Coffee an hour after a meal was still effective at inhibiting iron absorption

[Dan W]

I think it was BigPapaChakra who found this:
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/37/3/416.long

The relevant part to coffee-timing is study 3:

When the coffee and hamburger were taken simultaneously (meal C), iron absorption fell from a control mean of 8.12 to 4.58% (p < 0.05). Coffee taken 1 h before the hamburger (meal B) led to a small decrease in mean absorption that was not statistically significant. On the other hand, with coffee taken 1 h after the hamburger (meal D), the degree of inhibition was similar to that observed when the beverage and meal were consumed simultaneously.

 

[Henry]

It should be noted that coffee didnt inhibit heme iron uptake, but just the uptake of the synthetic iron that has been added to the hamburger for the study.

 

[jyb]

Not surprising if we assume that a hamburger needs to sit in the stomach for a few hours.

 

[Dan W]

It should be noted that coffee didnt inhibit heme iron uptake, but just the uptake of the synthetic iron that has been added to the hamburger for the study.

I assume this is still decent evidence that coffee should inhibit the absorption of the beef's own non-heme iron, right? Or do you think there could be something different about the synthetic iron's absorption?

Not surprising if we assume that a hamburger needs to sit in the stomach for a few hours.

Yeah, I'd just never made the connection that you could be so flexible about it. It seems like even a delay of a couple hours might not be too long to get some benefit, if we assume a half-gastric emptying of 127 minutes.

 

[dd99]

There have been a few inconclusive threads about this, but does coffee also inhibit zinc absorption?

 

[Giraffe]

There have been a few inconclusive threads about this, but does coffee also inhibit zinc absorption?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2223751

 

[dd99]

Thanks. Giraffe!