An article intended for practitioners of Chinese medicine:

Today I will write about a topic that may be marginal but affects the quality of life of quite a few people...

Can I drink coffee if I have digestive problems?

Coffee is known to speed up bowel activity, even without milk.

That's why people with diarrhea, stomach discomfort, bloating, and other digestive problems give up coffee.

If someone has no problem giving up coffee then there's no problem with that, but most people give it up for fear that digestive problems will get worse and my approach is that people shouldn't feel like they're sick or that they should deprive themselves of things because of their digestive system (up to a certain limit of course 🙂).

So here are some little suggestions to help people drink coffee if they want to:

*Do not drink coffee on an empty stomach. Whether it is in the morning or in the afternoon, it is recommended to pair it with a meal. I have had patients who have had this happen to them and are able to drink coffee.

*Give up on the upside down and switch to Americano. When drinking upside down, we drink a whole glass of milk/milk substitute. Whether it's milk or milk substitute, it's a heavy drink that weighs on the digestion.

That's why I recommend that people who drink coffee outside switch to an Americano and add milk substitute to it (I don't argue with people who want to continue drinking milk as long as it's in small quantities and if they don't have any moisture).

*Regarding milk substitutes - today there are many options, but it is important for me to say that soy milk causes many people to experience bloating and gas, so I do not recommend it.

I've heard the most good reviews about oat milk, both in terms of taste and its effect on digestion.

From a Chinese perspective, the quality of coffee is warming (as we know and feel about ourselves), it enters the digestive organs, the heart (and that's exactly why I don't want to prevent people from drinking it. If you drink a little of it, it creates joy and I don't see it as something negative) and the kidneys, because it uses the energy of the kidneys. For this reason, it is not recommended to drink a lot of coffee a day because it will eventually exhaust the body.

Another last and interesting fact about coffee - it is a diuretic, so for every cup of coffee you need two cups of water just to replace the fluids we have lost.

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