What Is the Best Time to Take Vitamins?

Dear Cherry-

I always take mine at night...especially when I was preggers...the smell of vitamins (even cereals with their 'vitamin' smell) would make me gag first thing in the AM...

Funny though...I could always manage a strong cup of black coffee!! lol

Best Luck!
Michele/cat

Okay - this is my career so I will tell you that the reason we need vitamins (and minerals, and amino acids and phytonutrients and trace elements...) is that our soils are depleted and our food supply drastically deficient. Next, you must understand that vitamin pills are generally formulated with a variety of ingredients, including inactive binders/fillers as well as waxes or even shellac that lets them pop out of the molds in which they are formed. Most are absorbed 20-25% which means that the rest of the pill passes through your digestive system and leaves your body. Read any of the extensive news reports on municipal sewage treatment plants, water supplies, etc., or talk to any septic pumping companies. Those undigested pills clog filters and work their way into our water supply. That's why some pills say to take on an empty stomach - to help them dissolve. But some are made with so many fillers and coatings that they upset people's stomachs - so the manufacturers cover their butts by saying "take with food". They don't really care if you get well - they just care that you don't get a bellyache or nausea which would cause you to stop buying their product. And most of them don't manufacture their own products anyway - they outsource it to another place (in another country with fewer standards, often) and then slap their own label on it. That's why so many pills from different companies look the same!

Nature intended for us to get our nutrients in conjunction with each other. Most vitamins, for example, need other vitamins to help them function. So piecing together individual vitamin pills can leave you dangerously deficient, and ask them to do a job they cannot do without their nutritional partners. Moreover, a lot of individual pills in the stomach can cause tremendous stomach distress. A lot of gastrointestinal problems are caused by a big pile of pills sitting in the stomach. Take a couple of your individual vitamins and put each in a small bowl of white vinegar - anything that's left undissolved after 20 minutes is what your stomach would not absorb and is therefore wasted money and unavailable nutrients for your system!

More than 3/4 of the US population uses supplements, yet a full 75% of us are nutrient-deficient. And we have record, epidemic rates of preventable, diet-related diseases!! How can that be? Because the nutrient levels are based on minimums set in World War II, and not optimal levels. Because the vitamins/minerals are not in a form accessible to the body. Because people play "kitchen chemist" and try to pick what vitamins they think they need. Because our medical schools don't require our doctors to take any nutrition courses or any food science seminars.

Cutting edge food science (supported by many years of research) indicates that a fully balanced, powder supplement that is mixed with liquid just before taking it, with the most bioavailable forms of each nutrient, can be absorbed and be working at the cellular level in 20 minutes. That means the nutrition is able to get through the cell walls, support mitochondrial function (the "furnace" that powers each cell to do its assigned "job"), and help that cell to flourish so that, when it divides, it creates 2 new healthy cells rather than damaged ones. If manufactured properly, things don't "bind" with other elements (as one post suggested).

In general, you need rapidly-available fuel during the most active parts of your day. For cell repair and ONLY for cell repair, a nighttime regimen is better. But unless you know what you are taking, you can't make that decision. Unless you get a degree in food science, you can't make that decision.

I've found that the best thing it to find a cutting edge company with incontrovertible research that bases all its decisions on clinical data, not commercial gain. Do they have a scientific advisory board? Are they part of the Council for Responsible Nutrition? Do they have a track record for humanitarian aid with their products and the resulting reports from the field showing that their products truly nourish? Do they offer a guarantee? Do they offer customer support on a regular basis, or do they just put their products on a store shelf and spend their money on commercials and celebrity endorsements rather than research? How did they perform in their last surprise FDA inspection? Do their products carry warning labels (like "keep out of reach of children")? Have they ever been sued or had a legal claim? Has anyone died or gone to the hospital from an overdose? You can eliminate 99% of the vendors out there based on most of these questions!!

Happy to help more if you are interested.

Okay, I'm really going to confuse you. It depends on the vitamin! I take a lot of vitamins, some with each meal and some at bedtime. For the most part I take them when I will remember and don't worry too much about it. Some people have sensitive stomachs and need to take them with food. I'm one of those people.

If you take fiber, some vitamins (omegas and calcium) can bind with the fiber. So don't take them within 2 hours of taking the fiber if you can avoid it, but even waiting 15 minutes will be helpful.

Calcium. Your body can only absorb 500 mg of calcium at a time. So if your doctor told you to take 1000 mg per day don't take it all at once. Try to space that at least by two hours too.

If you have trouble sleeping, take your calcium at night...... it can help.

Choose a good vitamin. Not all vitamins are created equal and if you don't choose a high quality one then you don't really know where they get their ingredients or whether it has the proper blend. You want to get it to as close to nature (nutritionally balanced) as possible.

This is what I do for a living. Let me know if I can help any more.

:)

My doctor told me to take them at bedtime (about 3 hours) after a meal. Some of the vitamins are supposed to be taken on an empty stomach but some need to be with food so this is the best time. Your stomach is in the process of emptying from dinner and not so empty that there is a cushion.

I always take mine at night. When I was trying to concieve, it was great cause I just replaced my BC with a prenatal, and just kept it up after baby was born.

Bedtime and you dont have to worry about an upset or heavy stomach.

morning. some vitamins can keep you up at night, plus digestion doesnt occur when you are sleeping

With prenatal vitamins, they gave me pills that looked like horse pills. They were HUGE. And they upset my stomach badly. I ended up cutting the pills in half and took them spread out over the day (with food) so they wouldn't gnaw away at my stomach so badly.
Chewable daily vitamins I can take on an empty stomach with a sip of water. I've always liked Flintstones and I've never cared they were kids vitamins.
The chewing dissolves the pill and prepares it for quick absorption.

I was told in the morning along with breakfast....that you have to take them with food in order to have them absorb properly.

We usually take vitamins in the evening right after dinner. But we do sometimes take them after breakfast in the morning if we realized we've forgotten. My husband found out the hard way that vitamins on an empty stomach is a no-no. He stomach would get really upset - especially if he tried to eat eggs for breakfast afterward. So the rule for us is any time of day is ok, but it can only be right after finishing a real meal (not just a snack).

Better to take earlier in the day with food. Taking with food won't hurt anything, but without food could make you feel sick. And there are certain vitamins in a multi that will jack you up a bit and keep you awake more at night, so better earlier in the day.

I personally take my multivitamin in the morning on an empty stomach only because that's when I know that I will remember it. I can only do this because I take the Ultra Women's Centrum Multivitamin which doesn't bother my stomach. When I was taking prenatal vitamins or if I take the One A Day brand, I have to take those with food so that it doesn't bother my stomach. I have never been advised by a doctor one way or another, but since most of our daily vitamins are absorbed through the foods that we eat, I don't think that it would really matter when you take the additional supplement.

I take vitamins in the morning and in the evening before I eat you can take them after you eat also. The ones I get are in packs for morning and evening so I don't have to buy bottles and separate them all. The ones I take are more absorbent then any pills I have ever found. I can send you a link on how well they work if you would like just let me know.

My middle child gets super sick if she takes vitamins in the morning, so my family takes them just before or just after dinner. Since we switched from morning to evening, we've had no upset tummies!