Nutrition Stop - Vitamins and Minerals

When Should I Take My Multi?

Nutritionists and doctors across the board recommend taking a multivitamin with food or shortly after eating. Vitamins and minerals blend with other nutrients in food to enhance absorption. Plus, eating triggers the production of the digestive enzymes and acids necessary for breaking down and absorbing many nutrients. Water-soluble vitamins in particular are likely to zip through the body only partially absorbed if food isn't there to slow them down. If you take your multivitamin on an empty stomach when you get up in the morning, you excrete a lot of the water soluble vitamins by 11 A.M.

Another thing to remember: Dietary fat is needed for the body to absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in a multivitamin, so make sure your meal includes a little fat. Not only are many of the nutrients in your multivitamin better absorbed with food, they also act synergistically with other components in food. Consider, vitamin C and protein, for example. Vitamin C helps white blood cells fight off infections. Protein enables the body to make antibodies, which recognize and disarm infection-causing bacteria and viruses. One final reason to take your multivitamin with food is that some vitamins and minerals may not sit well on an empty stomach. Food coats and protects the stomach lining from your multivitamin's harsher components.