It’s hard to remember to take a daily pill, making it crucial to find a daily habit that works for you. If you take a supplement every day, it makes sense to pair it with something in your morning routine to ensure it’ll actually stick. But dietitians say it’s best to think twice before tossing back certain vitamins and minerals with your morning cup of joe.

“Coffee contains several chemicals that can alter the absorption of nutrients,” explains Sonya Angelone, PhD, RDN, a nutritionist and registered dietitian based in San Francisco. “Although some of these chemicals have antioxidant health benefits, they can also bind to certain vitamins and minerals and decrease their absorption.”

Coffee can also shift your stomach acidity and gut transit time, further messing with your body’s ability to absorb and use that supplement you just took, saysScott Keatley, RD,co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy. “For people using supplements to correct a deficiency, those small absorption hits can matter,” he points out. Some supplements also absorb better when they’re paired with food, not coffee, so you could be missing out if you’re just taking a sip of your go-to brew with your vitamin and eating later.

Ultimately, “it’s important to also be mindful of what else you’re doing in the morning along with your caffeine ritual,” says Lisa Moskovitz, RD, CDN, CEO of NY Nutrition Group.

This doesn’t mean you need to choose between taking your daily supplement or having this popular beverage, says Jessica Cording, RD, author of The Little Book of Game-Changers. But it does mean you’ll need to be a little more creative with when you have each. With that in mind, these are the biggest supplements dietitians don’t want you to have with coffee—and why.

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Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images

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(Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images)4 Vitamins and Minerals To Avoid Taking With Coffee, Registered Dietitians Say

It’s important to check in with a healthcare provider before adding a new supplement to your routine. But whether you’ve decided to add a vitamin or mineral to your stack or it’s recommended by your doctor, it’s crucial to know about potential interactions. These are the biggest ones that may interact with coffee.

1. Iron

Coffee contains certain compounds and tannins that can bind to iron, preventing it from being fully absorbed in your body, Moskovitz explains. This can “significantly inhibit” the absorption of non-heme (i.e. plant-based) iron, Keatley says. “That effect can show up even with modest amounts,” he adds.

One 2023 study published in the American Journal of Hematology found that women with an iron deficiency who took their iron supplement with coffee absorbed 54% less than when they took their pill with water.

“This is especially important for those who rely on iron from plant foods like vegetarians and vegans or people with low iron stores,” Angelone tells Parade. If you’ve been taking iron to try to treat a deficiency and things aren’t getting better, Keatley recommends taking a closer look at your coffee habit around it. “Pairing it with coffee is a common reason levels don’t improve as expected,” he says. (For what it’s worth, Cording points out that this can happen with tea as well.)

Related: Here’s Exactly What Happens to Your Body When You Stop Eating 3 Hours Before Bed

2. Vitamin D

There’s nothing about coffee that will get in the way of your body’s ability to absorb vitamin D, but it’s still lacking what you need to maximize your efforts in taking this supplement. “You want to take vitamin D along with something that contains fat,” Cording says. Otherwise, you could be doing yourself a disservice.

“If coffee replaces breakfast, absorption may be less reliable,” Keatley says. “Vitamin D does best with a meal, not with a fasted coffee.” In fact, Cording calls taking vitamin D with coffee and no food a “missed opportunity” for your supplement to be useful.

Something else to consider, per Angelone: While coffee doesn’t block the absorption of vitamin D in the gut, the caffeine in coffee can interfere with the receptors that bind vitamin D in cells that build bone.

3. Calcium

There are a few concerns here. “Coffee slightly decreases the amount of calcium absorbed from the intestinal tract and increases the excretion of calcium in your urine,” Angelone explains. “It is probably not a good idea to wash down your calcium with coffee.”

If you’re meeting your overall calcium needs, Keatley says the effect will likely be small. “But if someone is relying on a calcium supplement for bone health, it’s still sensible not to take it with coffee routinely,” he adds.

Related: The One Breakfast Habit Brain Health Experts Are Begging You To Stop

4. B vitamins

This is another vitamin that can take an indirect hit from coffee. “Coffee doesn’t meaningfully block B vitamin absorption in most cases, but caffeine can have a mild diuretic effect,” Keatley says. “Water-soluble vitamins like B vitamins can get eliminated by your kidneys, then in the urine, so the amount retained will be less,” Angelone adds.

But tolerance is an issue, too. “B-complex on an empty stomach—especially with coffee—can worsen nausea or jitters in sensitive people,” Keatley warns.

Cording agrees. “Vitamin B can be somewhat stimulating,” she says. “Sometimes if you combine vitamin B and coffee together, it might feel like an overload.”

Related: This Common Nutrient Deficiency Is Quietly Ruining Women’s Sleep

How To Work Around This

You don’t have to give up your coffee habit to get all your vitamins and minerals. Instead, dietitians say it’s crucial to be smart about when you have each.

“The best and safest approach to ensuring adequate nutrient absorption without sacrificing your necessary morning pick-me-up is to space out your supplements,” Moskovitz says. So, if you normally have a cup of coffee around 8 a.m., consider waiting until lunch or later to take your supplements. “If that’s not realistic, consider adding more vitamin C and calcium-rich foods to your diet, which counter any malabsorption issues caused by caffeine,” she explains.

If you’d rather have them a little closer together, Angelone recommends doing your best to space your supplements and coffee out by at least one to two hours. “Take your supplements with water,” she says. And, of course, if you’re unsure about the best way to take your supplement, talk to your healthcare provider.

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This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 27, 2026, where it first appeared in the Health & Wellness section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.