Coffee – Good for the Gut?

New study and research suggests beneficial effects to the gut due to prebiotic activity of coffee:

Prebiotic coffee?

Dr Bibiloni told NutraIngredients.com that coffee or its constituents could only be considered as a prebiotic if there is a health benefit associated to its consumption.

Prebiotics are defined as "nondigestible substances that provide a beneficial physiological effect on the host by selectively stimulating the favourable growth or activity of a limited number of indigenous bacteria".

“Our study found that coffee consumption increased Bifidobacterium in the gut, but it remains to be proven which components of coffee are responsible for this increase.

“Since our study did not evaluate the potential health benefit linked to these findings, we can only suggest that coffee has a bifidogenic effect, rather than identifying it or its respective components as a prebiotic,” he said.

The NRC researchers state, however, that is not currently known which of the components of coffee may be responsible for the effect, but note that both fibre and chlorogenic acids may be metabolised by the gut microbiota.

Furthermore, instant coffee does contain soluble polysaccharides, said the researchers, of which 20 per cent is in the form of arabinogalactan proteins.

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