@nutritionbyjulie: Most people think switching to decaf solves the coffee and gut problem. It helps some people. But for a lot of gut issues, caffeine was never the main driver 🫠 Here is what is actually happening when coffee sends you straight to the bathroom 👇🏻 🔬 Coffee stimulates the gastrocolic reflex This is the wave of contractions that signals your colon to move things along. Both regular and decaf trigger this response because it is driven by the act of drinking something warm, not caffeine specifically. For a gut with already compromised motility regulation, that signal hits harder and faster than it should. 🔬 Coffee is highly acidic regardless of caffeine content That acidity directly irritates an inflamed or compromised gut lining. If your intestinal barrier is already vulnerable, coffee adds to the irritation before it even reaches your colon. 🔬 Coffee activates your stress response Even decaf contains small amounts of caffeine and other compounds that stimulate cortisol release. For someone whose nervous system is already running on high alert, that cortisol spike speeds up gut motility across the board. 🔬 Drinking coffee on an empty stomach amplifies all of this Without food to buffer it, the acidity hits the gut lining directly and the gastrocolic reflex triggers with nothing else in the system to slow it down. The goal is not necessarily to give up coffee forever. It is to understand what your gut is actually responding to. Check the link in bio for our free IBS Coffee Guide so you actually understand what is happening 👇🏻 [coffee and IBS, gastrocolic reflex, coffee and gut health, decaf and digestion, cortisol and gut, gut lining and acidity, digestive health] #guthealth #IBSandcoffee #digestivehealth #rootcausenutrition #IBSrelief

Julie - IBS Dietitian

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Thursday 13 August 2026 20:35:28 GMT