It’s still Dry January, so many of us are working out how to socialise without having an alcoholic drink to hand. It’s great: it’s the one time of the year when friends are eager to meet up for walks and gallery shows rather than long, boozy evenings down the pub.

But in recent years, I’ve noticed that several of my friends are adding another form of abstinence to their routines: coffee.

Despite the huge gut and heart health benefits of coffee, caffeine has fallen victim to our pious wellness culture. Perhaps it was inevitable once alcohol started to fall out of favour, but I wonder if it has something to do with what coffee and caffeine stand for. Once, women bragged about how many cups of coffee they had to drink to keep going; today’s social cachet comes from being busy without the help of a natural stimulant. Instead, those of us who don’t have kids are preoccupied with ‘deregulating’ our nervous systems with reformer pilates and hot lemon in the morning, forcing down savoury breakfasts and bone broth before 8am and going to bed before 10pm to avoid ever needing an energy pick-me-up.

Gut experts keep saying how good coffee is for us – so why are we so obsessed with giving caffeine up?