It is undeniable that coffee’s popularity is taking over worldwide. No one would ever believe you that you do not know any type of coffee or have never drunk it once. For coffee lovers, coffee is like a lifesaver, an element to make your brain and body function properly. Some other coffee drinkers consume coffee in the morning every day because it is delicious, refreshing, and a great thing to start a day.
As you already know, coffee provides various benefits to your mental and physical health. The caffeine in coffee arouses your nervous system to increase your energy, enhance your alertness, and stay focused on your work. Not to mention, it helps keep your physical performance in check because it burns calories to manage your weight and protect you from various diseases and cancers. Most importantly, studies have shown that coffee can prevent you from the risk of depression and look young.
As much as it benefits and incorporates into the daily water intake, many worries that it has side effects or decreases the effectiveness of vitamin absorption with coffee in your body. You may often hear your friends tell you to take your vitamin or pill with water and not coffee or soda, as it loses the pill’s effectiveness. If you have those concerns, this article will tackle whether coffee affects the efficacy of vitamins.
About Coffee
Coffee is one of the most famous beverages in the world, coming third behind water which is our necessity, and tea. It is made from roasted coffee beans that come in two origins of plants, Arabica and Robusta. Arabica coffee beans have a smoother, milder taste, rich in flavor, and have a pleasant aroma, while Robusta coffee beans are stronger, bitter, and contain higher caffeine content. You may find a variety of coffee made from different methods and tastes, including black coffee, espresso, americano, cappuccino, latte, decaf, instant and more. The caffeine content of each type also varies accordingly.
About Vitamins
You may have heard once in your life that someone would tell you to eat an orange because it has vitamin C or goes out to the sun to absorb vitamin D. Vitamins are organic compounds in natural foods or fruits. Apart from natural vitamins, it comes in the form of pills that refer to organic molecules needed in your body in minor quantities for many reasons. One is that vitamins are necessary to make the body’s metabolism function properly.
Vitamins can be categorized into two: fat-soluble and water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins are stocked in fatty tissues, liver, and muscle, absorbed through fatty and dietary foods, and kept in the body for months. Fat-soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D, E, and K. Water-soluble vitamins refer to vitamins that are not stocked in the body and are dissolved in water. There are nine water-soluble vitamins, mainly vitamin B and vitamin C.
Effects of Coffee on Vitamins
As coffee contains caffeine and it has a diuretic effect, it is noted to coffee lovers that coffee has effects on the absorption of several vitamins that decrease the effectiveness and reduce the metabolism of the vitamins. Listed below are the vitamins that should not be consumed with coffee.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin the body produces when meeting sunlight and from several foods such as animal fats, fish oils, dairy products, beef liver, eggs, and mushrooms. It benefits the body because it enhances bone health and increases the immune system.
Several scientific kinds of research suggest that the caffeine content in coffee affects the absorption of vitamin D in our bodies. Thus, the more caffeine coffee has, the more interference with the effectiveness of vitamin absorption. The interference leads to reduced activity of vitamin D receptors which are the cells to maintain and enhance bone health in our body. Hence, bone health would be decreased as there is an interference with the calcium content due to caffeine.
B Vitamins
B vitamins are essential for our body as it ensures the proper functioning of the body’s cells by converting food into metabolism, increasing new brain and blood cells, protecting skin, and more. B vitamins, including vitamins B1 to B3, B5, B6, B9, and B12, are all water-soluble vitamins that can be dissolved in water.
Caffeine has a diuretic effect which increases the activity of urine by removing salt and water in your body. Thus, drinking coffee containing high caffeine content would increase urine productivity and dissolve the vitamins mentioned as it is already dissolved in water. Therefore, consuming too much coffee would dissolve the B vitamins and result in less effectiveness of the benefits from the vitamins.
Calcium
Calcium refers to minerals essential for bone growth and development and for making muscles and the heart function rightfully. Several studies also show that calcium helps prevent people from various diseases and cancer. Calcium is found in dairy products such as milk, green vegetables, flour, and more.
Caffeine and calcium do not go well together. Even the slightest amount of caffeine can affect calcium absorption in the body and affect bone health. For instance, after a few hours of consuming a regular cup of coffee, five milligrams of calcium would be extracted from urine, adversely affecting bone development. Moreover, people who drink more coffee are prone to bone issues, including bone fractures and osteoporotic.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is essential for our body, especially our skin health. It can be found in natural fruits such as oranges, guava, kiwis, bell peppers, and more. Vitamin C provides antioxidants that protect you from stress and make you look younger. It also forms more collagen and increases the immune functionality in your body.
Vitamin C is another water-soluble vitamin that does not go well with coffee or caffeine content due to its diuretic effect. As mentioned above, coffee has diuretic effects that increase urine production by extracting water. To put it simply, coffee makes us pee more than usual. Though it may appear as not a bad thing to pee more, it affects the absorption of vitamins because your body might not absorb the vitamins fully, but it has gone to waste due to urine production.
Iron
Iron is an essential supplement for your body as it creates red blood cells. It can be found in livers, meat, beans, and nuts. Caffeine and iron are also a disaster, as several research studies have indicated that interaction between caffeine and iron can deplete iron absorption and decrease blood cell activity by up to 80 percent. Hence, it is suggested that we should separate the caffeine from iron vitamins at least one hour apart.
Magnesium
Magnesium is an essential mineral that helps properly function muscles and nerves in your body. Additionally, enhance and produce energy throughout the day. Research has shown that people who drink coffee lose urinary content of magnesium, calcium, sodium, and more in 2 hours after coffee intake.
Solution
Seeing all of these side effects of caffeine on vitamin absorption, you may worry about how you can minimize the impact because you cannot start your day without a cup of coffee. One good news for coffee lovers is that several kinds of research indicate that caffeine’s effects on vitamin absorption are not drastically significant and would not affect your health immediately. However, that does not give you an excuse to keep drinking a large amount of coffee daily.
Cutting down your regular caffeine intake immediately would be difficult. Hence, it is recommended to try other coffee that has less caffeine content, for instance, changing to instant or decaf coffee. Moreover, it is to note that coffee is not the only alternative; tea such as green tea, black tea, or other natural beverages also has caffeine content to boost your energy and, at the same time, goes well with vitamin absorption. Additionally, you should seek advice from experts such as doctors or pharmacists to understand more about your vitamin supplements. For example, studies have shown that if you drink your coffee an hour before taking your iron supplement, there will be no interference between the caffeine and iron elements.
Furthermore, alternatives such as bananas, water, oatmeal, and dark chocolate are proven to have elements such as potassium, irons, and several vitamins that boost your energy levels, like caffeine, which you should try. For instance, bananas have vitamin B6, carbohydrates, and potassium that helps you boost energy. Green tea also contains caffeine but in a lesser amount that provides you the same energy boost. Additionally, water is crucial as it keeps you hydrated and reduces the feeling of fatigue.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is unfortunate that coffee affects your vitamin intake absorption. Several vitamins and minerals do not go along with caffeine due to the diuretic effect, which makes water-soluble vitamins go to waste as the production of urine increases. Additionally, the benefits of fat-soluble vitamins also decrease once caffeine interferes, which will affect the overall condition and health of our body. Thus, it is recommended to cut down the caffeine content to a moderate amount and seek alternatives that provide benefits like caffeine and complement the vitamins.