
no brainer for me, I drink coffee at most once a month, but pasta on the on the hand, I'm an ADDICT. I enjoy the entire spectrum, from dry boxed pasta eaten plain with only some salt and butter, all the way to hand making my own flavored doughs and ravioli, simmering sauces and infusing butters and oils, and everything in between.
seyo at 10:53AM on 01/21/08
Coffee. I am more likely to get my daily caffeine from Diet Coke anyway.
Amandarama at 11:02AM on 01/21/08
Wow, JEP. Torture me why don't you??? I'm really, really going to miss eating pasta!!!
As a genuine addict, just the prospect of giving up my drug of choice (coffee) gives me the DTs. Especially right now, as I sip on the second of three cups I'll have consumed this morning. Later, I'll reach for a late-morning or early-afternoon can of Diet Crack (booster dose).
Even when I was pregnant I couldn't give up coffee entirely. I tried, but my withdrawal headaches were so extreme that the doctor and I agreed it was better for everyone if I just went ahead and drank one cup a day. I'd nurse 1/2 a cup while I got ready for work, and I'd have another 1/2 cup when I got there (the brewer was right behind my desk, and the smell was irresistible). The kids appear to have turned out fine.
Of course, after a few weeks without pasta, I might work hard to find other acceptable caffeine delivery mechanisms. Since I can't drink enough soda to provide an adequate caffeine fix, I might have to pop No-Doz instead.
LoCo at 12:04PM on 01/21/08
I gave up coffee with the greatest of ease about 15 years ago, at the same time I quit smoking. Coffee just didn't taste right without a cigarette. Now I drink green tea, about 4 cups a day. It gives me a nice lift without feeling jittery. And every day researchers find something ELSE about green tea that's salubrious.
I will NEVER give up pasta! Or any other food, really. Moderation is key, but who could possibly give up . . . cheese?
Tom Steele at 12:13PM on 01/21/08
Hehe, Tom, you are touching on something here that is very important, and so far has gone unspoken in this thread: pasta, while delicious in itself, is a vehicle for other great things, such as you point out, cheese. You never eat pasta just boiled with nothing on it. At the very least, you will want some oil, or butter. A broth or a sauce. Some cheese. Pasta is always dressed. It's not like giving up pasta means you must give up cheese etc., but in giving up pasta you would be giving up one of the best delivery systems for cheese (and butter, and olive oil, and all kinds of sauces.)
seyo at 12:52PM on 01/21/08
I would have to say coffee for me. I would just have to massively increase my tea intake to make up for the caffeine. I just love pasta too much to even consider this a choice. Props to JEP for continuing to come up with thought-provoking (but evil) hypothetical choices!
psychsarah at 1:24PM on 01/21/08
Emily---I'd give up wine, no question!
A good cup of coffee can make everything right with the world again...my "liquid gold"...I'm still willing to give up my pasta, cheese & all!
JEP at 4:46PM on 01/21/08
Coffee. Without a doubt!
NutellaGirl at 7:14PM on 01/21/08
It would be easy to give up pasta, I don't eat much of it anyway... but I could never give up my coffee!!!!
jeepgirl42 at 8:35PM on 01/21/08
Ugh, I used to be addicted to coffee, but I gave it up because I realized that I shouldn't "need" a drug like caffiene.
Mac & cheese isn't hard for me to give up considering I've given up dairy products.
But I'd choose pasta 100%.
Whole grain goodness.
AikoSaishoku at 8:52PM on 01/21/08
Coffee. I feel that it's almost cheating since I was told to limit my caffeine consumption, and I've been drinking very little coffee lately anyway. Also, I think about it this way - "coffee" is just one product, whereas "pasta" refers to so many!
brooke29 at 9:51PM on 01/21/08
no
srhcb at 10:44PM on 01/21/08
I could live without coffee and just exercise more to be more energized. There are so many different types of pasta and ways of cooking it - I am just getting hungry thinking about it.
PattyCho at 12:16AM on 01/22/08
There is no way on God's green earth I'm giving up pasta. Are you insane, asking an Italian girl that kinda question? ;)
evilchefmom at 12:25AM on 01/22/08
Pasta and (don't shoot me) chocolate--can't live without wine and cheese!
smallblondemom at 2:03AM on 01/22/08
Interesting choice for comparison this time JEP!
I'd easily give up coffee over pasta. I depend too much on pasta for sustenance a lot of times, and I've recently kicked my coffee habit :)
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 2:50PM on 01/22/08
We eat very little pasta, so I could give that up much easier than coffee. Just the thought of no coffee sends me into a very unhappy place...
windjunkie at 8:18PM on 01/22/08
Coffee. No question.
Gotta have my carbs.
SayWhat at 8:25PM on 01/22/08
Such unrelated, but both necessary goods! Oh boy I don't even know. I haven't eaten a lot of pasta lately. If I do, I normally substitute noodles with spaghetti squash--oh yes, JEP, I will beat the system :)
That being said, I guess I would give up pasta. I think there are more substitutes for it. But I have to have my cafe au laits (no black coffee here!)
luswim06 at 10:59PM on 01/22/08
Yeah, it'd have to be coffee. I was horrified when I recently went for 2 days without caffiene, convinced that I wasn't addicted since I can go to sleep 10 minutes after drinking coffee or Diet Coke and I had the WORST headache of my life that did not end. It ended about halfway through my first mug. I don't want to be in that state again, so I have been slowly weaning myself...can't give up that pasta!
radley24 at 11:10PM on 01/22/08
Oh JEP, why, WHY? I'd have to say coffee, since I'm down to 1 cup a day. But it would be a sad, sad world without it. [Sob!]
CookiePie at 12:08PM on 01/23/08
I would give up coffee... no contest.
MadelynRodriguez at 12:31PM on 01/23/08
Pasta. Radley24, I went through that caffeine withdrawal, it took me 3 days to get over it! But now I'm back on one cup a day and am a mess without it ..
mrsbao at 12:48PM on 01/23/08
Well, being as how I only drink coffee every other am, alternating days with strong tea, I could give up coffee. I only drink one cup anyway. But, pasta???, are you crazy?? I could no more give up my pasta than I could fly! I probably have at least a dozen boxes of various pasta in my pantry right now.
susitee at 3:27PM on 01/23/08
Pasta
sln123 at 9:48PM on 01/23/08