Another tea question.......

[debbiem]

Sorry if I'm hogging this Section but this is another one nobody's ever given me a definitive answer to - tea is meant to impair the absorption of iron if taken with a meal, so how long before or after a meal is it safe to have one so this doesn't happen? I read about tea absorption several times over when I was pregnant but on asking this question nobody seemed to know for sure. :

I think Vitamin C with a meal aids the absorption of iron and tea impairs it, so if you have both with a liver casserole eeek what happens in there with one helping and one doing the very opposite?

[Sleepy]

debbiem said:

Sorry if I'm hogging this Section but this is another one nobody's ever given me a definitive answer to - tea is meant to impair the absorption of iron if taken with a meal, so how long before or after a meal is it safe to have one so this doesn't happen? I read about tea absorption several times over when I was pregnant but on asking this question nobody seemed to know for sure. :

I think Vitamin C with a meal aids the absorption of iron and tea impairs it, so if you have both with a liver casserole eeek what happens in there with one helping and one doing the very opposite?

It is the tannin in tea (the same with coffee, red wine and some green veg) that inhibit the absorbtion of iron. The safe margins are considered to be one hour before and one hour after a meal.

If you add milk to tea it binds the tannins and minimises the problem. Don't do that with red wine though - it's yucky!

Herbal tea usually contain much lower levels of tannin and don't tend to inhibit iron absorbtion much.

[Sleepy]

admin said:

debbiem said:

Sorry if I'm hogging this Section but this is another one nobody's ever given me a definitive answer to - tea is meant to impair the absorption of iron if taken with a meal, so how long before or after a meal is it safe to have one so this doesn't happen? I read about tea absorption several times over when I was pregnant but on asking this question nobody seemed to know for sure. :

I think Vitamin C with a meal aids the absorption of iron and tea impairs it, so if you have both with a liver casserole eeek what happens in there with one helping and one doing the very opposite?

It is the tannin in tea (the same with coffee, red wine and some green veg) that inhibit the absorbtion of iron. The safe margins are considered to be one hour before and one hour after a meal.

If you add milk to tea it binds the tannins and minimises the problem. Don't do that with red wine though - it's yucky!

Herbal tea doesn't contain tannin and doesn't inhibit iron absorbtion.

Oh btw, tannin only affects the absorbtion of iron from plant sources. Iron from meat sources such as liver and kidney are not inhibited.

[debbiem]

Thanks The witch and Sleepy!
Somebody told me one that it was 15min before and after a meal - can't be can it? An hour sounds about right. I suppose breakfast is the only meal of the day where there are cereals(with iron), fruit juice and tea or coffee all present at the same time - I wonder how many people know that the fruit juice isn't doing them as much good as they think it is if they're having tea or coffee with caffeine with them? :

[Sleepy]

The said:

I've heard that spinach actually removes iron from the body

That's a new one on me.

Spinach is rich in iron, and tannins, so the tannins will inhibit the iron, but I don't believe that they would have a negative effect outside of that.

[Sleepy]

debbiem said:

Thanks The witch and Sleepy!
Somebody told me one that it was 15min before and after a meal - can't be can it? An hour sounds about right. I suppose breakfast is the only meal of the day where there are cereals(with iron), fruit juice and tea or coffee all present at the same time - I wonder how many people know that the fruit juice isn't doing them as much good as they think it is if they're having tea or coffee with caffeine with them? :

I think you're worrying too much.

Go get yourself a good curry. They're full of iron ;D

[debbiem]

admin said:

admin said:

It is the tannin in tea (the same with coffee, red wine and some green veg) that inhibit the absorbtion of iron. The safe margins are considered to be one hour before and one hour after a meal.

If you add milk to tea it binds the tannins and minimises the problem. Don't do that with red wine though - it's yucky!

Herbal tea doesn't contain tannin and doesn't inhibit iron absorbtion.

Oh btw, tannin only affects the absorbtion of iron from plant sources. Iron from meat sources such as liver and kidney are not inhibited.

Well I never knew that - what a complicated lot we are on this planet!!

[debbiem]

The said:

I've heard that spinach actually removes iron from the body

Has anyone told Popeye that?

[debbiem]

admin said:

debbiem said:

Thanks The witch and Sleepy!
Somebody told me one that it was 15min before and after a meal - can't be can it? An hour sounds about right. I suppose breakfast is the only meal of the day where there are cereals(with iron), fruit juice and tea or coffee all present at the same time - I wonder how many people know that the fruit juice isn't doing them as much good as they think it is if they're having tea or coffee with caffeine with them? :

I think you're worrying too much.

Go get yourself a good curry. They're full of iron ;D

I'm not worrying, just wondering about the ins and outs of it all - I've heard that curry powder's a good source of iron too. By the spoonful or.......

[Sweetleaf]

Spinach should be avoided by people with Gout, or kidney, or Thyroid problems, due to the presence of high concentrations of purines and Goitrogens, there is actually more iron in other leafy green veg than in spinach, although it has been proved to be a good source of most vitamins and minerals.

[debbiem]

sweetleaf2 said:

Spinach should be avoided by people with Gout, or kidney, or Thyroid problems, due to the presence of high concentrations of purines and Goitrogens, there is actually more iron in other leafy green veg than in spinach, although it has been proved to be a good source of most vitamins and minerals.

Wow - to think we're all led to believe it's SOOOOO good for you! All those people chomping through pounds of it and hating every minute of it in the name of health..... ;D

[Sleepy]

debbiem said:

admin said:

Oh btw, tannin only affects the absorbtion of iron from plant sources. Iron from meat sources such as liver and kidney are not inhibited.

Well I never knew that - what a complicated lot we are on this planet!!

It can be a bit confusing. The iron is meat is referred to a heme iron. The iron in vegetable sources is known as non-heme iron.

Heme iron is part of the hemoglobin and myoglobin molecules in animal tissue. Just under half of the iron in animal products is heme iron. The rest is non-heme iron.

The non-heme iron in animal tissue isn't really important because our bodies absorb heme iron much much more readily. That doesn't mean that non-heme iron rich foods such as spinach, bran, dried fruit, egg yolk, etc are not important too though.

Vitamin C actively aid the bodies absorbtion of iron.

[debbiem]

Wow - thanks for that! I didn't know any of that, either.