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Does decaf coffee make a difference?

For those of you who experience gut problems with coffee, do you experience the same problems with decaf coffee?

I am trying to understand why coffee is so problematic for many of us. Is it the caffeine, the immunogenicity of the coffee beans, the irritant-toxic chemicals in the beans?

If, in your opinion, the problem comes from the caffeine, then how do you react to bitter chocolate and tea?
 

Scipio

Well-known member
Location
San Diego
You can try taking a half of a NoDoz tablet or other pharmaceutical form of caffeine to check if it is the caffeine itself that is causing symptoms.

And if caffeine is the problem then tea and chocolate might present less of a problem simply because the dose of caffeine is lower (unless you consume a lot of tea or chocolate).
 
Coffee is the most problematic thing I can ingest, from my experience. I will try bitter chocolate tomorrow. If I am still not sure, then I might try your method to find out if the problem is coming from the caffeine only.
 
What kind of gut problems do you experience? Coffee can stimulate movement of the colonic muscles, causing you to have a bm. If you have heartburn you could try decaf. There's also low acid coffee. Now that I'm in remission, I can drink coffee again. It used to give me diarrhea.
 
I experience diarrhea, abdominal pain, gurgling noises. It really messes me up. Interestingly, I don't experience any gut problems with bitter chocolate, even if I eat a lot of it, though they give me migraines.
 
I found this:
Aside from the caffeine, the acidic nature of the brewed beverage causes the body to produce more bile (the kind of bitter, alkaline substance that makes your stomach churn), which can build up in your gut and cause a case of the runs. ... Less caffeine means less laxative effect.
Aside from promoting bowel movements, coffee can also cause looser stools because increased peristalsis leaves less time for the colon to perform one of its key functions–reabsorbing water from fecal matter to produce well-formed stools.
Maybe your problem is bile acid related? You could try instant decaf and see if you can drink that. I found it better than no coffee.
 
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