A lot of people find it interesting that coffee in the morning makes them poop. (No, you’re not the only one.) Some people feel like coffee makes them go to the bathroom, but not all of them do. why does coffee make you poop is something that a lot of people who drink it wonder.
The science is this: The body does something when it drinks coffee that makes some people poop.
Gastrin, a hormone that makes the gut muscles contract, is released when you drink coffee. For some people, this makes their bowel muscles move, so they need to go to the bathroom about two to three minutes after drinking coffee.
There is more than one reason for that second morning. Some people are allergic to the other things that are in their cups, like cheese. Some people may not like how acidic their coffee is.
Here is all the information you need to understand why coffee makes you go to the bathroom.
What does coffee do to your body and gut?
There are over 1,000 different kinds of things in coffee. More is being learned about how coffee affects the body, but we still don’t fully understand all of them. In terms of digestion, how does coffee work?
Something called gastrin is made by the walls of your stomach. When you drink coffee, your gut gets the message to release gastrin. When you do this, your gut starts to tighten in a wave. This is called peristalsis. Food and liquid move through the bowels with the help of peristalsis. Some people have to go to the bathroom right away because of this.
Whether you drink regular or decaf coffee, it makes your stomach release gastrin. It’s not as strong as decaf coffee, but it’s still there. Some parts of your digestive system are affected by the acids and caffeine in coffee. Other parts of your digestive system are probably affected in ways we don’t fully understand yet.
Does Coffee Make Everyone Poop?
No, not everyone poops after drinking coffee. It’s not always the case that people don’t have to go to the bathroom after drinking coffee. Still, this is a normal response.
Is it normal to go to the bathroom after drinking coffee? A lot of people poop after drinking coffee. In fact, 29% of men and 63% of women feel like going to the bathroom after having coffee.
How Coffee Affects Your Colon
If you know what it’s like to rush to the bathroom after drinking coffee, you may have thought why it happens. A lot of people think that colon action after coffee is caused by too much caffeine, but it depends on how the beans are roasted.
Studies have shown that, surprisingly, caffeine isn’t the only thing that can cause colon spasms.
It’s not just the caffeine in your coffee making you go to the bathroom more often. No matter how much caffeine is in coffee, it can make you poop. In fact, some people feel the same way about decaffeinated coffee when they go to the bathroom. This could be because coffee raises gastrin levels while caffeine does not.
Note: Coffee does make you go to the bathroom more often, but it shouldn’t be used as a laxative to get rid of constipation. Caffeine can make you thirsty, which can make your diarrhea worse. If you feel a little behind, drink some water.
There are thousands of chemicals in both regular and decaf coffee, but none of them have been proven to make you want to go to the bathroom. Some people think that molecules like exorphins may be responsible for these benefits, but science hasn’t proven anything yet.
Why does coffee make you poop, but not energy drinks? Energy drinks don’t make you go to the bathroom because of the caffeine in them. But coffee does. Coffee has chemicals that trigger the digestive system in more than one way, making you want to go to the bathroom.
Do you pee or poop when you drink coffee? For some people, coffee can make them pee and poop. Caffeine, which is found in regular coffee, makes you pee. People who drink coffee and then feel like going to the bathroom will find that coffee is a weak laxative.
You might be going to the bathroom in the morning for more than just coffee. Other things that might have led to your bathroom blitz are:
- Changes in hormones
- Cream or milk
- Acidity and warmth
- Having certain health problems
- Additives that taste sweet
Does the caffeine in coffee make you poop?
In many ways, caffeine wakes up the body. It was thought for a long time that caffeine was what moved the bowels. However, some tests show that caffeine isn’t the only thing at play.
The anal sphincter is the part of the body that lets or holds stool. One study showed that caffeine softens it. This helps you go to the bathroom. In yet another study, it was found that muscles in the big intestine tensed up more when coffee had caffeine in it than when coffee didn’t.
Some of these muscle contractions were still changed by decaf coffee during the tests. While caffeine does seem to make a difference, it most likely isn’t the only reason.
Does the type of coffee you drink make a difference?
There is even less information here, but if coffee, in general, makes you want to go to the bathroom, most versions will probably have the same effect.
Caffeinated vs. decaf coffee
Both types seem to help you go to the bathroom. Even though it’s called “decaf,” coffee still has some caffeine in it. However, Staller says that a study from 2022 “suggested that regular coffee gives more of a kick to the colon than decaf.” Older studies also found that coffee with caffeine seemed to release more gastrin than coffee without caffeine.
Hot vs. iced coffee
“We do know that it is not temperature alone that is the secret to coffee’s bowel-stimulating ways,” says Staller. No data compares the effects of hot coffee to iced coffee on bowel movements. For example, a 2020 study found that patients who had laparoscopic gynecological surgery were able to go to the bathroom faster with warm coffee than with hot water. It was also found in 2014 that rats’ colons worked less quickly when they were given cold water instead of room temperature water.
Health Conditions and Hormones
A lot of research has been done on the benefits of coffee. Scientists have learned the following about how coffee changes your digestive system.
Your body starts to release hormones right away after eating that affect the whole digestive system, from the stomach to the small intestine. Because it upsets your stomach so fast, coffee makes you go to the bathroom during the day.
The hormones gastrin and cholecystokinin are released when you drink coffee. The gastrocolic response, which tells your body to go to the bathroom, is set off by both gastrin and cholecystokinin.
These hormones also make the stomach and rectum move faster, which is called peristalsis. In the same way that a big meal does, coffee makes your gut work, which means you feel like going to the bathroom.
Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one health issue that can make you go to the bathroom more often. People with IBS may think they need to go right away because they drank a few cups of coffee, but they’re actually just having IBS symptoms.
What changes in your gut when you drink coffee? Your innards move faster when you drink coffee, which may make you need to go to the bathroom. Coffee doesn’t do much for the small intestine, but it moves the colon and rectum a lot.
Milk or Creamer
If you can’t handle lactose, your coffee or creamer might be making you go to the bathroom more often. People who are lactose-sensitive don’t have enzymes in their bodies that can break down lactose, a sugar found in milk. This means that drinking milk makes them sick.
Many unpleasant signs can happen if you eat a high-lactose dairy product, such as gas, bloating, flatulence, abdominal pain, and yes, diarrhea. So it’s possible that the milk or creamer, not the coffee, is making you need to go to the bathroom so often.
We have some ideas for healthy ways to drink coffee if you don’t like it black.
Acidity
Many types of coffee are very acidic, which can make your stomach hurt. It also makes your gut make more acid, though decaffeinated coffee and cold brew have less of an effect.
Having too much gastric acid can be bad for your gut health. Stomach acid can cause diarrhea if food is not broken down and absorbed properly.
Bottom Line
There are several reasons why coffee makes you go to the bathroom more often: it causes gastrin to be released, which makes the colon shrink; it also causes you to go to the bathroom; and it encourages the production of hormones like motilin. These effects work together to speed up peristalsis, which makes bowel movements faster and makes you need to go to the bathroom.