Drinking coffee has a way of speeding things up in the tum-tum, of greasing the wheels of gastrointestinal commerce. Coffee makes you poop is what I’m trying to get at (though not everyone, inexplicably). But it’s not just drinking coffee that’ll give you a certain sense of urgency. Turns out, just being in places where coffee is frequently served can make it go-time for some. Coffee shops, book stores, and heck, even shopping malls can give folks the urgent need to make a restroom break.
But don’t just take my word for it. Dr. Saurabh Sethi is a gastroenterologist/social media personality (find a more cursed phrase than that, I’ll wait) who took to TikTok to explain to his 350,000 followers how the two are correlated. As reported by Daily Mail, this particular phenomenon even has a name: the Mariko Aoki phenomenon, named after a woman in Japan who wrote into a magazine about experiencing it. In short, every time she was walking around a book store, she felt the overwhelming urge to use the restroom.
The phenomenon is present at coffee shops as well. Much like coffee’s effect on the bowels, scientists are entirely sure of what it causing the urge, but they have a few leading candidates. Most of the theories revolve around smells. The smell of coffee, as well as those of ink and paper, are thought to have a laxative effect on individuals; caffeine in particular has been showing to stimulate colon contractions even without being consumed. Other theories suggest that the leaning over and bending down—as one does when perusing a book shelf—”massages the digestive organs and leads to an easier time passing a bowel movement.”
For some, this is a bit of a godsend. Finding relief from constipation just by looking for new reading material is a simple and effective solution. And there’s synergy there. What else are you going to do for those 10? 15? minutes other than read that new book you just found? Just make sure you pay for it first. Just remember, it’s like Jimmy John’s says: Smells are free. But bathrooms may not be.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
