I take a centrum multivitamin every day with food, and I was wondering how much of the vitamins are getting absorbed by me?
That’s a pretty broad question.
Eating a healthy diet is better than supplements, but supplements don’t hurt and might help in some cases. Taking supplements with food is generally a good idea, although milk somewhat interferes with the absorbtion of iron. Taking more than you need of water-soluble vitamins like B and C doesn’t usually hurt anything - it just gets excreted in your urine. Fat-soluble vitamins like A and D can build up in your fatty tissues, but you have to really overdose on the vitamin (or eat polar bear liver) before vitamin toxicity is an issue.
The short answer to “how much of the vitamins are being absorbed” is “it doesn’t really matter”. A balanced diet is better than an unbalanced diet with supplements, but an unbalanced diet with supplements is better than an unbalanced diet without supplements. But a balanced diet with supplements is not much better than a balanced diet without supplements.
Worrying about what time of day you take your pill or what you take it with is usually not worth the trouble.
Personally, I take a generic multi-vitamin with breakfast, and a calcium supplement with vitamin D, because I do a lot of weight-bearing exercise, and live in a northern climate and work indoors, so I don’t get a lot of sunshine, which is needed to produce vitamin D in the body. I am currently taking an iron supplement, because I donated blood a few days ago and want to rebuild my hemoglobin. But I take the vitamins the way many do - it’s just insurance. I am quite aware that I am probably doing no more than vitamin-fortifying my urine.
Regards,
Shodan
I know most doctors seem to agree with you, but I’ve read some articles that contradict this. Here’s one:
I read a few items on the toxicity of multivitamins a few years ago. I was taking one of those GNC Vitapaks almost daily at the time. I immediately stopped and so far with no ill effects. It’s been about 2 years since I stopped.
Searching “septic tank vitamin” results in hundreds of claims that vitamins end up whole in septic tanks, however I can’t seem to find a primary source for that claim.
I have a septic tank and my wife and I take vitamins and calcium.
Stand by while I go check the tank!
Sorry, not going to look.
To be fair, according to the label of one of the Vitapaks it contained massive overdoses of some of the water-soluble vitamins, like C and B-1. As mentioned, this is not likely to do much harm even in high doses (although B-3 in large doses can cause “niacin flush”) but it is not quite the same as a daily multivitamin that hits 100% of the RDA.
If a little is good, more is not necessarily better, and too much is no better than not enough. And someone is always selling something.
Regards,
Shodan
A past thread that provided links to studies showing that daily multis are indeed capable of harm and for the typical Western individual more likely to cause harms than goods. My post#45 is most relevant here.
That however was not the question.
Doubt there is a straightforward answer to it though. Depends on if with food or not, your individual system, the exact preparation, what your state is. Closest to the straightforward answer might be: more above and beyond diet than you very likely need in any case, and not a substitute for real foods at any dose.
I am bound to say that based largely on the post you mention, I switched to a multi-vitamin that did not have iron. I only take the iron supplement after I donate blood, which I do regularly.
Mineral absorbtion and their benefits/drawbacks are a separate although related topic to vitamin absorbtion.
Regards,
Shodan
Yes, one should not heedlessly gobble supplements and vitamins. After a blood test showed I had elevated potassium levels my doc told me to avoid all supplements and salt substitutes containing potassium - good luck finding a multivitamin without potassium.
So I take Vitamin D in the winter due to the low sunlight. I eat a lot of fruit, so C is taken care of. Otherwise, I show no signs of needing supplements and would much rather spend my money on actual food.
YMMV, of course.
A good way to get a handle on your dietary vitamin intake is to use the free tracker at www.cronometer.com .
Originally for those who are trying to develop a CRON lifestyle (Calorie Restricted Optimal Nutrition) it is useful to anyone who wants a detailed picture of their dietary intake.
I eat fairly well, but have an abnormally slow metabolism. As such, it’s very hard to ingest enough food to keep optimal levels without taking in too many calories. I find the Centrum chewable vitamins very helpful. Four of them equal 100% of most vitamins, so I can tailor the supplement to my food intake for the day. Generally I only need two.
But really, my stress level is such that I do anything I can to help my body cope. Maintaining optimal nutrition is just one aspect of that, but it’s easy, cheap and I see no reason not to do it.
My strategy: I have a bottle of some generic store-brand multi-vitamin-mineral supplement – the kind with 100% of just about everything, not megadoses of stuff. I break them in half and take one half tablet a day.
My theory: I assume I’m getting more-or-less everything I need in my more-or-less reasonable diet. I take that extra half-tablet just to fill in anything I might happen to be missing.
About 20 years ago, I started taking “megavitamins” I got from GNC. About a week into them, I had a pain in one of my kidneys every time I sneezed, and there were bruise marks on my skin where the pains were happening. The pains stopped (and the bruises went away) when I stopped, but even today, if I take something like a Centrum, the pain comes back, albeit not nearly as bad and without the visible bruises.