I take vitamins with my morning coffee- bad idea?

First of all, I have to preface this with the statement that I am TERRIBLE at remembering to take vitamins. The most success I’ve had recently is by employing the following method:

Set a reminder on my phone to take them before I leave for work- I’m usually always home at the same time every morning

Before this I tried everything: taking in the afternoon (failed b/c I get busy & forget, this requires me to take them with me wherever I go); using a M-S pill case (failed b/c I hate this thing rattling around in my purse, and then I have to remember to refill it); taking after I get home from work (failed because I don’t always get home at the same time and on the weekend a lot of the time I’m out and about anyway, forgetting again.); taking before bed (failed b/c of upset stomach)

So morning is my “special vitamin time”. It works for me. BUT- usually what I’m doing in the morning is drinking coffee. I’ve heard that coffee can make calcium (and other vitamin?) consumption ineffective.

Should I really try to reconsider a non-coffee time vitamin-taking regimen?

I do remember reading somewhere that iron supplements and coffee don’t go well together, it decreases the absorption of iron. Iron is best taken with orange juice. Not sure about other vitamins/supplements.

… just coffee, or do you eat anything? I’ve been told by docs that taking pills with food slows their passage through your system, giving your body more time to absorb it. So if coffee = breakfast for you, I’d think the empty-stomach aspect would be more problematic than the caffeine.

Also, is this a multi-vitamin, or a specific supplement? (You mentioned calcium …)

IANADorNutritionist

Vitamin supplements do their jobs best in concert with your largest meal of the day. Many of them are more catalysts than actual building blocks in an of themselves. You should really try to carry them with you, and get in the habit of taking them with dinner, or your largest (or most varied) daily meal.

Another caveat: You want to take iron and calcium at opposite end sof the day. It’s my understanding that acid helps calcium get absobed, so a vitamin+calcium might be the right accompaniment for morning coffee. (Make sure it’s calium citrate, the other forms are tough to absorb too.)

http://www.truestarhealth.com/tour/vitaminwhenhow.asp?code=house

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/148428/how_to_take_vitamins.html

Better to take the vitamins, even at a bit-less-than-optimal time of day, than to forget to take them at the perfect time.

Regards,
Shodan

Better to forget the vitamins altogether, and sped the money on eating a better diet. With a healthy diet, most people should have no need to take vitamins. Quackery!

You have a point, but in my experience it is even harder to change your diet than it is to remember to take a pill.

Regards,
Shodan

The above posters all speak truth. Vitamins do absorb better under certain conditions than others. But the makers of vitamins realize this and they take that into consideration when they formulate their products.

In Westernized countries actual vitamin deficancies are rare. And then they usually effect children under 5 or older people in extreme conditions. For instance, there are older people that will eat corn or rice to the exclusion of other foods.

But for most people vitamins are not needed. But I take a good multivitamin once a day. I can get 365 day supply for about $5.00 at Walmart (Wait till year’s end they go on sale). I am probably wasting $5.00 as I do get my vitamins from my food, but for such a small price, it’s worth it to me

So just look at the label if there is a real need to take it at a certain time or with/without food, it’ll say.

Otherwise, take it when it’s convenient. Yes you could be getting a bit less iron or whatever, but it won’t be enough to make a noticable difference. And if it IS making a noticable difference, than you really need to see your physican to get correct guidence on this.

That, and if you need supplementation, you often need more vitamins than you can get in your caloric allotment of food. Plus, don’t forget that pretty much all natural vitamins are converted to usable formes in vivo, while some vitamin supplements are already converted for you.

The idea that vitamins from food are inherently better is just magical thinking–the same type that says that natural is better than artificial.

Tangent: don’t take vitamins with a thyroid supplement. The supplement with bind with vitamins and minerals, so you get the benefit of neither. Also, don’t take the supplement with any sort of dairy…the supplement binds with the calcium.

  1. Very few people, unless they are badly malnourished, even those who do not make any particular effort to “eat healthy,” really need to take a vitamin supplement (with the possible exception of vitamin D). [Although I have to admit, I take vitamins anyway, even though I know better. What? We are supposed to be rational? :eek:]

  2. Calcium is not a vitamin (so you may, in fact, need more of it in your diet, and a supplement may be a convenient way to get it).

I have never heard that coffee prevents calcium absorption, but I suppose it is possible.

I guess I should have mentioned what I take:

Children’s chewable multivite (I got into the habit of this long ago when I first started taking vitamins- I was having trouble with the gag factor of swallowing a big vitamin, so my doc suggested chewables- over the years I’ve gotten over the gag factor, but have always kind of stuck with the chewable)

Echinacea blend for immune support

Lysine- recommended by my doc because I’ve had shingles in my younger life and apparently Lysine staves it off. Since I started taking it I stopped having stress-related tingling in the nerve path areas which is always a precursor…

5mg Lexapro (working on weaning myself off of this drug completely)
So…nothing major, just the dailies.

I tried children’s chewables for a while but now they make adult gummy vitamins. I also take a chewable calcium.

I agree with this. It’s possible that you’ll absorb 10% (or whatever) less of something in a vitamin pill by taking it with coffee rather than a big meal. But that 10% shouldn’t matter to an otherwise healthy person. If that 10% is critical, then you’re in big trouble already and you shouldn’t be treating whatever is wrong with just a vitamin pill.
(And of course there is zero evidence that Echinacea does anything positive, and a bunch of evidence that it does nothing. So it doesn’t hurt you, but it is a waste of money.)

Vitamins are cheap insurance.

http://www.ispub.com/ostia/index.php?xmlFilePath=journals/ijnw/vol1n1/vitamins.xml

http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=40442

About 40% of Americans have Vit D deficiency (almost 90% of seniors!), 5-20% don’t get enough Folic acid.

But those are for the general population- if you are elderly, obese, underweight, pregnant, lactating, a smoker, a drinker, a vegan, or any of a number of other fairly common lifestyle choices or stages- then you can well need more of one Vitamin or another. And that’s for people with no health problems, those with anemia, liver problems, bowel issues, on various prescription drugs and whatnot also can need extra supplements.

http://www.uspharmacist.com/content/d/senior_care/c/21981/
*Mild vitamin deficiencies are very common among seniors, and particularly so among the frail and institutionalized elderly.1 Anemia, cognitive impairment, an increased propensity for developing infections, and poor wound healing are among the associated manifestations of mild vitamin deficiencies in the elderly.1 …The causes of vitamin and mineral deficiencies (TABLE 1) are varied. Older adults may not consume certain foods or may consume them in inadequate amounts. Smoking tobacco, malabsorption disorders, gastrointestinal (GI) surgery, Helicobacter pylori infection of the GI tract, alcohol overconsumption, drug adverse effects, and drug-nutrient interactions may also contribute.2,3 Age-related changes may cause seniors to eat less (i.e., satiety with less food) due to the presence of more hormones that decrease appetite and fewer neurotransmitters that stimulate appetite.3In the United States and other developed countries, vitamin deficiencies result primarily from poverty, food fads, drugs (TABLE 2), alcoholism, or extended or inadequately supplemented treatment with parenteral nutrition.4 Among *

So, the bit about not needing vitamins is simply wrong. And, the cost is tiny, unless you get carried away. A 180 day supply of high quality multivites is $17, or less than a dime a day.

There have been some studies to show that caffeine ingestion does reduce calcium absorption, although the effect is quite small. Similarly, some studies have demonstrated increase loss of calcium through the kidneys when caffeine is taken. The more important question, however, is whether coffee (or caffeine) ingestion leads to osteoporosis. Again, the study results are inconsistent with some showing an increased likelihood of osteoporosis among heavy coffee drinkers, but most not demonstrating such an effect. As I recall, in those studies that purported to reveal a link between coffee and osteoporosis, its effect to do so was relevant only for those with very low calcium intakes to begin with.

Perhaps the bottom line is that if there is an effect of coffee (or caffeine) on calcium economy in humans (and there probably is NOT - see link below), it is not large, is easily offset by a modest increase in calcium intake, and not relevant when calcium intake is already adequate.

Here is a recent review of factors leading to osteoporosis. It is by a very august group of authors, and I would trust them completely. Obviously, the article is extremely comprehensive, but even in the abstract it’s stated that there is likely no relation between coffee and osteoporosis (well, to be totally upfront, the authors talk about the more general condition of “low bone mass” which is pretty much the same thing).

(As an aside, one of the reasons it has been problematic to get a definite answer to these questions is because people who drink lots of coffee tend to be thinner, are more likely to smoke, may exercise less, and generally eat less (and less well) than those who don’t. All these things can, by themselves, promote osteoporosis. It is a real challenge to subtract their, and other confounding, effects from the fundamental question of whether coffee per se leads to osteoporosis.)

“Most people” then being: a male, 10-45 years of age, who does not drink too much alcohol or caffiene, gets reasonable amounts of sun (but not too much) exercises, eats a balanced diet, not a smoker, has no health issues, takes no prescription drugs, not obese or underweight… yep, that’s “most”… if by most you mean under 10% of Americans. :rolleyes: