coffee tops all foods correlating to our gut microbiome
A September 22 2025 article in Barista Magazine reported that coffee shows the highest correlation with microbiome components of all foods (1). Decaffeinated coffee shows similar results.
A study involving over 22,000 participants across in the US and UK revealed a strong connection between coffee consumption and gut health. In addition, participants categorized into three groups — 1) those who drank less than three cups per month, 2) those who drank one-to-three cups per day, and 3) those who consumed more than three cups per day — 4.5 to 8 times higher numbers of L. asaccharolyticus present in coffee drinkers compared to non-consumers. Researchers found metabolites including quinic acid, trigonelline, and compounds that appear to be derivatives of quinic acid processing by the gut bacteria in the same study.
In vitro experiments also show that coffee is exceptionally influential in shaping our microbiome, especially the growth of Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus (L.asaccharolyticus), according to a Nature report (2).
The February 2025 UCLA associative study of 75,000 people in 25 countries confirmed the same; coffee drinkers had 8x the amount of butyrate- producing Lawsonibacter asaccharolyticus over non drinkers (3).
Among 150 other foods tested, coffee separates itself as having the highest connection to our microbiome content.
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