Vitamin gummies, is it necessary to take them?

Vitamin gummies have become fashionable. They are advertised everywhere, they are soft, nice and pretty, they have bright and colorful packaging and they are presented as a good way to improve health while enjoying eating. So far from the typical capsules or soluble vitamins, gummies are a very tempting claim that can be purchased without a prescription and that many people use both to improve their general state of health and for specific issues: strengthen hair or nails, improve the skin, strengthen the immune system, sleep or even self-tanning.

Many are debating whether vitamin gums are one more industry claim to market products that we don’t really need or a simple, tasty and effective way to obtain the vitamins that the body needs for its proper functioning. Both things are true, according to Rafael Bailón Moreno, a tenured professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Granada, where he also teaches classes in Food Science and Technology. “At the end of the day, vitamin gummies are nothing more than a different way of giving a food supplement with vitamins, much more pleasant than a classic pill. In the end, what we are consuming is nothing more than a jelly bean, with a jelly bean flavour, to which a specific vitamin or group of vitamins has been introduced”, explains the teacher.

Therefore, Bailón points out that the suitability of gummies should be evaluated in the same way as that of any other supplement. “There may be specific cases in which people require a vitamin supplement, always under medical supervision, since a lack of vitamins can be dangerous to health. But the truth is that in general, healthy adults who eat a varied and healthy diet do not need these vitamins and, therefore, do not need to take these gummies ”, he affirms.

The expert points out, however, that the dose of vitamins that we find in a gummy is very adjusted if we compare it with the supplements that are usually prescribed when there is a manifest deficiency of both one of them and of a group. “The dose of vitamins in a gummy is usually approximately what we need daily. In the case of drugs that are marketed in the pharmacy, the doses are usually much higher. This means that no matter how much we self-medicate, it is difficult for the dose to be dangerous”, explains Bailón Moreno.

Another question would be if it is really necessary to consume them. The Medicadiet nutritionist, Álvaro Sánchez, explains it in reference to vitamin C gummies, one of the most popular. “It is not usual for a person with a more or less balanced diet to have a vitamin C deficiency, since it is very common in many commonly consumed foods. It is very rare that it is necessary to supplement it, so that the vast majority of vitamin C supplements that we consume end up excreting them through the urine, because the body discards what it does not need. What use will the supplement have? Absolutely nothing, just to spend money.”

This is because vitamin C belongs to the group of water-soluble vitamins, which, unlike fat-soluble ones, are those that dissolve in water. The dietitian-nutritionist Óscar Picazo explains it: “Fat-soluble vitamins accumulate in fatty tissue and are A, D, E and K, and water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water. In the latter case, the body uses what it needs and eliminates the excess, and they are vitamin C and all those of group B”.

Thus, it does not seem like a very good idea to supplement vitamins such as C, “taking into account that it is much easier to eat an orange or introduce foods that contain this vitamin into the diet,” says Bailón. The expert also warns that many people turn to vitamin C looking for miraculous results against flu and colds, a belief that is nothing more than a myth that lacks scientific foundation. A Harvard University study carried out in 2017 ensures that the relationship between vitamin C intake and resistance to rhinovirus is so negligible that it can be considered practically non-existent. This study and many others in the same line that have been carried out in recent times thus throw to the ground the claims of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Linus Pauling, responsible for popularizing throughout the world the idea that vitamin C helps to heal the colds.

But this vitamin is not the only one that we find in the gummies that are on the market. Bailón Moreno points out that there are various combinations, from those that contain only one vitamin to those that present a mixture of some of them. “Taking into account that fat-soluble vitamins do not dissolve, but accumulate in the body, a situation of toxicity can be reached if they are consumed more than necessary”, affirms the professor. Therefore, “if we look closely, most of the vitamin gums on the market are water-soluble, since taking an excess does not entail any health risk, although it does not entail any benefit either.”

So, are vitamin gummies necessary in healthy people? In most cases, except for some specific vitamins such as D, there is not usually a generalized deficit among the population. “Most of the essential vitamins cannot be made by the body and are obtained from a balanced and healthy diet. The minimum daily requirements for vitamins are not very high. Only doses of milligrams or micrograms are needed,” he explains, for For his part, Dr. Álvaro Flamarique, a specialist in Internal Medicine at Quirónsalud Zaragoza, who remarks that “vitamin deficiency in the general population is rare in developed countries.”

Jelly beans, however, have a marketing campaign behind them that is irresistible to many. They arrive in colored containers, with promises to improve appearance and well-being, “they are easy to drink, they taste good and they are pretty”, in the words of Bailón Moreno. For the teacher, the main problem with these jelly beans is not their effects on health, since the quantities are limited and most of them are water-soluble, but rather the danger of creating a habit from them, especially in the case of children. . “It must be made clear that these jelly beans cannot be offered to children as if they were sweets, since they can fall into creating bad habits. It must be remembered that vitamin gummies are still drugs, although they are made in such a way that they look like a trinket. In no case should we treat them as such”, explains the professor at the University of Granada.

So, how can we get the dose of vitamins we need without resorting to this type of supplement? Unless there is a specific deficiency diagnosed by a medical professional, vitamins are found in foods that are very present in the home pantry. Some examples? Vitamin E is in foods such as fish, avocados or almonds, while C is in red peppers, citrus fruits or strawberries, among others. Carrots, broccoli and cabbage are rich in vitamin A, while meat, eggs and spinach are sources of vitamin K. Eggs, cereals, kefir and nuts contain B vitamins, while salmon or mushrooms are sources of vitamin D.

The latter, however, is an exceptional case, since it is obtained from the sun’s rays and there is a general deficit in a good part of the world. According to research recently published in the Scientific Reports magazine, 75% of the population in Catalonia (data that can be extrapolated to the entire Spanish population) suffers from a deficiency of this vitamin. To supplement it, it is necessary to put yourself in the hands of a professional who prescribes the appropriate dose, since being a fat-soluble vitamin it could cause hypervitaminosis if consumed in large quantities, in addition to the risk of falling short and not reaching the necessary doses if is supplemented by free.