"Does Low Acid Coffee Cause Less Acid Reflux?"
“Dark roast coffee is more effective than light roast coffee
in reducing body weight,”
but what about the effect of different roasts
on heartburn and stomach upset?
We know that “coffee consumption is sometimes associated
with symptoms of stomach discomfort;”
and so, researchers stuck pH probes down into people’s stomachs
to measure the amount of stomach acid generated by different types of coffee.
The way you chart stomach acid secretion in the stomach
is called a “gastrogram.”
You basically give people some baking soda,
which starts out alkaline, and measure the pH in the stomach
to see how long it takes the body to restore the stomach
back down into an acid bath: about 15, 20 minutes.
But if you mix that same amount of baking soda with dark roast coffee,
it takes longer, meaning the dark roast coffee
is suppressing stomach acid secretion,
since it takes longer to normalize the pH.
Give people more of a medium roast coffee, though,
and we see a dramatically different effect—
an acceleration of stomach acid secretion,
returning the stomach to acidic conditions three times faster
than drinking dark roast coffee, hence the title:
“..[dark roast coffee] is less effective at stimulating [stomach] acid secretion…
compared to a medium roast [coffee]”, but you don’t know if that translates
into symptoms—clinical effects— until you put it to the test.
“The most commonly used coffee bean roasting process
is referred to as convection or ‘flash’ roasting,” which just takes a few minutes.
“An alternative method is conduction roasting,”
which roasts at a lower temperature for a longer time—hours—
and this results in so-called low acid coffee.
And, supposedly, there are anecdotes from coffee-sensitive individuals
suggesting that this low-acid coffee
“does not precipitate or aggravate heartburn.”
When you look up that citation, though, they just cite data
from the Puroast Coffee company, makers of low acid coffee.
It should therefore come to no surprise
that it was the same company that funded the study.
If you go their website, they claim that “the health benefits associated with drinking
Puroast Low Acid coffee will become almost immediately obvious
to those who suffer from acid reflux, heartburn, or indigestion”,
with over 90 percent of customers surveyed receiving symptom relief;
and so, they decided to put their money where mouth was.
But before I get to the results, it’s important to realize that
when they say low acid, they’re not talking about stomach acid;
they’re talking about roasting so long that they destroy
more of the chlorogenic acid within the coffee bean.
You know the antioxidant, polyphenol, phytonutrient chlorogenic acid...
You know the anti-diabetic, anti-cancer,
anti-inflammatory, anti-obesity antioxidant...
but that’s like some orange juice company going out of their way
to destroy the vitamin C and then branding their OJ as “low acid.”
And, that would be technically true—vitamin C is ascorbic acid—
but they’d be bragging about destroying some of the nutrition,
and that’s exactly what low acid coffee makers are doing.
But hey, if it causes less stomach discomfort maybe it’s worth it?
Thirty coffee-sensitive individuals completed
a randomized, double-blind, crossover study in which the symptoms
of heartburn, regurgitation, and stomach upset were assessed
following the consumption of the Puroast brand low acid coffee
versus conventionally roasted regular Starbucks coffee,
and to the funder’s chagrin, no benefit whatsoever was found
with the low acid coffee.
Consumption of both coffees resulted in heartburn, regurgitation,
and stomach upset in most individuals.
So much for that ridiculous 90 percent-of-customers claim.
No significant differences in the frequency or severity
of heartburn, regurgitation, or dyspepsia were demonstrated
between the two coffees, either in a fasting state or after a test meal.
They couldn’t find any way to make the low acid coffee look better.
So, they had this initial thought that a difference in coffee acidity
may explain the company’s claims; however, when put to the test
in a randomized, controlled study, they found no difference in symptoms,
suggesting the whole coffee acidity thing doesn’t explain
the sensitivity some people have, and I think further,
acts as a reminder that we should never believe claims
made by anyone trying to sell us something.