The lecture series on nutrition I'm working my way through taught me that having coffee or tea within an hour of having a multivitamin cancels out some of the nutrient absorption. (I forget which nutrients, but I think they were minerals, which I probably don't get enough of in my daily food. Also, it's not the caffeine, but some other ingredient in the coffee/tea. Tannins maybe?)

In the same lecture, I learned that eating a vitamin on an empty stomach gives you the most bang for your buck, but that it can also make your stomach upset.


Now, Melissa's previous morning food intake involved:

Toast, orange juice, vitamin if remembered, some variant of coffee/tea/mocha/hot chocolate depending on the day. These were ingested at various times, with a shower and maybe some dishwashing occurring someplace in the process.


Learning what I learned, I changed it to:

Roll out of bed. Bit of orange juice or water to moisten mouth after a long night of sleeping in dry air, vitamin, maybe wash dishes, shower, toast and tea.

But then I discovered that the upset-stomach thing was spot. freaking. on. holy crap. My stomach is not usually the most friendly thing first thing in the morning (thus the toast, whether I feel hungry or not), but that was NOT fun.


So now, we're at:

Roll out of bed. Bit of orange juice or water. Saltine cracker. Vitamin. Maybe another saltine. Shower dishes whatever. Then toast and mocha or whatever.


...this should seriously not be this complicated. Body, you'd better be absorbing things happily.

Labels: cooking, health, life in general