In the world of wellness, coffee is a controversial subject. Studies show that drinking just the right antioxidant-rich amount in the morning can be fantastic for your gut microbiome and reduce inflammation—but go overboard and all of a sudden you might find yourself in a caffeine-induced frenzy, or you could become an insomniac dependent on the stuff. It’s gone beyond the cup too: Coffee grounds make an amazing body scrub; coffee is the perfect eye-cream ingredient for depuffing undereyes; and some people are fixated on coffee as an ingredient in—wait for it—enemas.
In 2018, the clean-beauty and living gurus at Goop included a coffee enema in their detox guide, scandalizing the world. I worked there at the time, and while I love coffee, there are just some places I’d never put it. But it’s back again with the release of Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar, which the streaming service describes as “a true-ish story based on a lie” about two Australian women’s experience with cancer.
Let me explain: Milla Blake (Alycia Debnam-Carey) is one of the women in the six-episode series, and while her cancer diagnosis is very real, her treatment choice is dubious. Blake’s plotline is based on Australian influencer Jessica Ainscough and her well-publicized attempt to use the alternative cancer treatment called Gerson therapy to treat her diagnosis of epithelioid sarcoma. (She chronicled it all for 1.5 million followers on her blog, which is no longer online.) One of the Gerson therapy’s treatment modalities? Coffee enemas, which Blake self-administers countless times throughout the show, convinced it will help cure her cancer.
“The idea is that caffeine absorbed through the rectum could ‘detox’ the liver,” says Emily Leeming, PhD, RD, and author of the newsletter Second Brain. But it’s a long and winding road that connects coffee and detoxification. The thinking is that caffeine is a stimulant, so once absorbed into the bloodstream through the enema, it could stimulate the liver to work harder at removing toxins from the body. “There’s no good science to back this up,” says Dr. Leeming. “Even though debunked, coffee enemas still appear as a wellness trend. They were never part of proper medical care and have no proven benefits.”
She adds that enemas (sans coffee) can be important in medical situations, but administering them on your own, or frequently, is rarely advised. “Doing them too often can make your body rely on them,” she says. (One thing that’s never medically approved? Another wellness fad, the colonic.) “In rare cases, they can also cause infections or even damage to the bowel.”
After Apple Cider Vinegar hit streaming, search volume on Google for “benefits of coffee enemas” increased by 300%. It’s a scary thought given the age of scientific doubt and disinformation we’re currently entering—and it should be noted that Ainscough died of cancer in 2015. Most people with her diagnosis are given a prognosis of living more than a decade with the disease, but Ainscough only made it seven years. Clearly, coffee is meant for your cup and beauty routine—not elsewhere.
