Can Coffee Cause Acid Reflux

Is Coffee Giving You Acid Reflux? Unless you are a heartburn sufferer, you probably have no idea about the pain and discomfort that can be caused by coffee.

Coffee drinkers with Acid Reflux (who experience this problem) can face a real dilemma, do they enjoy the odd cup risk hours of agony, or give it up altogether.

In the world where coffee has become part of our culture, and everybody seems to be constantly drinking the brew, it can be hard to remove it completely from your diet.

The tempting aroma from the office coffee machine can be enough to convince us that one cup won’t do any harm.

If your office hasn’t switched to a darker and less acidic roast or you just bought overly acidic coffee, Lifehacker reader Parallel Johnny has a solution. Add a scoop of baking soda to tame a stomach-wrenching pot.

What Really Causes Heartburn?

Heartburn itself is caused largely by stomach acid finding its way back up into the esophagus.

This causes irritation of the esophagus lining causing the well-known burning sensation, often accompanied by an acidic taste in the mouth.

Caffeine is a major cause of heartburn because it causes the stomach to produce large amounts of stomach acid, much more than the body requires to aid digestion.

This excess acid leaks into the lower esophageal sphincter causing that irritation and burning sensation. That’s how may Coffee Cause Acid Reflux in short.

Drinking Coffee Without Heartburn

So, do you need to switch to inferior tasting decaf to avoid that painful heartburn?

Well, there is a new technique to remove the caffeine from regular coffee without losing the flavor.

This is called the Hevla technique and can make coffee drinking much more pleasant for those that need to reduce their caffeine intake.

During the Helva process, beans are steamed under exceptionally strong pressure.

Molecules in the steam bond with the caffeine to remove it from the coffee bean without affecting the taste of the coffee that can be brewed from it.

Without caffeine, the coffee will not provoke production of excess stomach acid and will not cause heartburn, but will retain its delicious taste and aroma.

The Helva process is not yet widely used.

However, the process presents a great commercial benefit for coffee suppliers who will be able to regain some of those customers that gave up regular coffee for health reasons, but who could not stand the chemical taste of traditional decaf.

When it is widely available in supermarkets, Helva coffee will be obtainable in all the various forms you can now buy coffee.

In whole beans, ready ground roasts, instant granules and coffee pods for your one cup coffee makers, so heartburn sufferers never need to miss out on a great cup of coffee again.

Drink Darker Coffee Cause Less Disruption of the Stomach’s Natural Balance

Switch to a darker roast for less digestive woes and more cup-of-joe enjoyment, if coffee tends to do a number on your stomach, but you love the brew too much to give it up.

Researchers at the University of Vienna conducted the study on the effects of coffee, in its various forms on the lining of the stomach and stomach acidity.

So far the results indicate that darker roasts cause less disruption of the stomach’s natural balance.

To explore the science behind these gentler brews, Somoza and her colleagues used water and three other solvents to extract compounds from regular commercial coffee blends.

Each solvent extracted a different profile of compounds, including caffeine and N-methylpyridinium, a ringed compound that doesn’t appear in green coffee beans but is created in the roasting

process.

Stomach cells exposed to each suite of compounds upped their acid secretion, except for the cells exposed to the extract containing NMP.

In addition to switching to a darker roast, just switching to a higher quality coffee can help.

Cheap coffee is almost always made with Robusta beans.

Robusta coffee beans have a higher caffeine content than higher quality – and pricier – Arabica beans.

Why Dark Coffee Is Easier on The Stomach?

More study has to be done to find out the real reason for this intriguing question. 

Does Coffee Cause Acid Reflux? You can avoid Heartburn From Coffee if you use some of the tips given in this article.