However, there are some potential negative effects from drinking coffee, especially during certain periods of time and once you become addicted to coffee, you will find it quite difficult to go even a day without it.

On the other hand, there is also harm from coffee. Long-term use of this drink increases the risk of developing high level cholesterol, heart disease and osteoporosis.

Qualitative ground coffee is a source of antioxidants such as chlorogenic acid, which helps with weight loss, and green coffee extract. In particular, food additives With high content This antioxidant has recently become quite popular and is used to reduce fat.

In fact, despite some possible benefit, for many of us, excessive coffee consumption can have very negative effects on our health here and now, particularly on our digestive and nervous systems.

Harm from coffee. 7 Negative Effects of Coffee

The harm of coffee or why you should not abuse this drink.

1. Coffee and hydrochloric acid

Drinking coffee on an empty stomach stimulates the production of hydrochloric acid. This acid should only be produced when food is digested. If your body begins to produce hydrochloric acid more than it should due to regular coffee consumption, it may have difficulty digesting large quantity food.

Lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach can especially affect the digestion of proteins. Protein foods can simply pass further through the digestive tract before being digested in the stomach. Undigested protein can cause a variety of health problems, from bloating and flatulence to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diverticulitis and even colon cancer.

Food that is not properly digested due to low amounts of hydrochloric acid in the stomach can cause dozens of other health problems. There is even a not unreasonable saying - “Almost all diseases begin in the intestines.” Considering this, you can understand why it is so important to limit everything that interferes with its normal functioning and periodically cleanse the intestines.

2. Ulcers, IBS and acidity

The harm of coffee in this case is this. Many of the compounds in coffee, such as caffeine and various acids found in coffee beans, can irritate the stomach and lining of the small intestine. This is a known problem for people suffering from ulcers, gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease. Typically, patients with these problems are advised to completely stop drinking coffee. But the next question arises - can excessive coffee consumption contribute to the development of the above diseases?

The ulcers are believed to be caused by the bacteria Helicobacter Pylori. The acidic effect of coffee weakens the resistance of the gastric mucosa to H. Pylori bacteria. Drinking coffee can also irritate the lining of the small intestine, which can lead to abdominal cramps, colic, and bowel problems (constipation and diarrhea). This condition is known as irritable bowel syndrome and in recent years, more and more people are suffering from this disease. For gastrointestinal diseases, coffee is harmful.

3. Heartburn from coffee

5. Absorption of minerals and coffee

People who drink a lot of coffee may be deficient in minerals in their bodies, even if they eat mineral-rich foods or take nutritional supplements. In this case, the harm of coffee lies in the fact that this drink negatively affects the absorption of iron in the gastrointestinal tract and promotes the leaching of calcium, zinc, magnesium and other important minerals.

Although all these minerals are simply necessary to maintain good health, their deficiency can lead to various kinds of diseases. For example, a lack of calcium alone can lead to more than 150 different diseases, and coffee flushes it out of the body quite strongly.

6. Acrylamide in coffee

7. Coffee, stress and tension

Drinking a large amount of coffee contributes to the release of stress hormones - cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. These chemicals increase heart rate, blood pressure and mental stress. The surge in stress hormones caused by drinking a cup of coffee before a meal interferes with the digestion process. When your nervous system is agitated, your body uses energy inappropriately, resulting in insufficient energy for digestion.

Finally, caffeine in coffee is known to interfere with gamma-aminobutyric acid metabolism. This amino acid is a neurotransmitter involved in regulating mood and stress levels. It also has a calming effect on the gastrointestinal tract. Your mood and your digestive system are surprisingly interconnected. Unfortunately, here coffee is harmful to both due to the high level of caffeine in it.

Many people love coffee so much that they simply don’t even want to listen to anything about its dangers and the health problems it can cause if consumed uncontrolled. If you have read this material, you may have a feeling that you need to reduce the amount of coffee you drink or even give it up completely. The harm of coffee is quite great and you should put its great taste and effects on one side of the scale, and your health on the other. Think about it.

Aromatic, hot coffee is the drink with which many people start their day. It perfectly stimulates brain activity, invigorates, tones and energizes. But any product has its own special chemical composition, which has an effect on digestive system. That is why many coffee lovers who have problems with the gastrointestinal tract are interested in the question of whether coffee strengthens or weakens and how the aromatic drink affects the intestines.

Effect on digestion

The consolidating or laxative effect directly depends on the amount of drink consumed and the individual characteristics of the body.

Effect of coffee drinks on digestion:

  1. Affects the mucous membranes of the stomach walls, accelerating the absorption of beneficial components from food, as well as its digestion.
  2. There is an accelerated release of bile, due to which metabolic processes in the body are activated.
  3. After drinking the drink, the production of gastric fluid and enzymes increases, helping to quickly break down incoming food and naturally remove waste products from the body.

Coffee is very useful in cases of constipation caused by nervous tension and frequent stressful situations. This drink should be added to your diet, it has a positive effect on work nervous system, due to which the stool is normalized.

Coffee on an empty stomach

For many people, consumption on an empty stomach not only allows for consolidation, but is also accompanied by sharp cramps in the stomach. The intensity of the pain can vary and can be extremely severe, but in most cases it lasts for a short period.

A cup of aromatic hot drink promotes increased production of adrenaline. This leads to the production of specific toxins. In order to get rid of them as quickly as possible, the body “squeezes” the intestines - this is what leads to painful spasms and defecation disorders.

To reduce the likelihood of painful cramps, it is recommended to drink only 30-40 minutes after a hearty breakfast.

Use for constipation

The laxative effect of coffee is associated with the individual characteristics of its body. Often natural coffee beans have strengthening properties, which are determined by its biochemical composition.

Among the main constituent substances are caffeine, tannin, tannins. They slow down the rate of intestinal peristalsis, which has a binding effect. This is why people who drink more than 5-6 cups of natural drink per day suffer from prolonged constipation.

Coffee weakens an adult or a child - it depends on how much of the product was drunk. For an adult suffering from frequent diseases of the digestive organs, the maximum permissible norm is no more than 2 cups of aromatic drink throughout the day.

In order for coffee to work, which strengthens or weakens, you need to follow the necessary rules for drinking coffee for an adult:

  • Drinking is of great importance for the intestines - throughout the day it is recommended to drink still water, fresh juices, natural juices, herbal decoctions, compotes;
  • Only natural, high-quality grains have a positive property;
  • to reduce the negative effect, it is recommended to add cream or drink a drink with milk;
  • has a huge impact on the digestive system proper nutrition, which includes products that normalize stool and have a laxative effect.

After eating and before drinking coffee, you should wait a certain time. Due to this, hydrochloric acid is slowly produced, which has an aggressive effect on the gastric mucosa. Normally, it should be produced only during the digestion of food. The intestinal walls “do not have time” to digest the incoming food, as a result, its remains lead to disturbances in the normal digestion process, flatulence, and stool disorder, which can be expressed in the form of both constipation and diarrhea.

The waiting period will speed up the breakdown of food and normalize the process of natural excretion of feces. It is especially important to follow these rules for people who have upset stools and have problems with the digestive tract.

Coffee as a laxative

Whether the drink strengthens or has a laxative effect depends on the severity of the intestinal disorder and the method of its consumption.

The laxative effect of a caffeinated drink will appear if several rules are followed:

  1. The laxative drink is prepared exclusively from coarsely ground grains - small particles actively stimulate the gastric walls, disrupting the normal excretion of feces.
  2. It is recommended to drink the drink only after meals, but in no case before meals, as this leads to disruption of food digestion.
  3. In order for the drink to give a laxative result, after it you need to drink a glass of pure still water - it helps remove fluid from the body, so it is necessary to restore the water balance in the body.

Coffee can have a mild and effective effect on the human gastrointestinal tract. But if intestinal disorders are chronic, it is best to completely abandon daily use.

Coffee for diarrhea

Coffee is also effective in strengthening the intestines. This effect depends on many reasons - the strength and naturalness of the drink, the volume of the drink consumed. A large volume of drink affects the intestines - strengthens or weakens them, causes problems with bowel movements, severe abdominal cramps, and increased gas formation.

Natural grains have an active laxative effect, so the use of an aromatic drink during diarrhea should be strictly limited - otherwise the diarrhea may only get worse.

Drinking large amounts of coffee as a laxative has many other negative effects. The person additionally suffers from high blood pressure, heart rhythm disturbances, severe headaches and dizziness, as well as swelling.

Contraindications for use

The laxative effect of coffee can occur in a person of any age. To ensure that caffeine does not cause harm to the body, contraindications must be taken into account before consuming it:

  • increased blood pressure;
  • stomach or duodenal ulcer, other serious illnesses gastrointestinal tract;
  • pathologies of the cardiovascular and nervous system;
  • Coffee has a negative effect on women during pregnancy and breastfeeding;
  • childhood and adolescence.

In these cases, any type of caffeine-containing drink is prohibited. Instead, you can drink other drinks, some of which are rosehip, mint or chamomile decoction, herbal teas, fruit drinks, compotes, vegetable or fruit juices.

Coffee is an invigorating drink that can both strengthen and weaken. In order for a cup of your favorite drink not to cause harm, you need to drink it in moderation - and only after eating. This will help you enjoy your coffee and maintain your gastrointestinal health.

It must be said that the laxative effect of coffee has already been proven by scientists, but it turns out that it does not manifest itself in all people. Therefore, there is still debate about whether coffee can actually act as a laxative for constipation. It seems that everyone agrees that this drink with any additives causes a certain diuretic effect, but that’s why coffee acts specifically as a laxative.

The main reasons why coffee makes you weak

If you are a true coffee lover, then you may have noticed that this drink can make you weak. But simply because of the characteristics of the body, coffee has a gentler effect on someone’s digestion, while in others it exhibits its properties more strongly. Moreover, studies have shown that there are people for whom coffee has no laxative effect at all.


However, it is not a myth that coffee acts as a laxative on the body. Because the drink is able to stimulate intestinal motility. That is, the small and large intestines are in good shape after drinking a cup of drink, which means that the contents of the intestines begin to actively move out. Important! It turns out that the cause of the laxative effect of this drink is not caffeine at all. Coffee that contains no caffeine at all will act in the same way. The simple laxative effect is that the stool softens and it becomes easier for it to start moving out faster. How to make delicious coffee at home.

With milk or not?

Quite often you can read articles about how coffee makes you weak, but only in combination with milk. In fact, whether milk is added to this black drink or not does not matter at all. Because milk has its own effect on the functioning of the intestines and thus can act without coffee.


Diuretic effect

No one will argue that black coffee is a strong diuretic. If, as studies show, not all people feel the laxative effect of drinking coffee, then the diuretic effect almost always occurs. But here scientists emphasize that the diuretic effect does not appear from one cup. This is exactly the property that this drink will have if you drink it from half a liter a day or more. It is important to understand here that the desire to go to the toilet will come with such an amount of coffee after a quarter of an hour and this is a natural need of the body. Moreover, if after drinking 500 ml cappuccino you don’t want to go to the toilet after 10-20 minutes, this is already a reason to worry: is everything working correctly in the body.

Coffee and weight loss

If we talk about laxative and diuretic effects, this leads some people to the conclusion that the drink helps to lose weight quickly. This is actually a misconception. If you understand how coffee works, then no person who cares about their health will drink too much of it. For example, coffee increases , plus it speeds up metabolism. Weight loss can occur due to these processes, which force the body to process energy reserves faster. But here it is worth emphasizing that for strong weight loss and the manifestation of this effect, you need to drink a lot of coffee, and this is dangerous for the body! However, it should be separately emphasized that this drink contains vitamins and phenolic compounds that break down fat cells. These substances are effective not only when taken orally, but also when used externally. Because of this, coffee grounds are often used to make a scrub in the fight against cellulite, for example. Also, drinking a mug of coffee reduces appetite, and if you do not add milk and sugar, then the number of calories is reduced to a minimum. In this material we thoroughly found out why coffee acts as a laxative and what to do to feel this effect. Remember that, depending on the individual characteristics of the human body, the laxative effect may not appear at all due to this drink, but the diuretic effect from a certain amount of this liquid must be required.

Those who drink espresso often and a lot are not familiar with the situation when, after drinking a cup, you have to run to the toilet, since coffee weakens the intestines. They have a completely different situation - constipation, at best - normal peristalsis. It depends on several factors. First of all, it depends on how much water a person drinks.

How the intestines work after drinking coffee drinks

After one cup of espresso a day, it is difficult to say whether coffee strengthens or weakens the stool, the intestines do not react to the small amount of active substances in the drink, which are there about 3,000. If you increase the dosage, then you can feel changes in the body’s functioning - diarrhea may begin, or vice versa - constipation.

Several studies have been conducted on this matter to find out what the statistics are on the effects of caffeine on the gastrointestinal tract. At first it was assumed that increased peristalsis is side effect caffeine It turned out that this is not entirely true, because caffeine is present in other drinks, but the effect of coffee as a laxative is several times stronger.

Do bowel disorders need to be treated?

Coffee acts as a laxative on 2/3 of the population who consume it regularly. But there are cases that you should pay special attention to, as these are manifestations of the disease that require treatment:

  • Irritable bowel syndrome. It occurs most often due to poor nutrition and psychological stress.
  • Lactase deficiency. In this case, coffee with milk has a laxative effect, and also causes flatulence and bloating. If there is not enough enzyme, dairy products are poorly digested and rotting processes begin in the intestines with the release of gases. Lactase deficiency can occur not only in children - it also occurs in adults.
  • Allergy to components of coffee beans. At allergic reaction It is better to avoid drinking natural coffee drinks.
  • Caffeine sensitivity is not considered a disease and does not require treatment, but diarrhea can occur up to 6 times a day, so it is better not to put such a strain on the gastrointestinal tract.
  • Chronic diseases pancreas or gallbladder.

In some cases, it is enough to simply stop drinking coffee and the symptoms disappear on their own.

Laxatives in coffee

Why does coffee act as a laxative? depends on several reasons:

  • Gastrointestinal diseases described above.
  • The presence of chlorogenic acid, which irritates the intestinal walls and causes them to contract faster. There is no chlorogenic acid in tea, so it does not weaken.
  • Increased production of gastrin hormones by the pancreas and stomach - there are only 3 types. They stimulate the production of hydrochloric acid, blood vessels dilate and blood flow to the digestive organs increases. The small intestine also has receptors that are sensitive to gastrin, so it also reacts to its increase and begins to contract.
  • An increase in gastrin stimulates the production of cholecystokinin in duodenum, that is, the gastrointestinal tract is completely mobilized to digest food.

From this we can conclude that coffee has a laxative effect if consumed on an empty stomach.

Caffeine does not have a laxative effect, since it dehydrates the tissues, which rather causes the opposite process - coffee hardens the stool.

Laxative for weight loss

Coffee can be used as a laxative for weight loss. This is especially true with a protein diet, since protein takes longer to digest in the body and causes constipation.

There is a warning regarding the protein diet and coffee: these two factors put a lot of strain on the digestive system and the body as a whole, so the creators of the diet recommend drinking 3 times more water per day, than with a normal diet.

Video: A cup of coffee in the morning will not help relieve constipation

This is due to the diuretic effect of caffeine and the increased content of nitrogenous substances in the blood after digestion of protein foods. It is necessary to restore the water-salt balance and at the same time help the kidneys remove uric acid from the tissues.

Otherwise, you can develop gout - the deposition of uric acid salts in the joints, severe pain and swelling, which can only be eliminated with diet and water.

When losing weight, coffee acts as a laxative. After going to the toilet, you may find that your weight has dropped slightly. This is a misleading result, since feces and fluid have come out of the tissues. The fat can remain intact and the body shape will not change.

You can't limit yourself to water when trying to lose weight. This is fraught with kidney disease and the formation of gallstones.

Dairy additives - how they affect peristalsis

If coffee weakens the intestines, then with milk this process goes faster in those people who do not tolerate dairy products well. Due to fermentation processes, feces have a liquid consistency. Whether coffee with milk strengthens or weakens stool depends on the individual characteristics of the gastrointestinal tract.

Heavy cream and plant-based milk analogues can give different effects, so you need to try all the products and choose for yourself those that do not cause any discomfort.

Why is constipation possible?

Constipation after coffee drinks occurs in cases where the body is dehydrated and there are fecal stones in the large intestine. This is a serious problem, since the mucous membrane, consisting of hairs that absorb water, does not work. Consequently, the body does not receive all the necessary nutrients.

In women after 50 congestion in the gastrointestinal tract is possible. This depends on a decrease in estrogen levels and atony of the colon walls. If you start abusing coffee while trying to improve your work internal organs, you can provoke a large consumption of calcium and an increase in bone fragility.

Constipation occurs more often when consuming instant drink, since it contains more different chemistry, especially in cheap varieties. It is recommended to completely remove soluble mixtures from the diet.

Coffee made from acorns is invigorating, as it contains starchy and tannin substances, natural antibiotics that heal microcracks in the intestinal walls and eliminate irritation and spasms. For frequent diarrhea, a drink made from acorns is recommended.

Arabica and Robusta have different amounts of caffeine. There is twice as much of it in Robusta. There are people who prefer a very bitter drink, considering it an indicator of quality. You can dehydrate the body with Robusta very quickly, while the gastrointestinal tract will react first, then it will be the turn of the kidneys and nervous system. If you drink Robusta, you must double the amount of water so as not to upset the balance of electrolytes.

Caffeine for diarrhea

If you have diarrhea, you should not drink espresso. This can intensify symptoms, in addition, new ones will appear - headache, nausea, and increased heart rate. This is due to excess fluid removal from the body - due to diarrhea and caffeine.

First you need to find out the cause of diarrhea. Perhaps this is an infection that has entered the gastrointestinal tract, and you will need drug treatment. You can consume your usual foods and drinks after symptoms have resolved and you feel better. 2 – 3 days after diarrhea It is recommended to eat porridge, dry biscuits, slimy soups and lean meat, washing everything down with plain water or weak tea.

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Many coffee lovers note its mild laxative effect. The drink has a stronger effect on some people's digestion, and on others it has a gentler effect, but there are few who can say that coffee has no effect on it. The laxative effect is achieved due to the fact that coffee stimulates intestinal motility - that is, it tones the small and large intestines, thereby improving the movement of their contents. Moreover, it is not caffeine that has this effect at all, since even a decaffeinated drink continues to act in the same way. Sometimes the coffee is so strong that a person's stool becomes liquid.

There is a misconception that coffee is a laxative. In fact, coffee itself, without any . But milk also affects intestinal function in its own way, and it can also act without coffee.

You can often hear that coffee is strong remedy. In fact, if you don't overuse this drink and your cup size is relatively small, you won't notice the diuretic effect. It is caused by excessive consumption of coffee, more than 500-600 ml per day. It is important to understand that the very fact that soon after drinking a cup of coffee a person has a desire to go to the coffee shop cannot be considered a diuretic effect, it’s just that the body “processes” fluids very quickly, within 10-20 minutes.

Does coffee help you lose weight?

People often think that coffee, due to its mild laxative and diuretic effects, can make them slimmer. This is not to say that this is a complete misconception, but it is important to understand exactly how coffee works. Firstly, it increases blood pressure and speeds up metabolism, which overall leads to the body processing its energy reserves faster.

Coffee also contains special substances: phenolic compounds, peridine and P vitamins, which promote the breakdown of fat cells. These substances are also effective when used externally. This is why coffee wraps can help a little in the fight against cellulite.

Sometimes you can hear about rather strange ways to lose weight with coffee. This drink suppresses the appetite, while on its own, without adding milk and sugar, it has almost no energy value. Therefore, sometimes people drink it to survive as long as possible without food. But this is not the healthiest way to reduce appetite, so it is not recommended to abuse it.