It seems like almost every health condition out there can be improved, to a certain extent, if you cut out some of your favorite dietary treats. Of course it’s always the stuff you really enjoy that turns out to be the stuff that’s really bad for you.
For several conditions where dietary changes make a difference, one of the culprits is coffee. Coffee is fairly acidic, which makes it difficult for some people to stomach, even if they don’t have a medical condition exacerbated by this specific beverage.
For people who regularly have heartburn (including acid-reflux or Barrett’s esophagus) or suffer from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), interstitial cystitis (IC), or any other condition where too much dietary acid worsens your symptoms, coffee is generally considered off-limits.
In some cases, it’s the caffeine content, in addition to the acidity – in the case of IBS, caffeine acts as a stimulant to your intestinal tract, causing it to misfire and resulting in increased symptoms. For people with IC, caffeine as well as acids irritate the bladder lining and increases symptoms of pain and urgency.
Most people really don’t want to give up their daily brew. So the java market has answered, coming up with various alternates to coffee, some of which have been around for years, and others are being newly-marketed to people as our intake of medications for indigestion (Tums, Rolaids) and acid-inhibitors (Pepcid, Tagamet) keeps rising.
Current low-acid coffee roasters include Puroast, Folgers “Simply Smooth”, JAVAcid, and Trader Joe’s French Roast Low Acid, among others. This marketing category is actually heating up, with a recent press release from Puroast denouncing Folger’s low-acid claims. While the battle of the low-acid coffee producers may not seem that important to you in the long run, the fact there is a face-off going on means coffee roasters have deemed low-acid coffee something worth fighting over, so expect to see more brands and a greater variety on your grocery shelves in the future.
hi stephanie,
ive been reading your blog with interest– VERY informative, great reading, good work- please keep it up!
i want to offer my coffee experiences as another very food intolerant, but not IC, sufferer of strange reactions:
i LOVE my daily brew! so far it is one of the few things that is a reliably “feel good food” for me… with a few Really Important Exceptions.
like you, i also have to really watch the acid content of my coffee- tho not for the same reasons. high acid java gives me mood swings and shakes! im not actually sure its even the acid, per se, as other acidic foods cause me no troubles at all… i have very low stomach acid so acidic & bitter foods tend to help regulate my poor digestion. but whatever the culprit, the lighter & “brighter” (higher acid) the roast, the more trouble im going to have. If i stick to the darkest shade grown roasts and espressos instead, i generally have no problems, no matter how much coffee i drink that day. within reason of course but you know how it is, some days are definitely a 4 or 5 Cup Day…
however- Starbux causes me lots of problems with jitters and acidic feeling and even palpitations on ALL their roasts with the Single Exception of their “Bold Roast POUROVER” …. another odd quirk, as even their boldest, darkest bean is not necessarily going to be a safe beverage for me- it HAS to be Hand Poured or i will pay for my indulgence all day. Believe me i get wierd glances from the barista when i insist on a hand-pour bold instead of the pre-brewed same exact bean during morning rush… but i have to if i am going to have a decently functional day afterward. For some reason, the time it takes to slowly hand pour the cup allows the mystery particle to dissapate, where conventionally brewed & left warming in a carafe seems to concentrate the problem instead.
ONLY STARBUX does this, ive never had this issue with any other coffee house, how strange eh? …obviously i generally avoid taking their coffee unless with others who just wont go anywhere else…
Next issue- i have painfully learned that i have ZERO tolerance to Solvents used in food processing and it is sooooo super hard to figure what foods/beverages are safe from solvent residues as below a certain level the FDA insists they cause no problems and therefore need no labeling. the FDA did not ask moi before making that assertion, of course! so its always trial and error for me with this, thankfully once it was finally identified i realize my particular reaction is pretty standard each time and nearly always kicks in just about 3-4 hours after consuming the solvent laced beverage or food. not so luckily, my particular reaction very well could kill me eventually- i get bad A-fib palpitations that once started typically continue the rest of the night. Many nights ive lain awake for hours, afraid to let myself sleep in case my heart might stop, wondering would i wake up in the morning. wondering what on earth was wrong with my heart that no doctor could find. wondering would my kids soon be without a mom…
Turns out many foods & drinks carry hitchhiking solvent particles leftover from processing. Through MUCH trial & error & internet searching, ive learned that especially bad are all those lovely “natural flavors” and “essences” that came on the market in the past maybe 10 years or so. Now, i do just fine with real, genuine, honest-to-goodness extracts slow brewed the old fashioned way.
But the whole way of processing all the so-called “natural” aroma fractions that are now typically used in everything under the sun (i mean, “graham cracker flavoring”, really??) is with powerful solvents with unpronounceable chemical names! in general, anything that Smells or Tastes AMAZING is a big fat deadly No- No for folks with chemical Solvent Hypersensitivity!
ALL those lovely flavor-infused coffees (i especially used to love the Vanilla Hazelnut offered at Sweet Tomatos buffets) and other beverages (have you noticed the unbelievable array now available on the juice & soda pop aisle?) are laced with substances that are deadly poison to people with extreme Solvent hypersensitivity. good luck getting folks to believe it tho… stuff just tastes… so… good… of course looking back now i realize that oughta be Warning #1 right there!
Also guilty: ALL Instant Coffees and nearly all Decaf coffees. Heavy duty solvents are used to leach the caffeine out of most decafs on the market. Actual 100% Swiss Water Process has been safe for me, unfortunately again ive learned the hard way that the word of the barista is not necessarily trustworthy. so i generally stick to my fully caffeinated extra dark espresso roast and have no jitters or palpitations afterward.
All Instant Coffees and i mean ALL OF THEM are strictly out of bounds for the Solvent Hypersensitive, if anything they are the worst offender of all. noticed lately how sweetly that amazing fresh coffee scent beckons to you from the newly popped seal on any jar of instant coffee? just wonderful…
recently my mother gave me a small jar of a ridiculously spendy fair trade shade grown organic instant blend, both of us thinking oh what a nice treat, finally a safe instant for a quick cuppa on the road. gha… im truly blessed i didnt die from that experience. so chemically sensitive foodies & coffee nuts, please, PLEASE, BEWARE!!
as far as the Low Acid blends on the market now, i hope they work for those of you suffering IC, i truly do… but again please be careful, they may be laced with off-label toxic substances too. i dont know yet… coz honestly, ive just been too afraid to try.
blessings to all who struggle with foods & food chems- hope these comments will be a help to someone searching for answers, hang in there!
His Light
That’s really interesting about that particular one from Starbucks working for you. I tend to stick to espresso if I buy something at a coffee shop because espresso has less acid than drip, but those pour-overs are pretty good. And it does make sense that the darker roast is less bothersome because the darker the roast also has the least caffeine, which is completely the opposite of what most people believe. Anyway, really interesting comment. I have been happy to report being able to drink some caffeinated espresso at times without ill effects and would really like to find a mainstream coffee seller that had water-processed decaf. But until then, I’m pretty happy drinking Puroast – I even bought an espresso maker for it and make great drinks. It’s hard to drink any other coffee for me now, actually
Thanks!