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After water, coffee is one of the most consumed beverages worldwide. Many people talk about whether coffee is healthy for you or not, but new research is focusing on how coffee affects gut health. A new study published in Nature Microbiology showcases how coffee affects the gut microbiome.How Coffee Can change the gut microbiome

What We Knew About Coffee

Caffeine is the main reason most people grab their cup of joe in the mornings. However, coffee has many health benefits. 

Coffee is rich in bioactive compounds like antioxidants and polyphenols. A study identified 136 bioactive compounds, including:

  • Amino acids
  • Hormones (melatonin and serotonin)
  • Carotenoids
  • Terpenoids
  • 38 different phenolic acids
  • 41 flavonoids
  • Stilbenes
  • Lignans
  • 23 other polyphenols
  • Chlorogenic acids
  • Caffeic acid

In this study, it was found that Columbian coffee had the most beneficial, bioactive compounds of the different types studied.

Coffee is also great at helping you have regular bowel movements. This is part of why researchers believe that coffee helps reduce the potential for colorectal cancers by 26%. 

Coffee may help prevent the following conditions as well:

With all of these conditions being benefited by more coffee consumption, it’s not really surprising that the gut microbiome benefits too. Especially since we know there is a correlation between all of these diseases and gut health. So let’s see what this study found about how coffee affects the gut microbiome.

How does coffee affect the gut microbiome?

In previous studies, it was found that chlorogenic acid — a polyphenol found in coffee— offers most of the health benefits we associate with coffee. The gut microbiome breaks chlorogenic acid down into caffeic acid, quinic acid, and other metabolites providing the body with many benefits. 

They found early on that among more than 150 food items, coffee seems to affect the gut microbiome the most. Using this information, they wanted to see how quantities of coffee intake affect the gut microbiome. 

The study looked at more than 22,000 participants and their long-term, daily intake of coffee. Participants were split into 3 categories based on how much coffee they drank daily:

  • Never (up to 20g/day = less than 3 cups/month)
  • Moderate (between 20-600g/day)
  • High (600+g/day = more than 3 cups/day)

The data they received from these people was also paired with public data from other groups of people: non-Western people, newborns, people with specific health conditions, non-human primates, and ancient microbiome samples.

The results found that there was a distinct difference between the gut microbiomes of those who drank coffee and those who didn’t. 

Coffee appeared to stimulate microdiversity within the gut microbiomes of coffee drinkers. One hundred fifteen different microbes were more prevalent in coffee drinkers than non-coffee drinkers. One bacteria type stuck out the most — Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus. 

Moderate coffee drinkers had 3-4 fold higher quantities of L. asaccharolyticus than non-coffee drinkers, while those in the high-consumption category had a 4-8 fold increase compared to non-drinkers.

These differences were seen with caffeinated and non-caffeinated coffee. 

This study shows that coffee can improve the microdiversity of the gut microbiome leading to the many beneficial effects coffee has on overall health, energy, and longevity. 

How to Get the Most Out of Your Cup of Coffee

Just drinking coffee daily is enough to get these great benefits. But there are differences between coffee blends, franchise coffees, and what you put in your coffee. All of these things can affect how much benefit you’re getting from your coffee. 

What type of coffee is best?

Organic, fresh coffees are going to be the best for you to purchase. Places that grow coffee, like Colombia, will have the freshest and least processed coffee. 

In a study we mentioned above, it was found that Colombian coffee has the most polyphenolic content out of the different coffee types studied. Coffee from other regions in Latin America can provide similar benefits.

Getting your coffee from these countries directly as opposed to your local grocery store will provide you with a fresher, more recent coffee that hasn’t been over-roasted. This also keeps the polyphenol content higher because as coffee sits on the shelf it decreases. Even within a year coffee will significantly lose polyphenol content. 

What type of coffee roast is best for you?

If you walk down the aisle in a store, there are a TON of different options for coffee to buy. Dark roasts have a more robust flavor profile, but they may not be the best choice when it comes to choosing the healthiest coffee. 

Light to medium roasts with organic coffee beans offer the most polyphenols. Darker roasts have significantly fewer polyphenols, meaning fewer health benefits. When you purchase coffee from their countries of origin, they will still have significant flavor because they are picked at their peak and don’t need to be over-roasted to boost flavor. This means they’re able to retain the flavor profile you want, without sacrificing the healthy benefits.

What should I put in my coffee?

Some people love the bitterness of coffee, but others don’t love that and when you start adding different things to your coffee, you’re affecting how healthy it is. 

Sugars and syrups change the entire flavor of coffee, making it more palatable. However, if you’re drinking a lot of sweetened coffee, it can do more harm than good. High sugar intake negatively impacts your gut microbiome and contributes to inflammatory responses. Chronic inflammation leads to cellular damage and disease development. So keep an eye on just how much sugar you’re consuming to make sure the benefits are still there and you aren’t damaging your gut health in the process.

Coffee and milk, on the other hand, seem to be a promising duo. A 2023 study found that people who are casein or lactose intolerant or have other milk sensitivities seem to get an anti-inflammatory effect from mixing milk with coffee. This allows them to have the potential to get milk in their diets without having a reaction to it. While this research is still in the beginning stages, it’s interesting to see that the polyphenols in coffee are so potent for anti-inflammation. This is going to be a great area of future research to see what else coffee polyphenols can help with. 

What kind of coffee is best to order from coffee shops?

When you go to a coffee shop you often don’t think about what all goes into the delicious-sounding beverage that you order, but a study looked at what things are the healthiest/most beneficial to your health to order from coffee franchises. 

The ones that are super sugary and have different flavor options are typically high in sugar. However, if you’re sticking to classic orders, the following are going to provide you with the best polyphenol and/or caffeine:

  • Espresso (highest significant total polyphenols and caffeine content)
  • Americanos (great ratio of caffeine and especially polyphenols)
  • Ice lattes/latte frappes (highest caffeine content — these alone don’t have high sugar content, but when you add a flavoring syrup or sugar to it spikes significantly)

So there you have it. This is how coffee changes the gut microbiome and how you can get the most out of each cup you drink!

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