Gummy Vitamins

1. Gummy Vitamins - A Message from Dr. Katy There is a new fad developing in the supplement industry to allow multivitamins to become more accessible to the masses…and who doesn’t like gummy candies? Combining the two seems to be a brilliant way to make people actually enjoy taking their vitamins. I can’t imagine having to discipline myself to remember to take my candy each day. In theory, I was all over this idea. Dream vs. Reality In truth, it is extremely difficult to make useful doses of any vitamin mix taste particularly delicious, especially in a small enough form to be palatable (aka to fit in your mouth). Once you take into account the amount of space taken up by sugar and gelatin, each gummy ends up with a very small nutritional content. On top of that, the first ingredient on the ingredients list of almost all of these vitamin gummies is some form of sugar (glucose, corn syrop, natural cane juice), and often several different forms in a row! Since ingredients are listed in order by amount, this means that the main ingredient in all gummies is, in fact, sugar. Not the top of our “nutritious substances” list. For an idea of the problems caused by excess sugar in the diet, please see our Sugar article. Targeting Children Unfortunately, gummy vitamins are often targeted at children and parents as great additions to a healthy diet to improve nutritional status. Unfortunately, with the amount of vitamin in each gummy, the required dose can be much higher than that listed on the bottle in order to compare with chewable children’s vitamins. In some cases, up to 20 gummies would be required for common nutrients like Vitamin B1. At the same time, eating that many gummies would give your child a mega dose of unnecessary sugar. Often each gummy will contain around 2g of sugar, which is the equivalent of approximately ½ a tsp. Needless to say, feeding your children gummy vitamins will have a similar effect as feeding them candy on behavioral and attention problems. Targeting Adults Interestingly, more recent marketing and development has been targeting gummy multivitamins at an adult audience. These are meant to appeal to our own inner child and to help those who are less inclined to take pills on a daily basis. These are the ones that I was getting excited about. Nutrient Content So, how does the nutrient content compare? I could ramble on all day about how the gummy multivitamins don’t compare to other multivitamins, but instead it may be better to just show you. Please note that if you are finding a difference from your bottle’s list of nutrients that the listed amounts are per unit (gummy, chewable tablet, or pill), while many bottles list the nutrient content for the recommended dose (which is often several units). CHILDREN'S Nutritional Information Brand: Chewable Natural Factors Chewable Flinstones Gummy Nature's Way Gummy Organika # Of Gummy's Needed To Equal A Single Chewable Recommended Dosage: Nutrients (Below) 1-2 0.5-1 3 2 Vitamin A/ Beta Carotene 5000 Iu 3000 Iu 833 Iu 1300 Iu 4 Vitamin C 100mg 60mg 20mg 10mg 10 Vitamin D3 400 Iu 600 Iu 133 Iu 120 Iu 3.3 Vitamin E 25 Iu 30 Iu 5 Iu 8.25 Iu 3 Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) 5mg 1.5mg 0.25mg - 20 Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 5mg 1.7mg 0.28mg - 18

2. Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 10mg 15mg 3.3mg - 3 Vitamin B5 (Pantothene) 10mg 10mg 1.7mg 2.6mg 3.8 Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) 5mg 2mg 0.67mg 0.52mg 9.6 Folic Acid 200mcg 400mcg 133mcg 130mcg 1.5 Vitamin B12 10 Mcg 6mcg 2mcg 2.55mcg 3.9 Biotin 10mcg 40mcg 100mcg 30mcg 0.3 Iodine - - 25mcg 21mcg - Zinc 2mg 12mg 2.5mg 1.35mg 1.5 Choline 5mg (5000mcg) - 6.67mcg 20mcg 250 Inositol 5mg (5000mcg) - 6.67mcg 20mcg 250 Whole Foods Fruit & Veggie Blend - - 150mg - - Calcium 65mg 100mg - - - Magnesium 25mg - - - - Iron 5mg 18mg - - - Potassium 5mg - - - - Manganese 1mg - - - - Copper - - - - - Sodium - 10mg - - - ** doses are per unit for all supplements ADULTS Nutritional Information Brand: Pill Quest Pill Natural Factors Gummy Nature's Way Gummy One-A- Day # Of Gummy's Needed To Equal A Single Pill Recommended Dosage: Nutrients (Below) 1 1 3 2 Vitamin A/ Beta Carotene 10,000iu 10,000iu 1667iu 1600iu 6 Vitamin D 400 Iu 400 Iu 200 Iu 200 Iu 2 Vitamin E 50 Iu 100 Iu 7.5 Iu 10 Iu 5-13 Vitamin C 150mg 200mg 25mg 20mg 6-10 Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) 50mg 50mg 0.25mg - 200 Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) 50mg 50mg 0.28mg - 179 Vitamin B3 (Niacin) 50mg 50mg 3.3mg - 15 Vitamin B5 (Pantothene) 50mg 50mg 3.3mg - 15 Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) 50mg 50mg 1mg 2mg 25-50 Folic Acid 0.2mg 1mg 0.13mg 0.1mg 2-10 Vitamin B12 50mcg 50mcg 4 Mcg 6 Mcg 8-12 Biotin 50mcg 50mcg 100mcg - 0.5

3. Choline 50mg 50mg 20 Mcg - 2.5 Inositol 50mg 50mg 13 Mcg - 3.8 Methionine - 50mg - - - Calcium 125mg 125mg - - - Magnesium 100mg 50mg - - - Phosphorus 50mg - - - - Potassium 50mg 10mg - - - Iron 15mg 10mg - - - Zinc 10mg 10mg 2.5mg - 4 Manganese 1mg 1mg - - - Copper 1mg - - - - Iodine 0.1mg 0.1mg .05mg - 2 Selenium 25mcg 25mcg - - - Chromium 25mcg 25mcg - - - Paba 50mg 50mg - - - Citrus Bioflavonoids 25mg 50mg - Lecithin 15mg - - - - Betaine 12mg 50mg - - - Hesperidin 10mg 10mg - - - Rutin 2mg - - - - Papain 2mg 10mg - - - L-Cysteine 0.6mg - - - - Molybdenum - 25mcg - - - Fruit & Veggie Powder - - 50mg - - **Doses are per unit for all supplements The Verdict So what’s the moral of the story? Depending on the nutrient you are supplementing, the established supplement (chewable for children and pill for adults) is often 1.5 – 200 times higher in content. Gummies also do not contain essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, or selenium, and these are often one of the main reasons people supplement with vitamins in the first place. They often come in bottles of 60 – 100, and so an entire bottle would contain ½ the dose of vitamin B1 or B2 provided by a single capsule of normal multivitamins. For more information on why these nutrients are important, please see our Vitamin B1 and Vitamin B2 articles. I do have to admit that gummy vitamins are a fun way to get a small amount of added nutrition in. If you are substituting them for other forms of candy in your diet, then they are indeed the way to go. Otherwise, they really are not a feasible substitute for other multivitamins. It would seem that gummy multivitamins are just another case of something being “too good to be true”.