A growing area of research in nutrition and health is the role of gut microbiota, and the dietary habits that support a healthy microflora. Research has suggested that the population of Bifidobacterium spp. is seen to increase in the intestine following coffee consumption without any major impact on the dominant microbiota29.
A 2024 literature review concluded that moderate consumption of coffee (<4 cups a day) increased the relative abundance of beneficial bacterial phyla such as Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, while decreasing Bacteroidetes. Moderate coffee consumption also increased Bifidobacterium spp. and decreased the abundance of Enterobacteria. Coffee consumption is generally reported to increase gut microbiota diversity14.
A further 2024 large multi-cohort, multi-omic analysis of US and UK populations with detailed dietary information suggested that the link between coffee consumption and microbiome was highly reproducible across different populations largely driven by the presence and abundance of the species Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus. The authors suggested that the effects of coffee may be associated with polyphenol components found in coffee including chlorogenic acid, the caffeic ester of quinic acid, and trigonelline30.
Dietary fibre found in coffee may be metabolised into short chain fatty acids helping to increase the presence of two species of dominant bacteria in the intestinalflora31. The polyphenols in coffee, including chlorogenic acid, may also be important in supporting the microflora29,32.
The impact of food and drink consumption on the gut microflora is a growing area of research, and as more studies explore the complex interplay between coffee consumption and gut microflora further conclusions may be reached.
