Alcohol: Drinking alcohol, even red wine, turns into a toxin called acetaldehyde in your liver. This toxin is not only bad for you but also reduces your body’s ability to absorb Thiamine by at least 50%. So, even if beer is fortified with B1, you won’t absorb most of it.
High-Temperature Cooking: Baking and other high-temperature cooking methods destroy Thiamine. If you add baking soda or other alkaline ingredients, it degrades Thiamine even more. Since Thiamine is water-soluble, boiling foods and then throwing away the water also means you’re throwing away the Thiamine.
Coffee and Tea: These can act as diuretics, making you pee out more Thiamine, and their tannins can also degrade it.
Raw Seafood: Some raw seafood contains enzymes called thiaminases that break down Thiamine in your gut, preventing you from absorbing it.
Preservatives: Foods with high sulfites, whether added or natural (like in wine), can destroy Thiamine.
Medications and Thiamine Absorption
It’s not just food and lifestyle choices that affect your Thiamine levels. Many common medications can also interfere with its absorption or increase its excretion:
Antacids and Proton Pump Inhibitors: These medications, often used for indigestion or heartburn, reduce your stomach acid, which is needed to absorb Thiamine. This might be why there’s a higher risk of dementia linked to long-term use of these drugs.
Diuretics: If you’re taking medications that make you pee more, you’re also increasing the amount of Thiamine your body gets rid of.
Metformin: This drug, often used for diabetes and sometimes even for longevity, reduces Thiamine absorption. While these medications can be life-saving, they shouldn’t be a permanent solution without addressing the underlying issues.
The Kidney Connection and Other Factors
prevent kidney disease
Your kidneys play a big role in keeping your Thiamine levels balanced. If you have kidney issues, your body might get rid of Thiamine faster. And here’s a kicker: many people with kidney disease don’t even know they have it. High blood pressure, which affects half the US population, is a major cause of kidney damage. And what’s the number one cause of high blood pressure? Too much sodium, often found in refined flour products like bread.
Other factors that can impact Thiamine include:
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