Coffee or wine good for the gut

A cup of coffee or a glass of wine helps maintain 'good' bacteria in the gut but whole milk or a calorie packed diet is bad, a new study found.

It has long been established that whatever we eat affects the trillions of bacteria in our intestines.

This colony consists of “good” bacteria which have anti-inflammatory properties and “bad” ones that promote inflammation.

Maintaining the balance is important for health.

A Dutch study found people who regularly consume yogurt or buttermilk have a greater diversity of gut bacteria.

Coffee and wine can increase the diversity as well, while whole milk or a high-calorie diet can decrease it.

Unlike other studies, it looked at normal people rather than those with illnesses as part of the LifeLines programme which monitors the health of 165,000 residents of the Northern Netherlands.

It collected questionnaires on diet, medicine prescriptions and health of 1,100 people as well as analysing their gut DNA from frozen stools.

Professor of Human Genetics Dr Cisca Wijmenga of the University of Groningen said: “Normally researchers only investigate one particular region of DNA in which different groups of bacteria can be distinguished