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It's a question that a handful of people probably shyly typed into Google after the morning cup: why is coffee making you poop? And after studying rats, scientists think it's because the drink affects digestive muscles and intestinal bacteria.
The research challenges the myth that it is caffeine in coffee that stimulates the intestines.
Scientists from the medical branch of the University of Texas, Galveston, conducted their research by feeding rat coffee for three days. The team used different approaches to evaluate the effect of the drink on the rats, including analyzing their faeces after the three-day period; assaying intestinal bacteria from rodent faeces with coffee in a petri dish; and looking for changes in the intestines and colon of animals.
They discovered that the coffee seemed to help the lower intestines and the colon of the rats to contract. A similar result was found when the team treated coffee in the small intestine and colon.
Scientists have also shown that when they mix faeces with coffee, fewer microbes grow. And the effect was more pronounced when the dose was higher. These changes also occurred when using decaffeinated coffee.
After three days, rats also had fewer bacteria in their feces. Future studies should examine whether firmicutes, commonly referred to as "good bacteria", are affected by coffee or enterobacteria, as the family of bacteria can cause diseases such as gastroenteritis and meningitis.
The findings were presented Sunday at the Digestive Disease Week, a meeting of doctors, researchers and academics in areas such as gastroenterology. The research has not been peer-reviewed. And while the study of rodents provides a useful insight into how substances such as coffee can affect the body, the results may not translate into humans.
The main author of the study, Xuan-Zheng Shi, an associate professor of internal medicine doctorate at the medical branch of the University of Texas at Galveston, said in a statement: "When rats were treated with coffee for three days, the muscle capacity of the small intestine to contract seemed to increase.
"Interestingly, these effects are independent of caffeine, since coffee without caffeine had effects similar to those of regular coffee."
The research reflects the findings of a 1990 study published in the journal Intestine which revealed that in a small group of 92 participants, coffee pushed 29% of people to want to go to the bathroom. They concluded that coffee can trigger a reaction in the colon.
Scientists have found that coffee stimulates the colon among participants aged 17 to 27, whether regular or decaffeinated.
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