Two areas of particular interest to emerge from the research are evidence linking coffee consumption with a lower risk of gallstones and pancreatitis, although more research is still needed.
On its journey through the gastrointestinal tract, coffee has three main effects:
Coffee is associated with all the gastric, bile and pancreatic secretions necessary for the digestion of food. Coffee was found to stimulate the production of the digestive hormone gastrin; and hydrochloric acid present in gastric juice – both of which help to break down food in the stomach. Coffee also stimulates the secretion of cholecystokinin (CCK), a hormone that increases the production of bile, also involved in digestion.
Coffee appears to be associated with changes in the composition of the gut microbiota. In the studies reviewed, coffee consumption was found to induce changes in the composition of the gut microbiota, primarily at the population level of Bifidobacteria – a ubiquitous resident of the gastrointestinal tract.
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