Q & A: Are gummy vitamins just as good as non-gummy? Or gummy fiber? Gummy fish oil?
A: Not really. Gummy supplements seem like a good idea on the surface – yummy and easy (no swallowing), but the reality is
- Gummy vitamins are high in calories
- Gummy supplements are very expensive per unit of active ingredient
- Gummy vitamins can have stability problems
- Gummy supplements can cause gas and diarrhea
Gummies have more calories per unit of supplement.
Let’s compare women’s multi-vitamins that are made by the same company* with the only difference being gummy or regular tablet version. Because there are many different vitamins in multi-vitamins let’s focus on just one – vitamin C.
- Tablet:
- 1 tablet has 180 mg of Vitamin C (200% daily value). 0 calories.
- Calories per month: 30 days x 0 calories = 0 calories
- Calories per year: 365 days x 0 calories = 0 calories
- Gummy:
- 180mg of vitamin C requires 10 gummies (5 servings), or 75 calories
- Calories per month: 30 days x 75 calories = 2,250 calories (over ½ pound of fat)
- Calories per year: 365 days x 75 calories = 27,375 calories
- This is only for one supplement, so if you also use gummies for fiber, fish oil, etc then the calories are multiplied and add up very fast.
Gummy vitamins taste like candy because they are mostly candy. A regular gummy bear that doesn’t pretend to be healthy has 8-9 calories, and a gummy vitamin has about 8 calories.
*I picked Nature’s Made because they came up first on Google and they make a gummy and regular version of the same product – a women’s multivitamin. This isn’t an endorsement. I would have preferred to use our favorite supplement company, DotFit, but they don’t make gummy vitamins because they don’t believe they can deliver a stable product in that form.
Gummies are very expensive per unit of supplement. Much more.
Gummies are about 10x the price per unit of supplement. Let’s use the exact same product as above.
- Tablet:
- 180 mg vitamin C (200% daily value) will cost $0.14 per day.
- Monthly cost: $4.20
- Annual cost: $51.10
- Gummy:
- 180 mg vitamin C (200% daily value) will cost $1.39 per day.
- Monthly cost: $41.70
- Annual cost: $507.35 (just under 10x the cost of the tablet)
- Again, this is just for a multi-vitamin, so if you are adding fiber, fish oil, etc the costs multiply.
Gummy vitamins have stability problems.
Heat, light, oxygen and/or changes in pH are what cause vitamins (and most things) to break down. This is why multivitamins are in sealed in airtight containers that don’t let in much light. It’s pretty much impossible to make a gummy candy without exposing the vitamins you want to incorporate to heat, light, etc leading them to degrade much faster. Some vitamins or supplements will hold up better than others (fish oil will not hold up to heat!).
Gummies might not be very kind to your digestive system.
There’s a wide variety of sweeteners, fillers, binders, etc used in making gummy supplements. Sorbitol and maltitol are 2 common sweeteners used in gummy vitamins that make you gassy (not so classy) and/or give you diarrhea. The more you consume the more risky it gets, and the low concentration of active ingredient in gummy supplements means you need to chew a lot.
Bottom Line when asking Are gummy vitamins just as good as non-gummy?
Multivitamins are a very good idea because our sedentary world limits how much we can eat while maintaining a healthy weight. The multivitamin fills in the nutritional gaps that might be impractical to fill otherwise. The same is true for vitamin D if, or when you spend most of your time inside.
Gummy supplements are candy with some vitamins or fiber added. You would be much better served getting this in pill or liquid form. Examples: liquid vitamin D instead of a gummy, Kashi Go Lean or sugar-free Metamucil instead of gummy fiber chews, etc.