Caffeine and its impact on absorption of vitamins and minerals

[Emily C]

There are many websites that provide information about which vitamins and minerals are absorbed less/more due to caffeine, but like all of you, I am happy when I come across information in a peer-reviewed journal article. (and I'm most happy when the articles are written in language that is easy to understand!)

Attached is a freely available article I came across that talks about this topic, which I found helpful. I hope you do too!

Article title: Effects of caffeine on health and nutrition: A review

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bcee/6 ... e4f534.pdf

Here are 3 key takeaways:

"Caffeine can cause nutrient depletion of important nutrients, like vitamin B6, and interfere with nutrient absorption of essential minerals, including calcium, iron, magnesium and B vitamins."

"Caffeine stimulates the production of stomach acid, which actually helps the body absorb B12 (Escott-Stump, 2008)."

"Caffeine may reduce the absorption of manganese, zinc and copper. It also increases the excretion of the minerals magnesium, potassium, sodium and phosphate. There is also evidence that caffeine interferes with the action of vitamin A (Escott-Stump, 2008)."

[zc_hl]

Interesting. I tried to find their evidence about caffeine interference with vitamin A's action but was not able.

[BrianR]

In this review article, the author chooses which studies to cite. Whether those studies are generally considered definitive is unclear.

The studies (or the description of the studies) seem to have a tendency to conflate coffee/tea consumption with caffeine consumption. Of course, coffee and tea have many active ingredients with their own effects, as well as acidity levels that may affect digestion.

The article does provide references for the studies, so there is the opportunity to further explore findings that concern or please you.