How good is Centrum for you...?

Question

How good is centrum for you? What does it do for you? Also, is it true you do not need anymore vitamins because centrum has them all?
And finally, on the bottle, it says take centrum with food - but can i take it with water?

Answer 1

Centrum is formulated to deliver 100% of the recommended daily value (RDV) for most of the vitamins and minerals included in the single-tablet daily dosage. You should not take additional supplements unless instructed to do so by your doctor. Taking too much of some vitamins, like Vitamin A or Iron, can actually be harmful. Calcium would be one exception to this rule; it is virtually impossible to include 100% of the RDV for calcium in a multi-vitamin due to the large dose. You can supplement your calcium intake with another nutritional product such as Caltrate or even Tums.

It is best to take Centrum or any large multi-vitamin with food. Due to their large size, multi-vitamins often do not meet the US Pharmacopeia (USP) standard for disintegration, the time required for a tablet to break apart in the stomach. The USP standard time for dietary supplement tablet disintegration is 30 minutes. This time allows for one cycle of gastric emptying, meaning that all of the tablet will be available for absorption through the stomach before the stomach's contents are passed to the intestine. Food slows down the gastric emptying cycle, giving the tablet more time to disintegrate and the vitamins to be absorbed.

SupplementInfo.org provides an excellent description of what different vitamins and minerals do for your body. (http://www.supplementinfo.org/HN_VitaminsAZ.asp) It is important to remember that multi-vitamins should only supplement, not be used as a substitute for, a healthy, balanced diet.

Answer 2

Centrum is very good for you. It gives you all or most of your vitamins. You take it with food to help abosrb it better. I've taken if every day for years. I did read a study once that said that there's no proof that taking a daily vitamin actually increases your overall health, but I figure it sure can't hurt and I can use all the help I can get...especially since I hate vegetables. :)