Coffee And Gut Health: Reasons Why Coffee Is Good For Gut Health

Some people love drinking coffee every day. It tastes good and can help wake up or keep you going in the afternoon. But did you know coffee can also be good for your tummy?

Drinking coffee can help your tummy in a few ways. It can help reduce swelling, make digestion more effortless, and keep your gut from getting sick. But be careful! Coffee can sometimes be bad for your tummy, too. So, knowing the helpful and not-so-helpful sides of drinking coffee is good.

Let's chat more about how coffee helps or hurts our tummy. But first, do you know where coffee comes from? Let's take a quick peek at coffee's story!

A brief history of coffee

Coffee has a remarkable history. It's been around for hundreds of years! People think it started in Ethiopia around the year 850. People there found a fruit that, when eaten, made them feel happy and awake. That's how they discovered coffee! [1]

Later, in the 14th century, the coffee plant arrived in Yemen. They are still determining how it got there. The story has it: shepherds noticed their goats jumping around and full of energy after munching on coffee leaves and berries. They shared this with monks living nearby.

One day, a monk accidentally roasted some coffee beans in a fire. The smell was amazing! All the monks loved it. They ground the roasted beans and made a tasty drink. This coffee drink became so popular that it spread to places like the Ottoman Empire and worldwide. Today, people love coffee for its taste and the good stuff it does for our bodies, especially our tummies.[2] Speaking of good stuff, did you know certain teas like mugwort tea also offers amazing health benefits, including for the gut?

Coffee isn't plain anymore. People mix it with yummy flavors like blueberry, chocolate, and caramel. And some like it with milk and sugar. If you want to try something different and tasty, give blueberry coffee a shot! It's good!

Ways that coffee benefits your gut

Some studies have found that drinking coffee can benefit your tummy in different ways.

Coffee can improve gut motility

Coffee can improve gut motility, akin to how the affective communication improves our social connections. It stimulates the muscles in the colon, assisting people who have trouble with bowel movements. This might be because coffee, especially the kind with caffeine, wakes up the muscles in the colon. It works even better than water and decaf coffee! [3]

But be careful! For some people, coffee works too well and can make them rush to the bathroom too often. If that happens to you, drinking less coffee or skipping it might be a good idea.

Coffee can improve gut microbiome

Coffee might be good for the tiny creatures living in our tummies. We all have little bugs called bacteria in there, and some of them are good for us! [4]

Some studies found that drinking coffee, even green or roasted, can make one type of good Bifidobacterium more active or increase their numbers. This is an incredible discovery because these bacteria are like tiny health warriors for our bodies.[5]

One study looked at people with fatty liver and diabetes and found something interesting. When these people took caffeine and chlorogenic acid every day for 12 weeks, they lost some weight! The researchers think this might be because the good bacteria in their guts increased. But hold on! Even though this sounds awesome, scientists need to do more studies to make sure coffee does help our gut buddies. We're still learning a lot about it!

Coffee has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti cancer properties

Coffee is like a superhero drink because it has the power to fight off bad stuff in our bodies! It's packed with antioxidants, and it can also fight inflammation and cancer. [6]

An extensive library of medical facts tells us coffee is exceptional because it has things like polyphenols. Polyphenols are like magic ingredients that do good things for our health. They calm down inflammation, which is when a part of our body gets all red, warm, and swollen. They also fight oxidative stress, another bad thing that can happen inside us. [7]

But wait, there's more! These polyphenols are like crime-fighting heroes against cancer. They stop lousy cancer stuff from forming, tell tumors, "No way, not growing here!" and even make cancer cells self-destruct.

So next time you see someone sipping coffee, remember – it's not a tasty drink. It's packed with some pretty awesome health powers! But remember, you've got to wait a few more years before you can make it your superhero drink, too!

Coffee Helps With Postoperative Ileus

Coffee has a nifty trick - it can help people feel better faster after having surgery on their bellies. Some folks have trouble with their tummies working right after surgery, but coffee can help.[8] While it's proven that coffee can help people feel better faster after having surgery on their bellies, we should also explore how emotional awareness plays a role in the overall healing process.

Drinking coffee is a safe and handy way to help the tummy get back to normal after someone has had surgery. If someone has to go to the hospital for an operation, knowing that a cup of coffee can help them get better faster is fantastic news!

Other health benefits of coffee

Besides helping our tummies, coffee can also act as a spiritual awakening, opening our minds and bodies to new potentials.

Drinking coffee might lower the chances of getting some tough sicknesses. Imagine coffee as a shield against different types of cancers - including breast, colon, and prostate - and heart diseases. That's pretty heroic. [9]

But wait, there's more! Coffee might also guard against chronic illnesses, which stick around for a long time. So, it could potentially be a helper against Parkinson's disease, metabolic syndrome, and type-2 diabetes. In simple words, coffee is not a warm, yummy drink. It's like a health superhero in a cup!

Negative effects of coffee on your gut

While coffee has various benefits, it can sometimes act like a double-edged sword. For instance, excessive consumption can lead to increased anxiety, impacting your overall health and wellness. It's similar to having too much vitamin B12; a balanced intake is key. Let's look more closely at each of these negative consequences.

Coffee may cause irritable bowel syndrome (Ibs)

Coffee is a drink that many people love, and it's been around for a long time. But did you know coffee might connect to tummy trouble called Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)? [9]

IBS messes with the large intestine, hurting the tummy and cramping. People with IBS might feel super bloated, run to the bathroom a lot, or have difficulty going. A study said people who drink coffee might have a 44% bigger chance of getting IBS 44% greater than those who never drank coffee. The odds were highest in people who had at least 106.5 mg of caffeine intake per day. [10]

Did You Know? A regular cup of coffee contains approximately 95mg of caffeine, while a decaf coffee has only 2mg of caffeine. How many cups of coffee do you have to drink to surpass the 106.5mg mark? Do the math. So, if your tummy is often in a twist, it might be a good idea to take a caffeine break and see if it helps. [11]

Coffee may promote acid reflux and heartburn

Coffee is yummy and gives us that wake-up kick, but it can also lead to tummy troubles and heartburn for some people. Heartburn feels like a burning pain in the chest, and it's not fun at all.

A guy named John K DiBiase did a science project (called a trial) with 30 people. Most of them got heartburn, a yucky backflow of food, or dyspepsia (that's a fancy word for stomach upset) after drinking coffee. And guess what? How the coffee is roasted doesn't matter; it still causes those touchy feelings. [12]

Another extensive study (with a super long name!) found that coffee can trigger heartburn and LPR. LPR stands for Laryngopharyngeal Reflux, which is like regular heartburn but also makes the throat feel sore and icky. [13]

Coffee may trigger leaky gut symptoms

Leaky gut syndrome is when the inside lining of your intestines isn't working right, letting lousy stuff like bacteria and toxins sneak into your bloodstream. This can make you feel pretty icky, causing problems like swelling, allergies, and diseases where your body attacks itself.

Now, let's talk about coffee. For some folks, coffee can make leaky gut problems worse. A science study even found that people who drink a lot of coffee can get damage in a part of their tummy and intestines. But don't worry too much—if they take a break from coffee, that part can start to heal in a couple of days. [13]

If you love coffee but often have a rumbly tummy, it might be because of leaky gut syndrome getting a nudge from the coffee. If that sounds like you, try drinking less coffee and see if it helps. And if your tummy is often upset, special supplements can help make your gut feel better!

Other negative effects of coffee

Coffee may cause loss of pregnancy

Caffeine is a stimulant in coffee, tea, soda, and chocolate. Too much caffeine can cause problems with conception and increase the risk of miscarriage.

A study from the NIH and Ohio State University, Columbus, finds that women who consume more than two caffeinated drinks daily are more likely to miscarry. The same applies to women who drink more than two caffeinated beverages during the first seven weeks of pregnancy. [14]

Caffeine can also cause other problems with pregnancy, such as low birth weight and premature birth. However, not all studies found this association. Women trying to conceive or pregnant must avoid caffeine as much as possible. This means limiting coffee, tea, soda, and chocolate to up to one or two servings per day. [15]

Coffee may raise serum lipids levels

A lot of people love starting their day with a cup of coffee. But there's a study on a website called Pubmed that says coffee might make something called serum lipid levels go up. That's a fancy way of saying there might be more fats in your blood if you drink coffee. This seems especially true for people with higher lipid levels and those who drink regular coffee instead of decaf. [16]

Why should we care about this? Having too many lipids in your blood can be risky for your heart. So, if you're looking to keep your heart healthy and your blood lipids low, skipping the coffee or not drinking too much of it is a good idea. [17]

So even though that morning cup of coffee can be super tempting, thinking about our heart health is essential, too!

Conclusion 

Just as each person's journey to emotional awareness is unique, so is their response to coffee. Like the mysterious number 110 in angel numerology, coffee's effects on our gut health remain a subject of intricate exploration and personal experience.

But remember! Not everybody should be sipping on that coffee. Pregnant ladies, people with leaky gut syndrome (that's when bad stuff slips through the walls of your intestines), folks with acid reflux (a burning feeling in your chest), and people with high fats in their blood should think twice. If you're one of these people, talking to a doctor before reaching for that coffee cup is smart.

So, coffee can be a superhero for some but not the best pal for others. It's always good to know which side you're on!

FAQ

References

1. USDA: USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service
2. Statista: Coffee consumption worldwide
3. Pubmed: Impact of coffee consumption on the gut microbiota
4. Pubmed: Short term effects of coffee components consumption on gut microbiota in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver and diabetes
5. Pubmed: Effects of Coffee and Its Components on the Gastrointestinal Tract
6. Pubmed: Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activity
7. Pubmed: Effect of postoperative coffee consumption on gastrointestinal function after abdominal surgery
8. Pubmed: Coffee, Caffeine, and Health Outcomes
9. Pubmed: Association of Coffee and Caffeine Intake
10. National Coffee Association of U.S.A: All About Decaffeinated Coffee
11. The Johns Hopkins University: 5 Foods to Avoid if You Have IBS
12. Pubmed: Development of scores assessing the refluxogenic potential
13. National Library of Medicine: The impairment of gastroduodenal mucosal barrier by coffee
14. NIH: Couples’ pre-pregnancy caffeine consumption linked to miscarriage risk
15. Pubmed: ffect of reducing caffeine intake on birth weight and length of gestation
16. Pubmed: Coffee consumption and serum lipids
17. Pubmed: Hyperlipidemia as a Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease

⚠️Disclaimer: The information provided on this health blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.