Target anti-aging post-prandial blood sugar / lipids?

[Dean Pomerleau]

Sirtuin,

 

Very interesting. my concern with pre-meal coffee is impaired mineral absorption, especially iron. I wonder if one hour separation between drinking coffee and eating food is enough to prevent this effect.

 

--Dean

[sirtuin]

Although, I wonder if this concern could also be a benefit.  I eat an omnivorous diet, often with heme iron in my meals (which also boosts non-heme iron absorption.)  On 23andme, it appears as though I also have a marker for hemochromatosis (although, just 1 copy of a mutated HFE gene.)  I also tend to eat vitamin-C rich meals with some acids / vinegar which also serves to increase iron absorption, and occasionally cook on heirloom cast iron cookware.  While avoiding anemia, I've read that lower iron stores are potentially beneficial?

 

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/37/3/416.short

 

"A cup of coffee reduced iron absorption from a hamburger meal by 39% as compared to a 64% decrease with tea.

 

No decrease in iron absorption occurred when coffee was consumed 1 h before a meal, but the same degree of inhibition as with simultaneous ingestion was seen when coffee was taken 1 h later."

 

While consuming large / very large meals, I wonder if this post-prandial window for iron absorption inhibition extends further out past the 1hr mark.  Perhaps pre-meal coffee is the way to go here.

[Dean Pomerleau]

Sirtuin,

 

Thanks for answering the pre-meal coffee question. I've always wondered that. Now I know that a one hour pre-meal buffer should be enough to avoid impaired iron absorption. It sounds like for you some inhibition might be a good thing, but have you checked your iron level to make sure? I agree that with the large, low GI and high fiber meals we eat that nutrient absorption (incl. iron) is likely extended well past one hour.

 

Dean

[sirtuin]

Sirtuin,

 

Thanks for answering the pre-meal coffee question. I've always wondered that. Now I know that a one hour pre-meal buffer should be enough to avoid impaired iron absorption. It sounds like for you some inhibition might be a good thing, but have you checked your iron level to make sure? I agree that with the large, low GI and high fiber meals we eat that nutrient absorption (incl. iron) is likely extended well past one hour.

 

Dean

That's a good call, I haven't checked iron / ferritin in a couple years.  I was thinking that it was on my last metabolic lab work, but I don't see it in there (although RBC / hematocrit / hemoglobin were all in ideal ranges.)