25/04/2026
A study published in Nature Communications tracked 62 adults through phases of normal coffee use, a forced two-week break, and a controlled reintroduction of either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee. The goal was to understand how coffee interacts with the gut-brain axis, the communication network linking digestive microbes and the brain.
They found that habitual drinkers had distinct gut microbiomes compared to nondrinkers, with certain bacterial strains more abundant than others. When the study participants stopped drinking coffee, the patterns began to ebb and flow like ocean tides, with strains that were abundant before now retreating as others that were scarcely found reemerged.
This happened whether the coffee was caffeinated or not.
