Coffee is a drink that many people love and some people avoid. The fact that so many people consume it every day, and some don’t at all, has led scientists to investigate it.
To study the effects of coffee consumption on the gut microbiome, the researchers began by analyzing medical data on approximately 22,800 people living in the UK and the US and a further 54,200 people from 211 studies. This allowed them to compare data from those who reported drinking coffee and those who did not, while also examining differences in the gut microbiome between the two groups.
How coffee affects the composition of the gut microbiome
The research team identified one major difference: the number of populations of a bacterium called Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus.
According to a new study published in a scientific journal Nature Microbiology regular coffee drinkers had up to eight times higher levels of these bacteria in their microbiomes than non-coffee drinkers – and this difference was seen across all participants.
The study authors don’t know exactly what effect higher levels of L. asaccharolyticus might have in humans, but their findings suggest it may be related to the health benefits attributed to coffee consumption.
By now we knew that The hundreds of antioxidant properties of coffee protect against oxidative stres scan help with gastrointestinal problems.
In addition, the polyphenols in coffee feed beneficial gut bacteria and at the same time limit the spread of “bad” bacteria.
In fact, researchers from Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Imperial College London claim that coffee also reduces inflammation and insulin levels, which are linked to the development and progression of colon cancer, and may have a potentially beneficial effect on the gut microbiome.
“We still can’t say exactly how this bacterium affects our health, although it may be involved in the positive effects we can thank coffee for.” This is just the tip of the iceberg and shows how we can uncover more food-to-bacteria connections that inform how to eat for better health,” the experts comment.