There is a new fad developing in the supplement industry to allow multivitamins to become more accessible to the masses. Gummy vitamins...and who doesn't love a gummy candy that also has health benefits? 

Pros & Cons of Gummy Vitamins

In truth, it is extremely difficult to make useful doses of any vitamin mix taste particularly delicious, especially in a small enough form to be palatable. Once you take into account the amount of space taken up by sugar and gelatin, each gummy ends up with a very small nutritional content. 

On top of that, the first ingredient on the ingredients list of almost all of these vitamin gummies is some form of sugar (glucose, corn syrup, natural cane juice), and often several different forms in a row! Since ingredients are listed in order by amount, this means that the main ingredient in all gummies is sugar. Not exactly an ingredient that's at the top of our “nutritious substances” list.

Who Are Gummy Vitamins Made For?

Targeting Children

Unfortunately, gummy vitamins are often targeted at children and parents as great additions to a healthy diet to improve nutritional status. Unfortunately, with the amount of vitamin in each gummy, the required dose can be much higher than that listed on the bottle to compare with chewable children’s vitamins. In some cases, up to 20 gummies would be required for common nutrients like Vitamin B1. At the same time, eating that many gummies would give your child a mega dose of unnecessary sugar. Often each gummy will contain around 2g of sugar, which is the equivalent of approximately ½ a tsp. Needless to say, feeding your children gummy vitamins will have a similar effect as feeding them candy on behavioural and attention problems.

Targeting Adults

Interestingly, more recent marketing and development has been targeting gummy multivitamins at an adult audience. These are meant to appeal to our inner child and to help those, like seniors, who are less inclined to take pills daily.

Nutritional Content of Gummy Vitamins For Children & Adults

So, how does the nutrient content compare? We could ramble on all day about how the gummy multivitamins don’t compare to other multivitamins, but instead, it may be better to just show you. Please note that if you are finding a difference from your bottle’s list of nutrients the listed amounts are per unit (gummy, chewable tablet, or pill), while many bottles list the nutrient content for the recommended dose (which is often several units).

Nutritional Information For Children

brand: chewable natural factors chewable flinstones gummy nature's way gummy organika # of gummy's needed to equal a single chewable
recommended dosage:
nutrients (below)		 1-2 0.5-1 3 2
vitamin a/ beta carotene 5000 iu 3000 iu 833 iu 1300 iu 4
vitamin c 100mg60mg 20mg 10mg10
vitamin d3 400 iu 600 iu 133 iu 120 iu 3.3
vitamin e 25 iu 30 iu 5 iu 8.25 iu 3
vitamin b1 (thiamine) 5mg 1.5mg 0.25mg -20
vitamin b2 (riboflavin) 5mg 1.7mg 0.28mg -18
vitamin b3 (niacin) 10mg 15mg 3.3mg - 3
vitamin b5 (pantothene) 10mg 10mg 1.7mg 2.6mg 3.8
vitamin b6 (pyridoxine) 5mg2mg0.67mg 0.52mg 9.6
folic acid 200mcg 400mcg 133mcg130mcg1.5
vitamin b12 10 mcg 6mcg2mcg2.55mcg 3.9
biotin 10mcg 40mcg100mcg 30mcg0.3
iodine - -25mcg 21mcg -
zinc2mg12mg2.5mg 1.35mg 1.5
choline 5mg
(5000mcg) 		- 6.67mcg 20mcg 250
inositol 5mg
(5000mcg)		-6.67mcg20mcg250
whole foods fruit & veggie blend --150mg--
calcium 65mg 100mg ---
magnesium 25mg - ---
iron5mg 18mg ---
potassium 5mg ----
manganese 1mg - ---
copper - - ---
sodium -10mg ---

** Doses are per unit for all supplements 

Nutritional Information For Adults

brand: pill quest pill natural factors gummy nature's way gummy one-a-day # of gummy's needed to equal a single pill
recommended dosage:
nutrients (below)		 1 1 32
vitamin a/ beta carotene 10,000iu10,000iu1667iu1600iu 6
vitamin d 400 iu 400 iu 200 iu 200 iu 2
vitamin e 50 iu 100 iu 7.5 iu 10 iu 5-13
vitamin c 150mg 200mg 25mg 20mg 6-10
vitamin b1 (thiamine) 50mg 50mg 0.25mg -200
vitamin b2 (riboflavin) 50mg 50mg 0.28mg - 179
vitamin b3 (niacin) 50mg 50mg 3.3mg -15
vitamin b5 (pantothene) 50mg 50mg 3.3mg - 15
vitamin b6 (pyridoxine) 50mg 50mg 1mg 2mg 25-50
folic acid 0.2mg 1mg0.13mg 0.1mg 2-10
vitamin b12 50mcg50mcg 4 mcg 6 mcg 8-12
biotin50mcg50mcg100mcg -0.5
choline50mg50mg20 mcg - 2.5
inositol50mg50mg13 mcg - 3.8
methionine -50mg - - -
calcium125mg125mg - - -
magnesium100mg50mg - - -
phosphorus50mg - - - -
potassium 50mg 10mg - - -
iron15mg10mg - - -
zinc10mg10mg2.5mg - 4
manganese1mg1mg - - -
copper1mg - - - -
iodine 0.1mg 0.1mg.05mg - 2
selenium 25mcg 25mcg - - -
chromium 25mcg 25mcg - - -
paba 50mg 50mg - - -
citrus bioflavonoids25mg 50mg -
lecithin 15mg - - - -
betaine 12mg 50mg - - -
hesperidin10mg10mg - - -
rutin2mg - - - -
papain 2mg10mg - - -
l-cysteine 0.6mg - - - -
molybdenum -25mcg - - -
fruit & veggie powder - -50mg - -

**Doses are per unit for all supplements

Final Thoughts To Consider About Gummy Vitamins

So what’s the moral of the story? Depending on the nutrient you are supplementing, the established supplement (chewable for children and pill for adults) is often 1.5 – 200 times higher in content. Gummies also do not contain essential minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, or selenium, and these are often one of the main reasons people supplement with vitamins in the first place. They often come in bottles of 60 – 100, and so an entire bottle would contain ½ the dose of vitamin B1 or B2 provided by a single capsule of normal multivitamins.

Admittedly, gummy vitamins are a fun way to get a small amount of added nutrition. If you are substituting them for other forms of candy in your diet, then they are indeed the way to go. Otherwise, they are not a feasible substitute for other multivitamins. It would seem that gummy multivitamins are just another case of something being “too good to be true”.