How many times a week do you start the day with a coffee first thing? We reckon at least five, seeing as coffee is basically required by most humans to even vaguely function. For many people coffee comes before everything; not even breakfast makes its way further up the priority list.
But it turns out this habit of drinking coffee on an empty stomach could actually be damaging to your health – especially if you’re susceptible to bloating. A study published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information discussed the impact of coffee (including decaffeinated) on your stomach lining. It found that coffee triggers an increase in stomach acid which can cause symptoms such as bloating, indigestion and heartburn if you have a sensitive stomach lining (you possibly do if you regularly suffer from IBS symptoms).
As well as that, chief medical officer at PushDoctor Dr Adam Simon explained how coffee on an empty stomach affects your body in other ways. He told the Express: ‘It can increase the amount of water you pass and can potentially create symptoms of dehydration. It can affect your pulse, causing an irregular heartbeat by putting pressure on the heart and it can adversely affect your blood pressure.’
‘Too much caffeine can give you jitters, shakes and other withdrawal effects, including mood changes,’ the doctor added.
It also seems that giving your body a mainline supply of caffeine first thing in the morning could upset your natural body clock. As Pop Sugar explains, the body releases the hormone cortisol at its highest levels between 8am and 9am to ensure you are fully woken up. But scientists have discovered drinking coffee so early in the day could interfere with this natural process by decreasing the cortisol levels, meaning you ultimately become more reliant on the coffee to keep you awake.
So, if we’re being technical about it, it’s probably advisable to avoid coffee before you’ve had your daily bowl of porridge or slice of toast.
But if you’ve been doing it for years and it doesn’t seem to affect you, then why change a habit of a lifetime?
