Is centrum a good multivitamin ?

Years ago, a nutritionist told me that the best thing to do is eat a good diet, and find a vitamin supplement that provides the minimum of what you need, that is broken down in small enough amounts that you take two or more pills spread out throughout the day. You need to read up on it, and know the difference between fat-soluble vitamins, which will stay in your body longer; and water-soluble vitamins, the bulk of which are rendered into pee very quickly, thus the mega-high doses you see on some types like vitamin C.

Good luck in your efforts! :thumbup:

~Chris
 
I haven't taken them for years. I should though because my diet is terrible.

We have a health food chain here in Oregon, and they advertise on the radio quite a bit. They sell a liquid multi vitamin solution, and claim that it is approx. 75% absorbed in the body.

I've thought of trying them, but haven't really researched them yet.
 
NaturalMystic said:
As for the FDA, I don't know how much weight I'd put in them. They remind me of the BBB, it's all about money. If you have the money it's a lot easier to be FDA or BBB approved.
Click to expand...

Always fascinating to see someone use a computer/laptop/cellphone to argue against science on the internet. But you are right, the FDA hasn't done any good in the world of medicine and is all about the money. :rolleyes:

BTW, you clearly have little knowledge of pill/capsules/troches/suppositories. Your experience with doctors, although not impossible, is incredible unlikely. Most doctors have little knowledge about over the counter vitamins, so I wonder in what circumstances you happened to find several that all spoke out against one particular brand. Most healthy people rarely would have cause to talk to a doctor...
 
zenheretic said:
Sticking a tablet in a glass of water to prove quality is a parlor trick. The digestive system is not a glass of water.
Click to expand...
That's encouraging. (Someone should probably mention that zenheretic is a pharmacist and actually knows what he's talking about. As for me, I know about parlor tricks....)

For general vitamin choices, one good sign of quality is one that has "USP" or "GMP" or "standardized" on the label. These are marks that they actually follow standardized pharmaceutical manufacturing practices.
Click to expand...
Made me look! Mine says "QUALITY GUARANTEED." Whutdafork does that mean? :confused:

I looked for some fine print to explain exactly what is being guaranteed here and all I can find that might be relevant is where it says "FRESHNESS AND POTENCY GUARANTEED THROUGH: exp 05/13." I guess that's what "QUALITY GUARANTEED" means -- it's guaranteed to be fresh. Whoopydoo. :rolleyes:

Of course I'm still taking it, soon as I get some lunch together....
 
338375 said:
I haven't taken them for years. I should though because my diet is terrible.

We have a health food chain here in Oregon, and they advertise on the radio quite a bit. They sell a liquid multi vitamin solution, and claim that it is approx. 75% absorbed in the body.

I've thought of trying them, but haven't really researched them yet.
Click to expand...

supposedly hard pill V's are only 10-30% absorbed by our bodies. i still take centrum every now and then. when i talked to my doc he said to eat the pill with a meal. the meal cranks up your digestive system and the pill will get absorbed better but still its only a small % that makes it to your body.

so when you look at a V pill. the % of Vit C (as an example) has 200% of your daily needs. your body will only absorb 60% of the 200% at most on avg. so waste of $$? maybe, maybe not. each of us are different as is our digestive tracts.
 
Well, I have no experience espcially with Centrum. My grandma takes that stuff, but she´s 86 years old.
If you want to loose weight, move a lot. Take a mixture of fish and vegetables. Sometimes drinking a beer wount damage, because there´s a lot of vitamin B (B1 to B12) I think. These things are rare in usual food.
I think, this would be the best diet for money you can get. I think such stuff, that promise much vitamine added to your organism is really serious.
When I want to loose weight (27 years old), I work with dad in wood (chainsaw, axe and hammer), taking good food, like meat and salad (for a good muscle building). Of course you won´t loose weight, but fat-mass. Muscles are heavier than fat...

I hope I could help a little bit.

Kind regards...
 
gulliamo said:
Also... if you're serious about body composition change...

Order of effectiveness (without resorting to professional gear)
1. Protein supplements
2. Essential Fatty Acids supplements
3. Creatine
4. Multi-vitamin/multi-mineral
5. Vitamin D suppliments

Can you radically alter your body composition with out these? Sure. It will be very expensive, take a very long time and be very hard (unless your genetically blessed).
Click to expand...

You forgot exercise. You can diet all you want and take every supliment out there, but unless you start doing something, you'll be lucky to lose a pound. In fact, I lost almost 20 lbs this year by exercise alone, no dieting, no vitamins. wlee some dieting came as a direct result of increased activity; since I was doing more, I was eating less, but I never went out of my way to alter my eating habits.
 
GWashington1732 said:
You forgot exercise. You can diet all you want and take every supliment out there, but unless you start doing something, you'll be lucky to lose a pound. In fact, I lost almost 20 lbs this year by exercise alone, no dieting, no vitamins. wlee some dieting came as a direct result of increased activity; since I was doing more, I was eating less, but I never went out of my way to alter my eating habits.
Click to expand...

I completely agree that exercise, particularly resistance training, is key to body composition changes but only wanted to respond to OP's question about supplements. That said, I'd venture you're diet wasn't horrible if you made that kind of change with exercise only (or 20 pounds wasn't a "radical" change for you).

I used to get by with gym time outweighing my pizza and beer diet. But as I get older I find I can no longer out-train a poor diet. Even elite athletes with superior genetics can't out-train a bad diet indefinately.
 
intheshaw said:
I would stay away from centrum. I've talked to a few doctors that say more people will not digest the centrum pill to make it worth taking. Ive taken the animal pak vitamins before and like those.
Click to expand...

One tip that I try to follow with most hard vitamins it to break them in half. I feel it gives more surface area to allow quicker digestion as well as a rougher surface on the broken edge to aid in digestion as well. I might be crazy but it makes sense to me. :D
I have notice that my nails and hair grow faster when taking multi's and vit C so to me that indicates an excess or excessive growth of those cells which in my uneducated opinion is better than a shortage.

IMHO multi's are cheap insurance and prevention and are desirable as long as they can be afforded after a balance diet.
 
Centrum is no good. If your serious about taking something that works check into the liquids. Most taste like crap but they work much better. anytime you look at the back for ingredients... If anything has oxide behind it's crap and cheap ingredients. Most manufactures are more concerned with shelf life vs a quality product and they load the stuff up with sub-par ingredients with dyes and less than stellar synthetics. Take the coating on centrum silver... methylene chloride, a carcinogenic material. Sure in small doses it probably won't do any damage but there hasn't been any long term testing on the chemicals and solvents used to make them.

The biggest problem I think with all of them is most of it is a waste of money since your body only uses what it needs at any given time so if you take 600mg of say vit C and your body thinks it needs 300mg it flushes the rest at that time. Of course I am breaking this down to a simple level for example here.

The only Vit your body doesn't flush and will store is Vit D. I have a place compound mine for me as it ends up being much cheaper for me now and I get exactly what I want. At any rate check out the liquids or the gel cap vits. It's always a good idea to get your vit D levels checked as well at the doc every so often. Most people suffer from a low vit d count including myself and I'm outside in FL a great deal of the time. I take vit D and calcum in my regiment. Good luck brother and your mileage may vary.
 
Oh Boy. Been down this road before on this site and got royally chewed out by some of the true vitamin/supplement believers as a result. However, I'll do it again.

IMO supplements and vitamins are a crock! A human's amazing digestive system can extract everything it needs from damned few foods. As one of the posters observed, mega doses of vitamins are useless because they are not absorbed and may even be harmful.

Remember, the ENTIRE world subsists on just FIVE basic foods: Wheat, Rice, Beans, Potatos, and Corn. It was determined long ago that eating one of more of those primary foods along with something like eggs, fish, or almost any kind of meat enables millions of peasants around the world to live to ripe old ages barring accident or disease.

Some of the 'magical' food groups are:
Rice and fish.
Beans and corn.
Eggs and potatos.
Whole wheat and peanut butter. No kidding.

Your bod can 'have everything the body needs' from surprisingly little. I recently turned 76 and have ZERO health and weight problems. I still have my own teeth and hair and can work other men a third my age into the ground swinging a pick or using a shovel/hoe/axe/etc. I haven't taken vitamins or supplements in my life and don't plan to. Save your money for better uses.
 
Losing weight is as simple as burning more calories than you take in.

Cutting carbs will lead to rapid weight loss---the kicker is you will be hungry ALL THE TIME.

Cut the carbs(somewhat) but mostly cut total calories and exercise more.

I just use the Walmart cheapies--Centrum knockoffs----cheap and it can't hurt.

Eat as much fresh stuff as you can---cut back on red meat---small glass of skim milk everyday----and you'll be fine.
 
If someone cannot dissolve a centrum or other vitamin tablet in their digestive system, they have far more problems than just vitamin deficiency.
 
Caveat, that I have no professional experience with pill absorbtivity, etc. Just personal experience.

Does Centrum work? I have found I feel a bit better when I take it, so yes. I'm partial to the A to Zinc formulation.

Can it be taken long term? It's the only one I've found that does not cause weird/unpleasant side effects after taking them for months on end. The "Mega-dose" vitamins are the worst. It's like going through puberty again, and not the good parts either.
 
Not to beat a dead horse but Clang's post above reminded me that I wanted to add something about the absorption of these multivitamins like the ones I mentioned above. About 12 years ago I was talking to a family physician about this same topic and he mentioned that he'd seen several patients who's x-rays showed undissolved multivitamin tablets still visible in their stomach after a couple days.

The main thing, as was mentioned previously, is that maintaining a good mixed diet is key. I know it's difficult nowadays with so many processed foods, etc.
I've wondered how much nutritional content we actually get from fresh fruits, veggies and meats nowadays considering how much pesticides, growth hormones, quick turnaround of fields, etc happens nowadays.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top