Why Oh Why Does Coffee Always Make You Poop?
There’s really nothing better than your morning cup of coffee: the energizing smell; the sweet, bright taste; and the near-guarantee that you’ll have a good poop almost immediately after drinking it. (Hey, I’m just being honest.)
Clearly, coffee is just as much of a wakeup call for your gut as it is your mind, but…why exactly do you feel the urge to go number two after drinking your morning brew? What is it about coffee, specifically—you know, compared to tea or, say, a Mountain Dew—that makes you beeline to the bathroom in the middle of your morning?
What is it about coffee that makes me have to poop?
Basically, coffee stimulates the digestive system—researchers just aren’t exactly sure why or how, though caffeine is the biggest suspected culprit.
Caffeine is a “pro-motility agent,” says Niket Sonpal, M.D., a gastroenterologist and assistant clinical professor of medicine at Touro College of Medicine. “Anytime you or I eat, your stomach stretches and sends a signal to your colon saying, ‘Hey, something is coming in, something has to go out,'” he says.
Your body sends those signals through a process called peristalsis—essentially muscle contractions throughout your intestines that move food through your system. And coffee speeds up that process, says Rudolph Bedford, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center.
In addition to speeding up those contractions, Bedford says caffeine also causes the colonic muscles to relax. And when those two gastrointestinal marvels pair together, well, all bets are off in terms of timing your poop schedule.
It’s for this same reason that Bedford says people experience acid reflux when drinking caffeine, but in that instance it’s the sphincter muscle in the lower esophagus that relaxes and leads to reflux.
Aside from the caffeine, the acidic nature of the brewed beverage causes the body to produce more bile (the kind of bitter, alkaline substance that makes your stomach churn), which can build up in your gut—the excess bile is why some people actually get diarrhea from drinking coffee.
Well is there anything I can do to stop pooping so much after drinking coffee?
Sure—the most obvious answer: drink less coffee. After all, less caffeine means less laxative effect. This is also the reason why you don’t always experience the same gotta-go effect with soda or tea, which tend to have lower caffeine levels.
But if you just can’t give up your sweet java (I feel you), Orbuch recommends richer coffees like espresso and French roast—they’ve been through the roasting process longer, so they have less caffeine.
You can also make sure to pair your caffeine of choice with food, Bedford says, as a means for providing a bit of padding before throwing back a cup. “The more you eat with the coffee the less likely you are to have a rush to the bathroom,” he says.
So do I have to cut out caffeine?
I mean, does going poop after drinking coffee really bother you that much? If so, go ahead and try cutting it out—but Bedford says the coffee-then-poop effect isn’t necessarily something you have to avoid. In fact, he notes, some of his patients drink it primarily because of it’s laxative-like properties (what up, regularity?).
He also says there’s really no long-term issues associated with having a cup of coffee as a means for making your way to the bathroom, adding that “the constant exposure to caffeine or coffee as one gets older does not make the colon lazy or dependent on it in any way, shape or form,” like some people might suspect. So, phew.
There is one exception: If you are dealing with a sensitive digestive tract or a preexisting digestive issue like irritable bowel syndrome (which is more common in women), then you might need to nix coffee altogether to help alleviate your symptoms.
Other than that, go ahead and drink that coffee…then enjoy a nice, timely poop.
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