Occasionally I take as many as 7 pills at one time, and some of them suggest that they be taken with food. However, not only is it seven pills but some of them are large (such as fish oil pills.)
So, I wonder if there is a point at which you can consume so many pills at a time that they become their own food and you don’t have to “take with food” because you are already consuming enough mass in the form of the pills themselves. Not so much for my personal situation, but I’m sure that there are people who take even more pills at once than I do, considering that only 1 of the pills is prescription, so there could easily be a person taking the same 6 dietary supplements as I am but having even more prescriptions.
Seven pills may seem like a lot but it’s actually a pretty small amount. In terms of mass, it’s like eating a cracker. You need to get enough food in your stomach to trigger the digestive process.
Well, that, and in some cases you want something else in your stomach to buffer the medicine/supplement. Personally, I learned my lesson while taking a cycle of doxycycline–ever since, I’ve interpreted “take with food” to mean “take after you’ve eaten half a meal, then pile the other half on top to hold it down.”
I can’t imagine that other pills would make a very good buffer.
I can’t imagine taking 7 pills at a time without eating something else. My regular multi-vitamin gives me a stomachache if I don’t take it with a meal.
Sometimes the point of taking with food is to provide fat for the fat-soluble ingredient. Your fish oil pill says “take with food” because it can’t be absorbed with just water, I’d bet.
Other pills need food to dilute the medication to protect the stomach lining. For those pills, you can bet that you need the food. Counting other pills as food would be like diluting ammonia with ammonia…it doesn’t work like that.
ETA: I see you’re taking ibuprofen. That’s definitely an ulcer-causer. You need food.
As noted, there are several reasons for the “take with food” instruction = to add 1: slow down the passage (this is the case with vitamins, AIUI) through the gut - on an empty GI tract, the stuff would shoot through too fast to be absorbed - you might as well just dump them directly into the toilet, 'cause that’s where they’re going.
So no, a tablespoon of pills is no more food (and, esp in the case of oils, even less) than a tablespoon of anything else.
My “I’m pretty- If I keep slim, I’ll never need to do anything but spread my legs and I’ll be set for life” sister went through college on jello and vitamin pills. The big-strong-man who came to her “rescue” turned out to be an abusive asshole, and she had no marketable skills, so…
Jeez, with that combo, *you *should be asking if the blood oozing out your trashed stomach lining counts as “take with food”!
(That’s a joke. If you’re actually having stomach bleeding, seek immediate medical attention.)
That’s definitely a combo I’d take with at least a small meal. Lots of stomach lining irritants there.
As for the OP…yeah, it depends. It depends on what you’re taking, and if food is recommended or demanded, and that’s going to depend on why. As already mentioned, if you’re taking a fat soluble vitamin, you want to take it with a little fat for the best absorption. If it’s an irritation thing, well there are some things that WILL irritate the stomach, and some things that may irritate the stomach, and taking with food can dilute the irritating effect - but if your stomach doesn’t get irritated, there’s not really a need to take them with food. Many people can take aspirin or NSAIDS without food for quite a long time and have no stomach problems. Others get ouchy with just a few doses. Since it’s a may irritate kind of thing, they generally say something like, “Take with food if stomach upset occurs.”
Look on the side of your bottle. Does it say “Take with food” or “May take with food”? That should help you figure it out. But no, as far as I know, 7 pills isn’t enough to “count” if you need the food.
Always thought it was “with food” so you would have something in your stomach so as to not upset it.
Learned first-hand several years ago when I a bad cough with bronchitis and took the prescription cough syrup first thing in the a.m. on an empty stomach. No sooner hit my empty stomach when it bounced back out again. Whew… I’m talking seconds.
