Many people consume coffee as a way to improve energy, mental focus, alertness and wakefulness in the morning. Some people don’t even eat breakfast and just go straight for the mug as they run out of the house.
Drinking coffee on an empty stomach, however, can have negative detriments to one’s health. Quoted from Hello Sehat, here are the reasons.
1. Stomach Acid Increases
Coffee may cause acid reflux and heartburn. It may become more obviously while having a cup of coffee in the morning on empty stomach. When your stomach is empty, the acid doesn’t really have much to work with. Coffee will stimulate the secretion of gastric acid which may burden the stomach and cause abdominal distress.
2. Increase Anxiety
Drinking coffee generally leads to exacerbated anxiety and stress. When one drinks it on an empty stomach, however, these problems are made even worse. Food has a calming effect on a person and digestion is known to help calm one’s nerves. Coffee, having the opposite effect, makes stress even worse. One should eat food immediately in order to remedy this issue. Eating while drinking coffee can help lower the stress effects the beverage carries with it.
3. Lower The Production of Cortisol
Drinking coffee in the morning may interfere with the production of cortisol, a important component of our circadian clock, which helps us wake up in the morning and wind us down at night. In the morning, our cortisol production is high as to wake us up. When you consume coffee the first thing after waking up, our body then produces less cortisol and relies more on the caffeine. Besides, drinking coffee while cortisol is high leads us to develop long-term tolerances for caffeine, so that there are many coffee drinkers complain coffee is ineffective.
As stated above, drinking coffee in the morning on an empty stomach is not a good idea. However, it is hard for people to get rid of this habit. What if you still want a cup of coffee in the morning?
Wake up with a cup of warm water, and then must have your breakfast. Finally, serve yourself a cup of your favorite coffee. Follow this order and you will not suffer from the above side effects of drinking coffee on an empty stomach.