Time to check your gut. What I mean is that it’s time to examine the microbiome in your gut. And as with most things related to health, it turns out that drinking coffee is good for your gut microbiome, and one bacteria in particular.
As reported Newsweekthe fresh study was published earlier this week in the journal . To this end, researchers sought to study how foods affect the gut microbiome, a unique collection of bacteria, yeasts and fungi that live in the digestive tract and “are essential for digestion, nutrient absorption, toileting habits, mental health, immunity and more .” To this end, the researchers chose coffee to test how coffee affects the microbiome because this beverage is widely consumed, likely fit, and generally consumed in a binary fashion: unlike other foods and drinks, people typically drink coffee approximately every day or they don’t drink it at all.
For the study, scientists examined dietary data and information from almost 80,000 people in the UK and US, analyzed over 400 plasma and 350 stool samples, and conducted two in vitro experiments to better understand the interplay between coffee consumption and the microbiome. intestinal.
They found that one strain of bacteria in particular had a powerful association with coffee consumption. Compared with people who drank only three or fewer cups of coffee a month, people who drank three or more cups of coffee a day had eight times higher levels of this vitamin in their gut, and generally speaking, the more coffee they drank, the greater it was. coffee content. this bacteria. These results were obtained in participants from 25 different countries, and the bacteria reacted similarly in the test tube to coffee.
This study shows how finicky our microbes can be,” Dr. Tim Spector, ZOE’s scientific co-founder and one of the study’s authors, tells Newsweek. “This Lawsonibacter microorganism is hanging around in limbo, just waiting for a cup of coffee to bloom.”
Previous research has shown that coffee consumption contributes to gut diversity, but with fresh findings, researchers believe this particular effect on the microbiome may be one of the reasons why coffee has so many health benefits. In addition to being luxurious in antioxidants and polyphenols, the gut bacteria it promotes can “convert coffee components into other, more beneficial compounds, providing further health benefits.”
The study also points to the broader claim of eating a variety of fit foods, which have a similar knock-on effect of supporting a powerful gut. That’s another reason why I’m calling on our fresh Zyn-fueled health czar to put coffee on the food pyramid once and for all. Stranger things have really happened (and are currently happening).
