Gummy Vitamins Are Just Candy (theatlantic.com) 143
Gummy vitamin supplements have surged in popularity, with sales projected to double to $14 billion by 2027. However, experts warn that the candy-like taste and texture increase risks of overdosing, especially among children, as calls to Poison Control for melatonin overdoses have jumped 530% in a decade. Formulating vitamins into gummies also leads to faster nutrient degradation from heat, light and moisture than pills. Testing shows gummy vitamins often contain far more or less of ingredients than labels state. While some sweetness makes supplements appealing, gummies mimic candy too closely at the expense of safety and reliability. The Atlantic: A recent analysis of melatonin and CBD gummies yielded similar results: Some contained as much as 347 percent the amount of those substances stated on the label. Because the FDA generally does not regulate supplements as drugs, such wild variability is accepted in a way that it isn't for actual pharmaceuticals. (In 2020, the FDA granted the first-ever Investigational New Drug Application for a gummy medication, though no such product appears to have come to market.) "If you have something that you need a specific amount of every time you take it, gummies are not the way to go," says Pieter Cohen, a doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance, in Somerville, Massachusetts, and the lead author of the melatonin-CBD research. Taking too much of a supplement is generally not as dangerous as taking too much of a prescription drug, but, as Breuner noted, many supplements taken in sufficient excess can still be toxic. When I asked Cooperman what advice he had for people trying to navigate all of this, his answer was simple: "Don't buy a gummy."
Perhaps the rise of gummy supplements was inevitable. The supplement industry has become so big in part because it can promote its products as, say, boosting the immune system or supporting healthy bones, without subjecting them to the strict regulatory demands imposed on pharmaceuticals. Supplements blur the line between food and drug, and gummy supplements -- designed and marketed on the premise that healthy stuff can and should taste as good as candy -- only intensify that blurring. Cohen, for one, thinks the distinction is worth preserving. Calcium supplements should not go down as easy as Haribos. That may be a bitter pill to swallow, but not everything can taste like candy.
Perhaps the rise of gummy supplements was inevitable. The supplement industry has become so big in part because it can promote its products as, say, boosting the immune system or supporting healthy bones, without subjecting them to the strict regulatory demands imposed on pharmaceuticals. Supplements blur the line between food and drug, and gummy supplements -- designed and marketed on the premise that healthy stuff can and should taste as good as candy -- only intensify that blurring. Cohen, for one, thinks the distinction is worth preserving. Calcium supplements should not go down as easy as Haribos. That may be a bitter pill to swallow, but not everything can taste like candy.
I stay away (Score:2)
For this very reason. I tend to over-consume things that are sweet. I have definitely popped two or more gummy vitamins rather than one because they taste good and I love gummy candy.
I stick to a major drug store band of vitamins in pill form. I am reasonably sure that I am just making more expensive pee... but at least I am sticking to the dosage of one a day.
Re:I stay away (Score:5, Interesting)
As someone who's family has been in the business for 50 years, I can honestly tell you that depending on the brand, even major ones, you may in fact be flushing money down the toilet. So much of the stuff out there, pill or gummy form, is low grade garbage. Quality and production is everything. Synthetics like the "One a Day" brand the worst, and even some of the more natural ones are made using alcohol or hexane. It's a cheap way to make a product, but it destroys the enzymes and nutrients. The concept of you get what you pay for is very much true when it comes to vitamins. Stay away from the bargain crap.
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I've been aware of what you talk about for some time which is why I just havent been taking multi vitamins as I prefer not to flush my money down the toilet as you said. If you have these informed family members, do you have any multivitamin brands that you can recommend?
I like the idea of filling in the gaps of my daily diet with a multi vitamin but I want one that I can trust to actually do something positive for me.
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do you have any multivitamin brands that you can recommend?
The best answer is to eat a diet that contains enough fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes. If you do that you can eat a moderate amount of pretty much anything else you like and you'll be doing just fine.
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The snag is when that doesn't happen. Kids who refuse to listen for example. My mother does not eat well, and I can't force her to when I'm not watching her.
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And that diet is available to all.
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Totally correct, those eating a healthy and well balanced diet don't need any additional vitamins or minerals. And that diet is available to all.
Available is one thing, but will I eat it is another. Most of the foods I "should" eat, taste vile to me. As in spit it out, I would rather go hungry, vile. I am in my mid 50's so I seriously doubt I could change this even if I wanted to. Which I do not.
Multi vitamins are an absolute necessity for me. So much so, that when I started taking a daily multi vitamin about 20 years ago, my sister commented on me looking more healthy and energetic about 6 months after I started.
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For me, fresh food is delicious
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"I like the idea of filling in the gaps of my daily diet with a multi vitamin..." https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
No one gets every nutrient the body needs and in enough quantity every single day. While it is not essential to do so, as I clearly said before, I like the idea of filling in the gaps of my daily diet with a multi vitamin
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The best answer is to eat a diet that contains enough fruit, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.
that might be true, but eating a perfectly balanced diet every day is more difficult and more expensive than just taking a multivitamin. I wasn't a believer, but I started taking 2 multivitamins twice a day and I have never felt better so I really don't care if I'm pissing money away if it makes me feel good.
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Because regardless of how well you eat you'll never get every nutrient your body needs and in sufficient quantity unless you're a completely absurd obsessive. Plus, while I typically go out of my way to eat healthy on a daily basis I occasionally eat junk food which works against this as well.
While the human body doesnt need every nutritional need met every single day as I said before, I like the idea of filling in the gaps of my daily diet with a multi vitamin.
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In your country perhaps.
I would check what food you eat to be in such a bad state.
Your ignorance is showing as well as your lack of civility. Are you really telling me you think anyone anywhere gets this full list of nutrients https://health.gov/sites/defau... [health.gov] every single day without being a complete obsessive. I've eaten all over the world and I can tell you that is absolutely not the case.
As far as I recall, mankind is supposed to be roughly 4 million years on this planet.
Food supplements got invented about 100 years ago. Do your math.
Notice I said "While the human body doesnt need every nutritional need met every single day as I said before, I like the idea of filling in the gaps of my daily diet with a multi vitamin."
I said this
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The problem is "You get what you pay for." is wrong, when you can't analyze what you got. It should be "You don't get more than you pay for, perhaps a lot less.".
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You pay for what you pay for, and you get what you get.
For example I paid nothing to get Maxwell's Equations or Linux, other things I've paid for but didn't get. Water is as priceless as life itself and I buy it for cents per gallon, gold is much less valuable but because it's shiny and scarce the price is high.
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Name a few trusted brands?
As a consumer it seems impossible. Is there something to look for, or is it so unregulated that you can't tell just looking on the bottle?
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However, one of the other rules (here in the US at least) is that any "supplements" that get sold can't actually work! They have to basically be placebo ingredients. If one is determined to be effective, it's then considered a "medicine" and subject to other regulations. Only ineffective
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a few brands:
Now
Life Extension
Doctor's Best
Vitacost
Many others are good but those will get you 75% of what you need.
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>>Synthetics like the "One a Day" brand the worst, and even some of the more natural ones are made using alcohol or hexane.
The only thing that's a bigger scam than synthetic supplements is "natural" supplements. If you can't get the nutrients you need from your food, then you need to change what you eat.
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The only problem is that food is generally less nutrient dense these days, due to modern farming practice. So you basically need to grow your own stuff, or supplement to make sure you're getting the nutrition you need.
https://www.nationalgeographic... [nationalgeographic.co.uk]
The good thing about supplements made from natural ingredients is that they are (or should be) tested and standardised for nutrition levels. Not only for the above, but because food can and does change with seasons. The other good thing about these supplemen
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The body can use any nature identical synthetic, and most non-nature identical synthetics (usually due to differences in stereochemistry) also have pathways to be broken down and resynthesizes into the nature identical form. For those where some stereoisomers are not convertible, the vitamin activity of the source is accounted for. That is why we report most vitamins in IU instead of mass (mg, ng, etc.).
https://en.wikiped
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Granted, I am an amateur with nutrition, and you do have a fair point that the body can use synthetics.
I'd argue though, that synthetic vitamins are only useful for therapeutic needs, and have no place in general health. That's kind of what I was getting at when I said the body doesn't know how to process synthetics. Synthetics should not be used in general vitamin supplements. Having high levels of one specific form of a vitamin (as found in synthetics) can backlog in the body, overwhelming our conversi
Re: I stay away (Score:2)
vitamins are chemicals. The process to end up with the particular chemical does not matter so long as it is the correct shape/structure (go far enough down, and biology and chemistry just become physics). Vitamins with chiral carbon atoms (such as vitamin E, which has 3 if I remember correctly) can be the correct structure, but the wrong stereoisomer, when synthesized synthetically. That can affect thei
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My diet is generally pretty good. I cook from scratch every day and eat a lot of vegetables, fruits and nuts.
But I have also always taken a major brand vitamin since I was young. It's just been a lifelong habit more than anything else. I feel good and I exercise every day. I just maintain what I am used to.
I never thought much about it, but maybe you are right. I will just stop taking the vitamin pill for a few months and see how I feel.
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As someone who's family has been in the business for 50 years, I can honestly tell you that depending on the brand, even major ones, you may in fact be flushing money down the toilet. So much of the stuff out there, pill or gummy form, is low grade garbage. Quality and production is everything. Synthetics like the "One a Day" brand the worst, and even some of the more natural ones are made using alcohol or hexane. It's a cheap way to make a product, but it destroys the enzymes and nutrients. The concept of you get what you pay for is very much true when it comes to vitamins. Stay away from the bargain crap.
It's no secret that vitamin supplements, especially ones you can buy off a supermarket shelf don't work.
They're especially designed not to work as to avoid being accidentally scheduled anywhere in the world like a working medication would because they know if you had to ask for them over the counter like you do with any kind of painkiller that is effective, people wouldn't bother.
This is why in places with advertising standards they can't advertise any actual medical benefits and have to rely on nebul
Re:I stay away (Score:5, Insightful)
I worked (as a nutritionist) for 8 years for a major vitamin supplier (straight vitamins, not the pills themselves). The vitamins are not "low grade garbage", and being synthetic doesn't actually mean that much in terms of effect. The use of hexane or alcohol in the manufacturing process tells you precisely NOTHING about the stability or efficacy of the resulting vitamin or vitamin supplement. And your "in destroys enzymes and nutrients" tag screams "I'm an all natural nut job, who does not understand the first thing about chemistry, nutrition, or science in general".
That all said, most people do not need to take vitamins. Most who do, take far more than they need. The industry is corrupt, and under regulated. Just not for literally any of the reasons you suggest.
I was forever catching shade from my co-workers for not taking all of the supplements we sold. I determined I didn't need them, so I didn't take them, but everyone else was caught up in all of the pseudoscientific justifications our customers used to market their products. The old "it's hard to convince someone of something they have a financial interest in not understanding" thing comes to mind whenever I think about those conversations.
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I was on the "One a Day" vitamins for approximately one week before I threw them in the trash. It made me feel like I had a persistent hangover that I couldn't shake off.
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People can get too carried away with concern about bioavailability. It's just a measurement of the levels of the nutrient in your blood.
Thing is, many nutrients don't work by being absorbed into your bloodstream. They work via interactions with your gut microbiome. Anything that works that way, bioavailability measurements are completely useless.
Eat fresh (as fresh as possible). Eat lots of different things. Don't get into a rut with your meals, change things up! Eat seasonally. That generally works f
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Digestibilty is what is disappears from your digestive tract (Nutrients consumed - nutrients excreted in your feces = nutrients digested). You can get more precise by accounting for things like endogenous losses (nutrients that the digestive process puts into your feces, thus artificially decreasing their apparent digestibilty), or to account for excretion via the urine (technical that is nutrient retent
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A) Loves gummy candy above all other forms of candy
And
B) Hates Gummy medicine, due to the off flavors
?
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That's why I never considered consuming them. I just at regular Centrum (TM) brand vitamin pills instead.
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Stay away from THC gummies then. Their dosage control tends to be poor, apparently just like the vitamins and supplements. I've taken one and barely felt a buzz, and then a different day taken another from the same package and been totally loopy. Take two of the latter and you'd be useless for the rest of the day.
I definitely have to stay away from the dark chocolate Bomb Bon truffles, they're so good I want to just snarf down the whole box.
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Stay away from THC gummies then.
Yeah, I do. Don't worry. ;)
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I don't like the gummies because a) they cost more, and b) they really cost a lot more when you compare the size of the dose and number of doses per bottle. Often you have to take 2 gummies to get the equivalent of a pill, so you only get 45 doses in a bottle. Compare that to the cheaper pill version that gives you 200 doses, there's really no reason to buy them. They don't really taste very good either.
Not a gummy fan.. (Score:5, Funny)
I don't like gummies, is there a candy bar version of these supplements?
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Guinness should have all the vitamins anyone needs right?
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I just googled it. Actually beer contains a lot of vitamins B.
So ban them (Score:2)
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Except, you often can, if you do your research.
There are independent labs which contract and verify veracity of homeopathics, herbs and vitamins.
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It also costs them more to test and manufacture them with the correct amount, so that is a disincentive to do either of those things. Consumers wouldn't know the difference and few are going to spend the money to get their supplements tested.
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You mean verify that homeopathy "therapies" are so diluted that they either don't have a measurable amount of any of the claimed active ingredient or are so diluted they can do no harm or good?
You can verify quantities of stated ingredients in supplements, but in homeopathy the entire principal is "dilution", usually to the point where the alleged medicinal ingredient is expected to be unmeasurable.
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Keep in mind that homeopathic is also a way to get certain supplements past FDA oversight. Zinc Gluconate (the zinc supplement found in Cold-EEze) is only diluted to 2X HPUS and still has 13mg of zinc, which is a pretty significant size of supplement for fighting a cold in a very bioavailable form (about 60%).
Yeah, it's not homeopathy and I'm not sure why they have to resort to this. But zinc is actually proven by research to reduce duration of a cold because zinc is used up heavily by immune processes.
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Homeopathy is utter horse crap, and that's probably an insult to horse crap.
"One time I forgot to take my homeopathic medicine and I overdosed." -Stephen Wright (I think)
Headline says "just candy," summary says otherwise (Score:5, Insightful)
If vitamin gummies are "just candy" then they wouldn't be any worse for you than candy. But the summary (and presumably the article) details case after case where the ingredients of gummies are problematic, much more so than actual candy, because they contain too much of the claimed supplemental ingredients. That's certainly not "just" candy.
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Just wait until you read the article!
(paywalled)
Re:Headline says "just candy," summary says otherw (Score:5, Informative)
If vitamin gummies are "just candy" then they wouldn't be any worse for you than candy. But the summary (and presumably the article) details case after case where the ingredients of gummies are problematic, much more so than actual candy, because they contain too much of the claimed supplemental ingredients. That's certainly not "just" candy.
I agree.
The study has a table, one of the gummies was flat out missing an ingredient (Melatonin), but for the most part they exceeded the specified amount, usually not too much (~120% of the claimed amount) but one had 350% as much Melatonin as claimed.
Honestly, I don't think having 20% too much Melatonin is a big deal, you don't get a gummy because you care about super precision and Melatonin dosing is pretty random, though the 350% one is a big deal.
But I still think there are two big problems with the gummy form.
First, taking a gummy helps build a habit of eating candy, meaning you'll probably eat a bit less healthy in general.
Second, for people with kids having gummies means the kids might get in and eat the whole bottle. Even for something as benign as Melatonin that's not a science experiment I'm interested in.
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For someone like me, taking vitamins in minimally foul tasting chewables is desirable (especially vitamin D!). I no longer have children to worry about.
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Second, for people with kids having gummies means the kids might get in and eat the whole bottle. Even for something as benign as Melatonin that's not a science experiment I'm interested in.
As someone with life long sleeping problems, with Melatonin it really does matter to get a consistent dosage. A lot of people with sleeping issues take melatonin not to fall asleep (it doesn't help much here) but rather to stay asleep instead of waking up every few hours. Melatonin is one of the few things I don't put into the "useless supplement" category, although it is if your melatonin levels are normal (I.E. you don't actually suffer from sleeping difficulties, which in all seriousness, I hope you don'
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If I put 1000 mg of a vitamin into a pill, and label it as containing 1000 mg of that vitamin. Then package it, ship it, and store it for any amount of time in a warehouse or on a store shelf, by the time you open the package to take the supplement it will have le
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To kids, gummies are just candy, they will eat the whole bottle.
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And none of the ingredients detailed as problematic are even vitamins.
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What is the variance of dosage? (Score:2)
The real issue is the probability of overdose or underdose. If all gummies in one container contain either significantly too much or too little of the target supplement, then consuming the entire container's contents over many months might be a problem. However, if the gummies average out to the target level, then the variance from one gummy to another in the same container is not really a problem.
The article mentioned the danger of a supplement being similar to a candy. I'm not sure why that's a problem
So what you're saying (Score:2)
Some contained as much as 347 percent the amount of those substances stated on the label.
So what you're saying is that they're good value, then.
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As you say, fat soluble vitamins can be toxic at high doses. However, most of the water soluble vitamins are not, because they can be easily excreted via the kidneys (unlike the fat soluble vitamins which accumulate in adipose tissue).
Excessive dose rates can be dangerous, but it is highly dependent upon the exact compound. I would hope that the producers are being selective in what goes in at 3x the label claim, and what is dosed m
Are you deficient? (Score:2)
Unless you are deficient, you don't need vitamins.
https://www.healthline.com/nut... [healthline.com]
Re:Are you deficient? (Score:5, Interesting)
. The proper route for insured adults would be to get an annual physical including labwork and get told what vitamins they may/may not be deficient in to get specific supplements, but most adults barring an ability to properly supplement their diet (time, ability, income, effort could all be factors on whether or not you can supplement it via diet alone) would likely benefit from at least one supplement...
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Right, you should know what you need and supplement just what you need. Adding things you don't need is just a waste of money.
There are products aimed at the deficiency you point out, but no sense in taking them if you don't need them:
https://www.naturemade.com/pro... [naturemade.com]
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It's because you might not be showing obvious symptoms yet. In a lot of cases, it's cheaper to start treating you before you develop obvious signs.
And throwing a bottle of supplements (real ones) at you is cheap.
That said, most of them are probably not chronically deficient, so we don't see the problems develop, as they shift diet over time and fix the problem themselves.
I see another reply of yours just under this one. If you have a vitamin E deficiency because you have cancer, a pill containing vitamin
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If you go to a compounding pharmacy, they can probably make exactly the vitamin that your mom needs and that might be a better experience for everybody.
The key part of your post is that vitamins should "generally be reserved for people with act
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I had a blood test that told me that I'm Vitamin D deficient, so I supplement the right amount of Vitamin D to bring into the normal range. You know, evidence based medicine.
What *you* need, and how much *you* need, is between you and your medical professional.
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You are not understanding what I'm saying. You shouldn't just be supplementing yourself based on some daily recommendation for the general population. You should understand your own needs, which can be determined through testing. If you eat a variety of foods, get exercise, get outdoors, and do these things enough, then you don't need vitamins. In our modern world we don't live like hunter-gatherers and we tend to need supplements but each person is different.
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Actually, the RDA isn't just to prevent death, it's to prevent any vitamin deficiency diseases. It's also set at 2-3 times the base necessary amount for most people, because actual needs vary, so they went high for non-toxic nutrients and kind of went for the midline for nutrients that you can realistically overdose on.
For example, it's very hard to get a toxic dose of vitamin C. Iron, Vitamins A and D, and such can be toxic in large enough doses.
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If you live where it's far enough north to snow, you're almost certainly vitamin D deficient. The pills are cheap, and taking your daily standard dose isn't enough to OD even if you are at 100% already. Assuming you're otherwise healthy, you'll just piss out any extra without even stressing your kidneys.
I always have them in the cupboard and take 'em daily.
In other news... (Score:2)
Soylent Green is people!
Nothing new (Score:2)
I overdosed on Flintstone vitamins back in the 80s. Puked alllllll over the house as I went looking for my parents!
No more gummies for me (Score:2)
>>Testing shows gummy vitamins often contain far more or less of ingredients than labels state.
What?! No more gummies for me; it's just blunts and brownies from now on.
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Most of *those* gummies state that they are individually dosed (*most*).
The dietary supplement industry... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've heard . . . (Score:2)
"Just candy" can lead to overdosing? Pick a lane! (Score:2)
Overdoses are very high, yet vitamins degrade from the heat needed to make gummies. I assume manufacturers know this and have been (dangerously) overcompensating.
Clickbait Title is Incorrect (Score:3)
Wow (Score:2)
Moralize much?
Calcium supplements should not go down as easy as Haribos. That may be a bitter pill to swallow, but not everything can taste like candy.
The issue, if there is one, is the amounts in the stuff not being accurate. Not that it tastes like candy. If the labeled amounts were correct, then who cares if it doesn't taste awful?
People without a real religion will always invent one. Complete with sins, penance, etc.
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Parents abdicating all responsibility (Score:5, Insightful)
If your young child has access to gummy vitamins or melatonin - which means not only are they not on a high shelf, but youve removed them from the child proof packaging - then you have failed as a parent.
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For me, the top shelf was a challenge but not a big deal. It involved opening three vertically stacked cupboard doors as I monkey climbed the shelves.
Re: Parents abdicating all responsibility (Score:2)
And?
A child can't open the bottle. Even if they could read, they don't have the hand strength. Source: have a child, she is 8 and is just now finally able to open these herself.
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Uh... In my experience most "child proof" containers aren't. I was a "prime example". Mom's solution to hard to open child proof bottles was to hand them to me. I'd have them open in a jiffy. i then handed the open bottle back to mom for an actual treat.
I was the human child equivalent of that bear they use for testing bear-proof containers.
My parents had to padlock the gate - on the outside, to keep me from opening it. Instead, I encouraged the dog to dig under the fence. I started dad's motorcycle at
Parents failed me less than you think. (Score:3)
Did I ever say that I actually TOOK the medicine?
No, I was also taught to not eat what was in them, which when you had a kid like me, was about the only option. It's just that I could open the bottles faster than mom could. I opened the bottle, and like I said, gave it back to mom for an actual treat - a cookie or whatever.
I don't know about "insufficient arm strength", but I was strong enough even at that age. Both me and my brother(who's stronger than I am) were virtual monkeys when it came to climbing
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It used to be normal to learn, quite young, that some stuff was not ours to fuck with. We could look at it, maybe (depending) handle it, but it was not to be eaten, played with, dismantled, or anything else. We were then trusted to have the sense the gods gave a turnip, and abide by those rules. I expect the teaching and the trust are much the same element.
Even dumb kids learned that much, so I won't buy that kids have declined so much that they can't understand the rules.
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The problem you can have is that every kid is different. Kids can be smart, can be dumb, can have problems with impulse control, etc...
I was a smart one. Fortunately, I also had enough impulse control to avoid danger - most of the time. Mom still tells the story where she told me not to touch the stove burner because it was hot. I looked at the stove, her, back to the stove, then put my hand on the burner.
Fortunately, only minor burns, but it was effectively an important lesson to listen to my mother.
Ra
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True. But it used to be more or less assumed that if you did the stupid, you paid a penalty and learned better. (Bet you never touched another hot stove. And learned a valuable lesson about impulse control.) Now we're protected from the penalty, so there's no downside to stupid, so there's a perception that we must be protected from stupid...
The big secret about melatonin (Score:2)
The medically correct dose of melatonin is 0.3 mg (or at most 1mg), but someone patented the correct dose [slatestarcodex.com] and ever since then supplement makers have avoided the patent by selling very large doses.
It's very convenient: a typical melatonin tablet can be broken in 4 to 8 pieces and retain full efficacy, making melatonin possibly the world's cheapest medicine.
Before I knew this, I was sometimes taking 20 mg at once. There were no side effects, but it didn't necessary work e
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If you didn't feel anything after taking 20mg it's likely that (1) it wasn't actually 20mg, or (2) you developed tolerance after regular use. 5mg is enough to give me a mild nausea and extremely vivid nightmares.
Melatonin doesn't have much "toxicity" as measured by LD50, but there's plenty of undesirable things a substance can do without killing you. Obviously it doesn't have the soul-crushing withdrawal symptoms of alcohol or opiates, but I suspect there are likely more subtle disruptions in sleep pattern
Some medications are better in gummy form (Score:2)
Some medications are better in gummy form. Melatonin, for example, absorbs better through the mouth and gums than it does in the stomach. Gummies make this easier for substances that are more effective through this route.
Watch out for the side effects (Score:2)
Boon to dentists (Score:2)
Gummies remove fillings. This is a bonanza for dentists.
Shush (Score:2)
make them taste nasty like flintstone vitamins (Score:2)
We are not allowed to have nice things.