Why do vitamins taste "acky"?

[swquilts]

I recently bought some "food based" women's vitamins at TJ's thinking to myself "Self, you need more vitamins even tho you eat pretty good most of the time".

These things are the size of large bugs and smell like my nieces feet! OMG..they are just too gross to swallow! Plus they are so big I'm mentally getting them stuck in my throat, can barely choke them down.

Who designs and makes these things????? I just want to take a nice once a day vitamin....:confused: :rolleyes:

[wallycat]

I have a few that are pretty nasty :)

One of the reasons that they are huge is because people equate how many they take with a reason to purchase.
You can only cram so much nutrition into a pill....so pills are either large or you take more. I hate it too.

Smell...Some of that is ingredients.
I was taking Selenium and never smelled it before till early part of this year. Whom ever is supplying this stuff...BLECH. The smell alone can kill you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[whocares]

They taste so bad because they are so good for you! I know what you are saying. A few years ago I ordered some Jean Carper and I couldn't get them down. My brother, the vitamine junkie, was glad to take them off my hands. I found some small, easy to swallow multi-vitamins at the local health food store and they are much easier to take.

[SueK]

Originally posted by swquilts
These things are the size of large bugs and smell like my nieces feet!

This made me LOL!

Seriously, I feel your pain. I should take vitamins, but don't, mainly because I have a hard time swallowing pills. I even gag on Advil sometimes, so finding a small multi-vitamin has proven to be a big pain in the rear to me. The only daily vitamins I've been able to handle are the pre-natal ones, and that's because you have to take them 3 times a day, so they're smaller due to that.

[badunnin]

I don't know what it was about my women's vitamin, but it made my pee neon yellow. That's always fun too! :D

[colleency]

Should you just take a vitamin at random like that. When I went for my physical, my doctor told me what vitamins to take. I have a C, 3 Calcium with iron and magnesium (I think), and an E. They don't taste too bad. And they don't smell, like some of the multi's do.

[Gilgamesh37]

Originally posted by badunnin
I don't know what it was about my women's vitamin, but it made my pee neon yellow. That's always fun too! :D

That would be the B family of vitamins. Always a nice little double check if you can't remember whether you took your vitamins this morning. I recently bullied my boss into taking a B-complex for stress and forgot to mention this small side effect to her. Ooops.

:o

Edited to say: I am a fervent believer in vitamins. Mom started us all on them 35 years ago and I firmly believe it has a tremendous amount to do with my general health (both physical and mental) not to mention my parents--both are in their late 70s, and while most of their friends are really deteriorating, Mom and Dad are still wildly active and in great shape generally. So it's worth it, I think. If this vitamin isn't working for you, shop around until you find another. I take a knock-off store brand Centrum silver for my multi, but there again, I also take a whole handful of other stuff, so I'm really just looking for a basic shotgun multi-vit, not planning for it to cover the entire ground necessarily. There are ones out there that won't choke you from size or smell, though, promise.

[mbrogier]

My Trader Joe's vitamins take weird, too. The omega 3 gel caps (fish oil) are the worse...

Why can't they make adult vitamins taste like Flintstones? We have tastebuds, too.

[Heidi]

We were in Costco the other day and saw gummy bear-shaped vitamins! They had them in multi-vitamin and vitamin C. I assume they were geared towards kids, but I thought they were a pretty good idea! I wonder if they really work? And do they really taste like gummy bears? The only reason we didn't get any was that right now I have to take prenatals, and I doubt the gummy vitamins are as fortified in folic acid, etc. as I need.

On a related note, why must Tums taste so nasty? Even the fruit flavored ones. Blech!

[hlao23]

K-mart used to sell some chewable vitamins for adults...they're reminicent of Flintstones. I take the Kroger "brand" of one-a-day. No nasty smell.

Can adults just take childrens vitamins do you suppose?

[badunnin]

Originally posted by hlao23


Can adults just take childrens vitamins do you suppose?

No reason not to. My PA actually recommended that for me, as most adult vitamins offer more than I (and most people with a healthy, balanced diet) need.

[MrsReber]

I have vitamins for my kids and there is an adult dosage listed. I do take them on occasion cause they're much more fun to eat than my boring adult vitamins.

[emilyn]

I've taken the centrum chewables and they still taste "acky" to me. They leave this nasty aftertaste that doesn't go away for hours. They also make a liquid but I haven't tried it for the same reason. I have trouble swallowing the big pills too.

[MrsReber]

I have to say the Jimmy Neutron chewables are gross and leave me with an aftertaste, but I think that's due to the extra iron in them. DS is borderline low so the dr recommended a chewable with iron. I usually get a prescription from the ped, but the chewables with iron seem to be backordered into the next century. The Rugrats chewables didn't give me that awful taste. I haven't tried the gummies yet. Jimmy Neutron were the only ones I could find with extra iron.

Now, for the record, I feel very silly discussing this :) .

[emilyn]

I haven't tried the jimmy neutron, only the rugrats. Actually, I think I tried an adult chewable too, also nasty. Now I'm sort of intrigued by the gummy ones. :D

[mbrogier]

I was a little shocked by the gummy bear vitamins. A child might not realize the difference between gummy bear candy and gummy bear vitamins. He could overdose on vitamins which is not as dangerous as a drug overdose but is still not good for you. I think they would be safer for older kids that could comprehend the difference.

I took my vitamins today. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but my pee smelled funny...like vitamins. :o I took the omega 3 gel caplet again today with food. Still had fish burps. :mad: Then when I got home from school, my Korean neighbor's apartment smelled just like those gel caplets. :eek: :eek:

[imloulou]

Originally posted by mbrogier
I was a little shocked by the gummy bear vitamins. A child might not realize the difference between gummy bear candy and gummy bear vitamins. He could overdose on vitamins which is not as dangerous as a drug overdose but is still not good for you. I think they would be safer for older kids that could comprehend the difference.


This is a HUGE issue for me! When my son was 3 he drank a bottle of adult prescription cough syrup with Codiene (sp?) and stopped breathing...he was in ICU overnight...he could easily have died.

I really, really wish they did not make the cherry-flavored, lolipop-shaped, candy-lookin medicines and vitamins. Most meds are flavored so we still get them but keep them locked up. It can be very difficult to give a child medicine that does not taste good or isn't a fun shape but it is even harder to deal with neurological/learning problems because of an accident.

Ok...that was completely off the topic of this thread but whenever I have a chance to warn people to be careful with vitamins and meds around kids I have to speak up...keep them locked up (not the kids the meds:D )

Ok...I am back now...

I take DailyFoods One Daily. They are 100% Whole Food. Now, call me crazy but I like the smell of them. I can see why someone would not like them...they are very potent! And you are right about the Fish Oil...the burps are really bad!

[mbrogier]

I think it would have done me well to be locked up for a while as a kid. :D My brother kicked my mom in the shin for not giving him extra vitamins because he thought they were candy. (He was a foster child then.) My mom always kept the medicines up really high where we couldn't climb up to them...we had those "child proof" door locks figured out by age 4.

I think I'm going to return those Trader Joe's vitamins and fish capsules. I just can't take them. Maybe I can find something more palatable at Whole Foods.

[hlao23]

Originally posted by mbrogier
I think I'm going to return those Trader Joe's vitamins and fish capsules. I just can't take them. Maybe I can find something more palatable at Whole Foods.

Have you tried flax seed capsules? That's Omega 3s too and they probably don't taste/smell fishy. :)