When is the best time to take vitamin tablets?

Morning - before breakfast

Morning - after breakfast

After the most substantial meal of the day

Or?

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Morning after breakfast.

EDIT: Logic being that you should consume vitamin and mineral pills following a meal as stated on the packaging/instructions. I also remembered my doctor telling my dad that you shouldn't consume any pills on an empty stomach anyway.

Reply 2

Renal

If you have a vaguely normal diet, it doesn't matter when you're taking them, they do you as little good either way.

Otherwise, you should be taking them as directed by your doctor.

Reply 3

Jason Sparks

Renal

If you have a vaguely normal diet, it doesn't matter when you're taking them, they do you as little good either way.

Otherwise, you should be taking them as directed by your doctor.

I'm assuming you have scientific proof that supports your argument that they do 'no good'?

I've been taken a combination of vitamins and found that my skin looks much healthier and clear: how do you explain that?

Reply 4

sarCAZm

I Don't suppose it really matters tbh.
I used to take calcium for my awfully ****e bones (brittle as chalk!) but I stopped due to laziness.

Reply 5

miki_da_magpie

What renal says isnt true. Getting good doses of vitamin C and omega 3 will inded make your skin look better. As will vitamin E i think. Its like taking loads of protein when ur going to the gym. It works.

I would take them with a meal. Have a bit of your breakfast, then take ur vitamins with some yakult or actimel or sumthing, and finish your breakfast. If you take them on an empty stomach you can feel a bit of discomfort...

Reply 6

Renal

miki_da_magpie

Its like taking loads of protein when ur going to the gym.

I prefer to have gammon & eggs before the gym. I don't get why, presumably, young healthy people with the ability to eat well would rather self-medicate themselves.

I would take them with a meal. Have a bit of your breakfast, then take ur vitamins with some yakult or actimel or sumthing, and finish your breakfast. If you take them on an empty stomach you can feel a bit of discomfort...

I'm not a pharmacologist, but surely you should be taking the fat soluble vitamins with a fatty meal and the water soluble vitamins whenever?

Reply 7

PoisonDonna

Don't take them before breakfast. Mine make me throw up if I do and it's only zinc for my nails!

Reply 8

miki_da_magpie

Im not saying i take loads of protein before i gym, i think its a bit ott. Just eat healthy before and after.
Since these arent subscribed vitamins we're talking about they are not going to be that strong. Its just a good idea to take them with plenty of food and water so that the vitamins are taken into the blood stream more gradually and to prevent your stomach from releasing too much acid on just the tablets...

Reply 9

YAP

Take your vitamins with a tall glass of water or fruit juice following a healthy, balanced evening meal containing the right proportions of veg, carbohydrates and protein. For best results, make sure you have another couple of glasses of water during the course of the evening.

Reply 10

Acrobatic_Panda

Jason Sparks

I'm assuming you have scientific proof that supports your argument that they do 'no good'?

This in general is not how pharmacological research works. In order for a drug to be used it is necessary to show that it is good for the proposed condition and also that it is safe. It is not necessary to show that things don't work in order to justify not using them. Drugs are produced for a condition and should be shown to work before use... There is some evidence that certain vitamins can only be absorbed through food (I'll come to that later) and thus also evidence that getting vitamins from food is better than simply taking tablets containing them....

I've been taken a combination of vitamins and found that my skin looks much healthier and clear: how do you explain that?

It's good that they helped you. Of course there are a number of possible explanations for this. First, the vitamins are being absorbed and do help. Second, your skin was going to get better at this point anyway. Third, you've changed your lifestyle or eating habits by more than just taking the vitamins (even if that's just drinking an extra glass of water to swallow the tablets with). Fourth, the placebo effect, the list goes on. I saw an episode of Horizon where a woman had been taking vitamin E tablets for years. She agreed to do some tests, they checked her vitamin E levels with and without having taken the tablets for a period of time, no different. The vitamin E (which she wasn't taking with food) can't be absorbed without fat. Yet she reported feeling 'bloated' and all sorts of other physical symptoms when not having taken them. When all this was explained to her, having sworn by them all her life, she stopped taking them and was happier not to be being tricked. Seriously the most reliable way to get vitamins is by eating the right thing, yes it's harder to make the life change than to just swallow a few tablets, but you only get out of it what you put in....

Reply 11

miki_da_magpie

Acrobatic_Panda

I agree with everything about drugs, you're quite right about that, but they are VITAMINS, not DRUGS! Very very very different substances. Just because vitamins are pills as well, does not make them related to drugs AT ALL.

Acrobatic_Panda

It's good that they helped you. Of course there are a number of possible explanations for this. First, the vitamins are being absorbed and do help.

The most likely

Acrobatic_Panda

Second, your skin was going to get better at this point anyway.

That would be a great coincidence, only one way to tell... stop taking them and see.

Acrobatic_Panda

Third, you've changed your lifestyle or eating habits by more than just taking the vitamins (even if that's just drinking an extra glass of water to swallow the tablets with).

Also would be a great coincidence, although drinking a glass more of water a day is good for you.

Acrobatic_Panda

Fourth, the placebo effect, the list goes on.

Please, they are vitamins, not drugs!

Acrobatic_Panda

I saw an episode of Horizon where a woman had been taking vitamin E tablets for years. She agreed to do some tests, they checked her vitamin E levels with and without having taken the tablets for a period of time, no different. The vitamin E (which she wasn't taking with food) can't be absorbed without fat. Yet she reported feeling 'bloated' and all sorts of other physical symptoms when not having taken them. When all this was explained to her, having sworn by them all her life, she stopped taking them and was happier not to be being tricked. Seriously the most reliable way to get vitamins is by eating the right thing, yes it's harder to make the life change than to just swallow a few tablets, but you only get out of it what you put in....

This in otherwords, had nothing to do with the actual taking of Vitamin E, but to do with the fact that they wernt being absorbed because of her diet. If you eat a healthy balanced diet, the vitamins will be absorbed. Ofcourse the most reliable way of getting vitamins is by eating the right things, but sometimes that isnt possible, and its healthy to back up ur diet by taking vitamins. No one should be dependent on Vitamin tablets, ie. replacing eating fruit and veg for the tablets, but they can be a healthy addition.

Reply 12

Renal

miki_da_magpie

So they're inactive compounds then?

Please, they are vitamins, not drugs!

You do understand the placebo effect, don't you?

This in otherwords, had nothing to do with the actual taking of Vitamin E, but to do with the fact that they wernt being absorbed because of her diet.

Point, missed.

Ofcourse the most reliable way of getting vitamins is by eating the right things, but sometimes that isnt possible,

You've had a small bowel resection? Gastric banding? Oesophageal obstruction?

Reply 13

Profesh

Jason Sparks

Ditto.

Reply 14

miki_da_magpie

Renal

So they're inactive compounds then?

No ofcourse not, but metabolism of drugs is a lot different to metabolism of vitamins, no?

Renal

You do understand the placebo effect, don't you?

Thanks for being condescending. Ofcourse I do, but Im hoping the OP is of a sound mind, and not making up that his skin is better...

Renal

Point, missed.

Care to explain?

Renal

You've had a small bowel resection? Gastric banding? Oesophageal obstruction?

Some people lead busy lives and dont have time to take three healthily balanced meals a day? A night on the town? etc etc. You're telling me you stick to your daily portions of fruit, veg, sugars/fats, protein, everyday of your life?

Reply 15

YAP

miki_da_magpie

No ofcourse not, but metabolism of drugs is a lot different to metabolism of vitamins, no?

No.

Reply 16

Renal

miki_da_magpie

No ofcourse not, but metabolism of drugs is a lot different to metabolism of vitamins, no?

No.

Thanks for being condescending. Ofcourse I do, but Im hoping the OP is of a sound mind, and not making up that his skin is better...

So you don't understand it.

No, I eat roughly 2 meals a day, drink too much, eat too much processed food, etc. But, I had my nutritional state checked last month, as it happens, and it's normal. So why isn't yours?

Reply 17

Acrobatic_Panda

miki_da_magpie

No ofcourse not, but metabolism of drugs is a lot different to metabolism of vitamins, no?

Drugs are molecules, vitamins are molecules, your body can't tell the difference. Indeed vitamins can be dangerous: vitamin A overdose is fatal.

Thanks for being condescending. Ofcourse I do, but Im hoping the OP is of a sound mind, and not making up that his skin is better...

No, you really really don't understand the placebo effect. A response to a placebo doesn't mean one isn't of sound mind: a chalk tablet that claimed to improve skin would be effective in a large number of sound minded people, that's why placebos are used in clinical trials.

This is no doubt the case, most people aren't perfect every day. Feeling that one can afford to be more lax and make less effort just taking a few pills instead is not the way to better health though.

Reply 18

steelmole

Wow, weird. I was thinking of asking exactly this question on here when I saw this.

And you can't say "Oh my skin looks better, it must be the vitamins" That's just not good evidence.

So we are still without a good answer to the original question? Oh well.