I can take mine by itself, it’s a food based multivitamin meaning it’s just vegetable/fruit concentrate in a pill. Centrum used to make me feel sick, any of the synthetic vitamins did. I’d just take it with your meal.

You don’t need any vitamins unless you have a rare documented vitamin deficiency. You’re throwing away your money.

I take mine with breakfast.

When vitamins or medications instruct you to take with food, it is because it will require a lot of work for your stomach to digest, without any volume. That can give you a crampy stomach.
You are better off eating something which can keep your stomach busy for a little while.

@Caravanfan would you say that for someone with a horrible diet as well? I’m with you otherwise for the most part.

@ARE_you_kidding_me Define a “horrible diet”.

Cheeseburgers, pizza, booze, cookies, doughnuts, ice cream, soda after soda, french fries, cake, hot dogs, white bread, cheese puffs…
I once knew someone at work who ate the crust off a double order of onion rings and left the onions. That was his “lunch” ...regularly.

Nope, probably still useless as a general supplementation. Targeted supplementation is different.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/another-negative-study-of-vitamins/

That’s surprising but I’m not convinced that someone who does not eat a balanced diet will not have some benefit from supplementation especially since testing for deficiencies are not usually part of a routine medical panel during physicals and checkups.

@ARE_you_kidding_me They’re probably not going to hurt you, but it’s a waste of money.

I would say you should be able to get most of your vitamins from your food. Multivitamins are sort of a catch-all for those vitamins you might not get enough of from your food. Vitamin D for instance is difficult to get, except from something like milk. If you are lactose intolerant, that could be a problem. Another problem with multivitamins is that not all forms of vitamins and minerals have the same solubility and absorption by the body. If you think you are low in calcium, I once had a doctor suggest eating a couple of Tums since the calcium carbonate in those is more soluble and more easily absorbed by the body.
Eating a healthy diet is essential. Taking vitamins might be the wrong move, if you are trying to use them in place of a healthy diet.

It would not surprise me at all if years later studies will show people eating the standard american diet are deficient in many nutrients and will benefit from a high quality food based supplement. I agree 100% that a balanced diet negates the need for them at all outside of medical issues requiring intervention. Here in east Tennessee it’s painfully obvious that most are not eating properly and likely never will so I tend to disagree that there is no benefit but am open a little more reading on the subject. That said, I do think the supplement industry is more than a bit unnecessary, especially when you have homeopathics right next to vitamins on the shelf. Most multivitamins are not clinically studied either and that’s something I’m wary of.

Try this.