Had too much coffee and now wondering when that restlessness will subside? If the jitters and acidity start to bother you, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place at the right time!
So when does coffee exactly leave your stomach?
Coffee takes only about 30 to 45 minutes to absorb into our bloodstreams. Half the liquid you consume gets absorbed in just 10 minutes, and the rest will leave your stomach within 30 minutes.
To calm your jitters and acidity, you may want to try a few different proven and recommended remedies. These include drinking lots of water and doing light to moderate exercise. Exercising helps metabolize caffeine faster and helps your body calm down as a result.
How Does Your Body Process It All Inside?
When you eat your food, it is broken down into small, easy-to-digest pieces inside your mouth by the action of chewing. Saliva also helps the process of chewing and breaking down food into soft pieces, which then go directly to your stomach via the esophagus.
Coffee, on the other hand, takes the faster route. It doesn’t need to break down into digestible pieces since it is already liquid. When you drink your coffee, it runs through your esophagus to your stomach.
It doesn’t stay there for long as well. Soon it goes into the small intestine and large intestine, mostly in a matter of an hour.
Almost 80 to 90% of coffee gets absorbed into your bloodstream in the small intestine. The large intestine absorbs the remaining coffee content. Any residual is secreted after that.
This is because coffee, especially black coffee, is 99% water. It takes the same course inside our bodies, like water.
What Is the “Half-Life” of Caffeine?
Caffeine has a half-life of around 5 hours.
When a person consumes, for example, 100mg of caffeine, half of it, or 50mg, will remain inside their body after 5 hours.
The effects of caffeine on our bodies peak within 15-45 minutes of intake. As soon as the liver detects caffeine in the blood, its function kicks in. The liver then metabolizes the caffeine to reduce the amount present in the blood.
This is when the effects of caffeine are strongly felt. Many people feel a sudden boost in their energy levels, while some feel a sudden need to urinate.
It is also common for some people to feel restless and jitters in their bodies.
How Does Caffeine Act in Our Bodies?
While caffeine is an essential chemical present in coffee and tea, you can find it in energy drinks and soft drinks as well.
The level of caffeine present in each drink varies, but the function of the caffeine remains the same.
It is a drug that stimulates the nervous system. It also increases the heart rate and blood pressure helps in boosting energy levels, and elevates the mood.
That is why many people can’t start their day without having a cup of coffee in the morning. If you find a coffee person not in a good mood in the morning, offer them coffee.
They might not have had their morning coffee, and having a cup will instantly elevate their mood. Caffeine acts quickly, and the body feels its effects instantly.
The effects start to subside as the body metabolizes it.
What Happens With a Latte in Your Stomach?
When you drink black coffee, your body mainly processes water and caffeine. That isn’t the same as consuming a latte.
When you consume a cup of latte in any form, your body gets sugar and fats to work on as well. They get broken down inside your mouth at first and then inside the stomach.
The small intestine absorbs the elements from your coffee, such as vitamins, minerals, glucose, fats, and amino-acid. From there, they are introduced to the bloodstream.
The Time Effect of Caffeine
Have you experienced the caffeine kick faster on an empty stomach? Coffee on an empty stomach indeed gets to the bloodstream faster.
If you drink coffee after a meal, the time that caffeine will take to reach your bloodstream and have its effect on your body will be much longer. In some cases, it may take you around 2 hours to get the full effect felt on a filled stomach.
It is because caffeine gets digested through the digestive tract. The food in the track slows down the absorption of caffeine, hence the reason why caffeine kicks in slower.
Some Tips to Dull the Effects of Caffeine
While it may seem obvious, if you feel that caffeine weighs in on your mood and well-being, it is advisable to stop caffeine altogether. Quitting caffeine intake altogether has some withdrawal symptoms associated, but they subside over time.
Exercising is another way to consume the extra energy and help metabolize caffeine faster.
It is a bit of widely accepted advice to drink lots of water to help reduce the impact of caffeine. Although this hasn’t been proven, drinking water does help keep you alert and hydrated.
Adding baking soda or almond milk to your coffee introduces alkalinity to it and helps keep stomach acidity at bay.
Takeaway
Coffee doesn’t remain in your stomach for much time.
The caffeine stays in your system for longer. This is until your liver fully metabolizes it.
To slow caffeine absorption in your body, try introducing food to your stomach along with coffee consumption.
You may try a few tips mentioned above to keep the caffeine level in your body at equilibrium.