Drinking coffee may lift your mood and boost your cognitive performance, even without the added buzz of caffeine.
A new study has compared caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee and found that they both have potential perks for the gut, mood, and behavior.
Researchers at University College Cork in Ireland led a study that compared some health markers and the perceived well-being of 31 coffee drinkers, who drank three to five cups a day, with 31 participants who did not drink coffee.
At the start of the study, there were no differences between the two groups in terms of body mass index, blood pressure, stress, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal symptoms, sleep quality, or physical activity.
Coffee drinkers, however, showed distinct changes to some immune markers in their blood as well as some microbe strains in their gut.
To find out if caffeine is a necessary part of the equation, researchers had all 31 coffee drinkers abstain from their daily cups of joe for two weeks.
After the withdrawal period, the intervention phase began. Participants reintroduced coffee to their diet, with 16 individuals drinking caffeinated coffee and 15 individuals drinking decaffeinated coffee for three weeks. Participants did not know which coffee they were drinking.
After resuming coffee, the gut microbiome patterns of all participants showed coffee-linked shifts, including strain-level changes seen with both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee.
This suggests that some gut microbe strains are sensitive to the presence of coffee, with or without caffeine.
frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen>“Both types [of coffee] lowered stress, depression, impulsivity, and inflammation, while also boosting mood and cognitive performance,” the authors write.
But only caffeinated coffee was linked to reduced anxiety, psychological distress, blood pressure, improved attention, and stress coping. At baseline and after caffeine resumption, coffee drinkers also showed higher impulsivity and emotional reactivity than non-coffee drinkers.
Decaffeinated coffee, meanwhile, led to enhanced sleep, physical activity, and memory.
The findings suggest that caffeine may have specific effects on mood and cognition, but that even caffeine-free coffee may still be linked to the gut-brain connection.
“Coffee is more than just caffeine – it’s a complex dietary factor that interacts with our gut microbes, our metabolism, and even our emotional wellbeing,” says microbiologist John Cryan.
“Our findings suggest that coffee, whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, can influence health in distinct but complementary ways.”
The research is based on a number of associations between gut microbe changes and mood and behavioral changes. It also relies on self-reported moods and behaviors from participants, which may not reflect the reality.
Nevertheless, the study is founded on granular research, which compared how participants processed the compounds in coffee and matched those differences to metabolic patterns in their gut microbiome.
This is a stronger way of showing that coffee isn’t just associated with health benefits; it may play a role in shaping them.
Still, that’s really difficult to prove beyond a doubt when we know so little about the gut microbiome, how it impacts the brain, or how coffee is processed in the gut.
“The relationship between digestive and mental health is also increasingly being better understood, but the mechanisms behind coffee’s effects on this gut-brain axis have remained unclear,” says Cryan.
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There’s still lots of research to be done, but the findings add to growing evidence that in some ways, coffee is good for the body and mind, associated with decreased stress levels, enhanced mood, and possibly alleviating symptoms of depression.
Even decaffeinated coffee seems to improve cognitive function in some studies.
This new research once again suggests that caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee may each have physiological and psychological pros and cons that should be weighted differently for each individual, depending on what they are looking for.
“The study’s comprehensive insights pave the way for future investigations harnessing these interactions for potential health interventions,” the research team concludes, “and underscore the importance of understanding coffee’s multifaceted effects on human physiology.”
The study was published in Nature Communications.
