9 questions about vitamin gummies

1. What are Vitamin Gummies?

Vitamin gummies are made from gelatin, pectin, or starch and come in a variety of flavors and colors. The sweet taste comes from the addition of sugar or other sweeteners. Together with the added flavors and flavor enhancers, these ingredients camouflage the bitter or chalky taste that vitamins and minerals have of their own.

2. How Popular Are Vitamin Gummies?

It seems that vitamin gummies are growing in popularity. According to market research, spending on vitamin gums in Europe is close to that in the US, where spending in 2021 will exceed $1 billion. According to the same research, the demand for vitamin gums continues to rise in both Europe and the US.

According to the entrepreneur magazine Sprout, the supply in the Netherlands is still limited. Still, several well-known and lesser-known vitamin brands have developed different types of vitamin gummies. The gummies can be found not only at the drugstore, but also in (online) department stores and supermarkets.

One of the manufacturers of vitamin gummies says it will sell €700,000 to €900,000 worth of vitamin gummies in 2020. That’s 75,000 and 100,000 jars.

3. Do gummies contain as many vitamins as vitamin pills?

The American ConsumerLab regularly tests for vitamins and minerals. They state in 2018 that some vitamin gummies, especially multivitamins, do not contain the amount of vitamins and minerals stated on the label. That’s because it’s difficult to add the right amounts of vitamins and minerals to a gummy.

The ingredients in a gummy break down more easily than in a capsule or tablet. As a result, manufacturers often add more than the stated amount to the gum. In this way, they can guarantee that the product contains at least 100 percent of the stated amount of vitamin throughout its shelf life. Because of this, gummies can contain 200 percent of a vitamin when they are first produced.

Because not all vitamins and minerals are suitable for processing in a gummie, it may happen that multivitamin gummies do not contain the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals. For example, the flavors of B vitamins, zinc and iron are difficult to camouflage. As a result, these substances are sometimes missing in gummies, or gummies containing these substances contain relatively many flavourings.

4. What about the sugar content in vitamin gummies?

Many vitamin gummies contain one or more grams of sugar each. That’s like a candy. While this may not seem like a large amount, it can contribute to excessive sugar consumption. This is especially true if you take more than one vitamin gummy per day and eat other foods with added sugars.

5. The trend is to eat less sugar. Do manufacturers take this into account?

Manufacturers are increasingly looking for alternatives to sugar and corn syrup. To reduce the amount of added sugars in vitamin gummies, some manufacturers add sugar alcohols, or polyols, instead of sugar. These are artificial sweeteners that provide fewer calories than sugar.

Because polyols are less sweet than sugar, larger amounts of these substances are needed to give a gummy the same sweet taste. In large quantities, these substances can cause intestinal complaints such as bloating and diarrhea.

Other manufacturers sweeten gummies with honey, stevia, inulin and fruit juice. Of these sweeteners, honey provides as many calories as sugar. Fruit juice also contains a fair amount of calories.

Inulin is a dietary fiber that provides virtually no calories and does not affect blood sugar levels. If stevia is free of additives such as maltodextrin, this sweetener contains no calories.

6. What are sports gummies?

Sports gummies are sports sweets especially for sports. Like vitamin gummies, they contain sugar, but this is not necessarily for a nice taste, but mainly to replenish the glycogen stock. The idea is that this gives you energy quickly during exercise.

Sometimes sports gummies contain caffeine for alertness, focus and concentration. Amino acids are often added to the gummies to prevent muscle breakdown during training and to build muscle. In addition, sodium may sometimes have been added to replenish the salt supply that has been reduced by sweating. Sports gummies are smaller and more manageable than energy bars and energy gels, making them easy to take during exercise.

7. Can You Take Vitamin Gummies Daily?

If you eat healthily, you generally do not need extra vitamins. Vitamin D alone may be needed on a daily basis for some people. Whether you should get this vitamin from gummies depends on whether the gummies contain the necessary amount of vitamin D and if you don’t get a lot of sugar with vitamin candies.

The World Health Council (WHO) recommends getting no more than ten percent of your daily energy requirement from added sugars, preferably even five percent. Suppose you need 2,000 calories per day, this would equate to 25 grams per day. If you eat a sandwich with jam and a biscuit every day, then you have already reached that amount.

Every gummie that you still ingest is more than one gram of sugar too much. It is therefore best not to take vitamin gummies daily, but to reserve them for when you really need a few more vitamins. For example, if you are sick or in periods when you can eat less healthy. In that case you can of course also opt for vitamin pills. Then you do get vitamins and no sugar.

In any case, it is important to treat vitamin gummies the same as vitamin pills. So don’t take too much because they taste so good. You can then get too high a dose of vitamins and that is not healthy.

8. What should you pay attention to if you follow a certain eating pattern?

If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, be aware of whether the gummies contain a plant-based alternative to gelatin. Gelatin is made from the bones of animals. Vegetarian alternatives include pectin and starch.

If you eat sugar-free, low-carbohydrate or low-carbohydrate and therefore choose sugar-free gummies, also pay attention to the amount of polyols and calories that you get with the sweeteners in vitamin gummies.

9. Are Vitamin Gummies Good For Kids?

Children who eat healthily do not need extra vitamins – except for vitamin D, up to the age of 4 years. That means they don’t need vitamin gummies either. In addition, children with such gummies ingest sugar, while they often eat too much sugar through other foods.

Only if children eat very poorly or are ill for a while, extra vitamins can be helpful. All vitamin products for children sometimes contain too much or too little of certain nutrients. For example, there is often too little vitamin D and too much folic acid and vitamin A.

Too much folic acid and vitamin A can be harmful to children. It is therefore best to choose supplements that contain 50 percent of the daily recommended amount of vitamins, except for vitamin D.

If you take vitamin gummies into the house because your child does not accept vitamin pills or drops, keep them in a place that your children cannot reach. Also tell them that vitamin gummies are not candies, even though they look like one. In the unlikely event that your child has ingested more gummies than the maximum indicated amount, please contact your doctor.

This article is written by guest author Annemiek Shrestha van PureFigure. PuurFigure is a low-carbohydrate weight loss method with multiple eating plans for healthy weight loss. She also writes on behalf of PuurFigure for a number of well-known Dutch magazines.