Should you take vitamins or other supplements with food?

Its always been a fairly common piece of advice that you should take vitamin supplements (particularly fat-soluble vitamins), or other nutritional supplements with food to allow for better absorption.

However, according to this article and FAQ linked below, the answer to the question of whether or not you should take supplements with food really depends on the supplement itself.

According to Shereen Jegtvig, who is a Certified Nutrition Specialist, in most instances it will not make a difference. But iron supplements, she says, should be taken on an empty stomach. So should some bioflavonoids, probiotics, phytochemicals, and enzymes.

Some of the B vitamins should be taken with food. However, again, it is a matter of specificity. B12 and folic acid (B9), she says, should be taken on an empty stomach while other B vitamins should be taken with food.

What to do what to do


Vitamin Stuff Homepage

The Vitamin Stuff Blog's first official post (because the others sucked and I had to delete them)

Ok, it's taken the better part of a day, but the blog for Vitamin Stuff has finally been configured. For lack of a better name, we're going to call it the "Vitamins and Stuff" Blog. Not too original but not too shabby either.

What's the purpose of this blog? To address the same issues addressed by Vitamin Stuff, the website, which are (long drum roll please): health, nutrition, and alternative medicine topics including vitamins, supplements, herbs, and, eventually, all sorts of interesting topics including reiki, massage therapy, traditional chinese medicine, and so on.

One of the benefits of blogging, of course, is that you can address the same topics, but in a more conversational fashion that lends itself to not only being faster, but, in some instances more insightful.

Ok, so here we are. I can't tell you how many posts we'll do in a given week or month, and, in fact, it may take some time to get all the bugs out (there are always bugs in anything new). However, hopefully, this blog will turn into a good resource and help Vitamin Stuff, the website, on its way to becoming a better resource.