Coffee & Your Gut

Coffee, in moderation, is generally considered a healthful drink—speaking for the drink itself, at least! Because the same cannot be said for added sugar, various sorts of creamers, or iced caramelatte mocha frappucino dessert-style drinks:

The Bitter Truth About Coffee (or is it?)

Caffeine, too, broadly has more pros than cons (again, in moderation):

Caffeine: Cognitive Enhancer Or Brain-Wrecker?

Some people will be concerned about coffee and the heart. Assuming you don’t have a caffeine sensitivity (or you do but you drink decaf), it is heart-neutral in moderation, though there are some ways of preparing it that are better than others:

Make Your Coffee Heart-Healthier!

So, what about coffee and the gut?

The bacteria who enjoy a good coffee

Amongst our trillions of tiny friends, allies, associates, and enemies-on-the-inside, which ones like coffee, and what kind of coffee do they prefer?

A big (n=35,214) international multicohort analysis examined the associations between coffee consumption and very many different gut microbial species, and found:

115 species were positively associated with coffee consumption, mostly of the kind considered “friendly”, including ones often included in probiotic supplements, such as various Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus species.

The kind that was most strongly associated with coffee consumption, however, was Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus, a helpful little beast who converts chlorogenic acid (one of the main polyphenols in coffee) into caffeic acid, quinic acid, and various other metabolites that we can use.

More specifically: moderate coffee-drinkers, defined as drinking 1–3 cups per day, enjoyed a 300–400% increase in L. asaccharolyticus, while high coffee-drinkers (no, not that kind of high), defined as drinking 4 or more cups of coffee per day, enjoyed a 400–800% increase, compared to “never/rarely” coffee-drinkers (defined as drinking 2 or fewer cups per month).

Click here to see more data from the study, in a helpful infographic

Things that did not affect the outcome:

• The coffee-making method—it seems the bacteria are not fussy in this regard, as espresso or brewed, and even instant, yielded the same gut microbiome benefits
• The caffeine content—as both caffeinated and decaffeinated yielded the same gut microbiome benefits

You can read the paper itself in full for here:

Coffee consumption is associated with intestinal Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus abundance and prevalence across multiple cohorts

Want to enjoy coffee, but not keen on the effects of caffeine or the taste of decaffeinated?

Taking l-theanine alongside coffee flattens the curve of caffeine metabolism, and means one can get the benefits without unwanted jitteriness:

The Magic Of L-Theanine

Enjoy!