Coffee appears to rewire the gut-brain connection

▲ Coffee appears to rewire the gut-brain connection(sciencedaily.com)

17 points by loh 12 hours ago | 14 comments

▲ gnabgib 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Seems similar to last year's Coffee drinking habits may greatly impact makeup of gut biome (48 points, 24 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42251379

Last year's wasn't funded by Scientific Information on Coffee

This paper (open): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71264-8

Paper from 2024 (open): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01858-9

	▲	flowerthoughts 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Scientific Information on Coffee That sounds hilarious. So I had to look. It's the ISIC: Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee, "compris[ing] five of the major European coffee companies: illycaffè, JDE Peet's, Lavazza, Paulig, and Tchibo." https://www.coffeeandhealth.org/about-isic But it's okay, because > ISIC is dedicated to contributing and consolidating balanced scientific information on coffee consumption – providing a reference for professionals and authorities who address health and wellbeing. [---] Though > ISIC works with the European Coffee Federation as well as with national coffee associations in the following countries [---] suggests they don't work with any tea or soda federations to compare the scentific effects of coffee to other beverages. Main authors study neuroscience (Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland,) so I bet the results are real, but as you point out, they knew that before even starting.

▲ wojciii 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Sure. I have stopped drinking coffee because it increases stress and anxiety for me. This is the opposite of what the scientists have found according to the article.

I have a feeling that everything about food and how people digest it are dependent on the person and any generalized articles like this are completely useless.

▲ cadamsdotcom 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> coffee was gradually reintroduced without participants knowing whether they were drinking caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. Half received decaf, while the others consumed regular coffee. Both groups reported improvements in mood, including lower levels of stress, depression, and impulsivity. These results suggest that coffee can enhance mood even without caffeine.

Or it just suggests people are creatures of habit and comforts :)

	▲	DemocracyFTW2 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		This. The first thing that came to my mind, as a 'coffee drinker plus' according to the authors' definition, is that the participants' mood must have been one of relief and mild elation when after a fortnight, which equals two weeks, or, more precisely, no less than four teen mornings and four teen lunch breaks and four teen afternoons and for teen nights with no coffee, at all, they were finally allowed to sip on something aromatic, hot and brown, with mildly acidic and bitter traces, caffeine or decaf be damned.
	▲	Rekindle8090 9 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[dead]

▲ uncircle 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> caffeine boosted focus and reduced anxiety

As someone who it taking a break from coffee because of pervasive anxiety, and I am surprised how zen-like I am even two days in (among the migraines and anhedonia), this sentence from the abstract is so utterly wrong I won’t even waste my time with the rest.

Like, do they even understand the pathways and receptors that caffeine affects? You can say anything you like about caffeine, other than it is an anxiolytic. (Don’t get me started with the ‘coffee calms me down because I have ADHD’ trope)

With coffee we’re in the phase we’ve gone through with red wine, where every day a new article claimed that a glass per day would cure a new illness and make you live 120 years.

▲ Tsarp 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I indulge in coffee quite a bit too.

But the funding chain here is -

Major coffee companies illy | JDE Peet's | Lavazza | Paulig | Tchibo

↓

Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC)

↓

UCC/APC Microbiome Ireland study

↓

UCC press release → ScienceDaily article

▲ bulbar 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Comes the newest research focus with a decline in caffeine consumption (in the younger generation)? Is this part of a strategic move to reframe coffee as a general 'feel good' product instead of the efficiency connotation it has today?

▲ ZYZ64738 9 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are many ways to make coffee, with various options for additions like milk (including plant-based milk) and sugar, as well as flavorings... Don't these have any effect at all?

▲ vivzkestrel 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

so how come IBS-C has a problem with coffee then?

▲

WorldMaker 10 hours ago | parent [-]

Because the IBS gut biome needs more than just mood enhancement/comfort/lessened stress and anxiety?

Also from what I can tell in my skimming the study mostly focused on small (decaf) amounts of caffeine in the gut biome. There are still more components of coffee such as bitter compounds that presumably have other effects.

	▲	ggm 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		My assumption was the bitter compounds would be flavenoids but it seems this is not true. I'd say bitterness isn't of itself material to IBS its an effect higher in the gut tract. Gall for instance is very bitter and acrid, but necessary for digestion. What is material is that coffee has a lot of interesting components beside caffeine. However, I believe my rapid fight/flight gut emptying impulse after a cup probably is the caffeine. (I have disregulated gut, my gut man (who said the disposable sigmoidoscope revolutionised his speciality) said I was just shy of IBS)

▲ dartharva 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> ..The findings, published in Nature Communications and supported by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC)..

Hmm