Can coffee trigger symptoms in some people?

[Aaron275]

Hi,

I recently noticed that I seem to be reacting to foods at certain times of the day and not at other times. For example, I seem to react to eggs if I eat them for breakfast, but not if I eat them for dinner. I noticed the same thing with green beans, cauliflower and broccoli. I tried eating these for lunch and I reacted to them (I'm not sure if it was all of them or just one). I eat green beans for dinner regularly and never react to them at that time of day. I eat cauliflower and broccoli less regularly, but I still don't react to them when eaten for dinner.

I've been racking my brain trying to find out why this is happening, and I think I might have an answer. I usually drink coffee in the morning and then stop around lunch time. Could coffee be causing this to happen? I don't notice any negative effect when drinking the coffee itself, but I know that the reaction doesn't always show up immediately. It makes sense that I'm having these reactions to foods at the time of day that I drink coffee, and then I'm able to tolerate those foods again later in the day when the coffee is mostly out of my system.

Has anyone had something like this happen? I know the obvious thing to try is to stop drinking coffee, but the last time I tried to give up caffeine the withdrawal symptoms were so bad. I didn't even make it to the end of the first day. So I am very hesitant to try again. I do want to give up caffeine at some point, but I'm wondering if there might be another caffeinated drink that I could switch to for the time being that might not give me this reaction? If this is even what is happening.

Your thoughts?

[Aaron275]

I just noticed that caffeinated tea is allowed on the AIP diet. I'm going to try switching to that then and see if it helps.

I could probably give up caffeine if I absolutely had to, but I'd prefer not to go through the withdrawal right now.

[Aaron275]

I'm also interested if anyone has any suggestions for what else could cause someone to react to foods at certain times of the day and not at other times. I can't really think of anything else it could be because the coffee is the only thing that is different.

[Aaron275]

Sorry to keep replying to myself, but I just found an interesting study which shows that coffee and caffeine can increase IBS symptoms in some people:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.632469/full

Maybe I do need to give it up then.

[Scott Adams]

Welcome to the forum!

Some people claim that coffee is a "cross-reactor" to gluten, and celiacs should avoid it. It's unclear what "cross-reactor" is meant, and I am skeptical about coffee causing issues with celiac, as it is gluten-free. However, if you were recently diagnosed and your gut is still not healed, then many foods, including coffee, might trigger IBS-like issues, and this may be due to the leaky gut state you are in. 

For me there were around 10 foods that I had to eliminate for months to a couple of years, before I could eat them again, including things like chicken eggs, garlic, tomatoes, casein/cow's milk, etc. After my gut healed I was able to add most back.