How can you stand taking yeechy vitamins and supplements?

Have you tried taking them, after, or while you eat? That can help. I used to take fish oil, everyday. But I always burped up fish flavor all day. I eventually stopped taking them. No strategy helped.

There are juicer stores, that can create a sort of cocktail, specifically for you. But they are kind of expensive. Out of my price range anyways…

They make kits for such things, but they have a big start up cost, and the ingredients can add up in price.

If you have a primary care physician, you could ask them for advice on a premixed beverage, like some type of Ensure, that would cover most of your nutritional needs. Then. Replace a meal a day, with the stuff… My father has terrible eating habits, and we recently got him a specific type of Ensure, that is tolerable, as far as taste. He drinks them fast, like a big shot of whisky. It has helped him physically…

Some vitamins, are available in gummy form, and are much easier to eat. They can be bought in bulk, to cut down the cost significantly…

The B complex tablets have an awful taste and smell!!!

Take them after a meal and not right before you lay down for sleep.

Maybe eat better and stop the pills? Unless the doc suggests them, you can change your diet for many vitamins.

Thanks to all thus far.

@ZEPHYRA agreed—and yet B complex is what I need the most—to overdo B complex is a great overcomer of mental stress and anxiety. Exactly what I’m fighting off this time of year when the sour heat and misery swelters on and everything seems, for me at least, hopeless ad inevitable.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence that viitamin pills provide any medical benefit, and quite a lot of evidence that some of them are associated with a heightened risk of various forms of cancer. The main problem is that we evolved to ingest nutrients in food, so many can only be metabolized properly in the presence of other substances also found in food.

If you’re eating a reasonably varied diet, there’s no reason outside of exceptional circumstances that a person needs to take nutritional supplements. Protein is especially concerning, since the traditional Western diet provides such an over-abundance of protein that nearly everyone has some level of kidney damage by the time they’re 60 as a result; adding extra on top just makes the problem worse.

I have a couple suggestions. Research a little on what foods you would need to take to get the benefits you are looking for and then juice them. If you don’t have a juicer, maybe a blender and a strainer. Doing this would allow you to also add things that would mask the unpleasant flavors you are trying to avoid.
The second suggestion would be to find something that is different than your current handful of pills.I would suggest something called ZipFizz. It is a powder you add to water (usually one tube of powder to one bottle of water). It tastes okay (if you stick with the grape flavor. There are other flavors that are sort of meh) and has tons of vitamins and minerals. It has Vitamins C & E, all the B’s (thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, B6, Folate, and B12) and provides usually 50% of the daily recommended allowance of these. The B12, though, clocks in at a whopping 41,667% RDA according to the label. It also has calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, copper, manganese, chromium, sodium, and potassium. Not all of these are in the 50% RDA range, though.
However, be aware, this will wake you up. I used to drink it in lieu of coffee or sodas or energy drinks when I would work rotating shift work or night shifts. It never gave me the jitters or anything like that and there was no crash afterwards, but if you drink one too late in the afternoon you may have trouble getting to sleep that night.
And I apologize for sounding like a long-winded commercial.

I think listen to your disgust for them. Maybe you are getting too much of something. Are they large dose vitamins? Have you actually had tests run that say you are deficient and need the vitamins?

Remember the water solubles you pee out the excess, but fat solubles you don’t. The fat soluble are A, D, E, and K, the rest are water soluble. Minerals you don’t pee out either, you need to be careful with them. Even water soluble vitamins you can take too much that your body doesn’t excrete them fast enough, and some research suggest it’s not good for you to have blood serum numbers that are high outside of normal. Possible it’s a burden on kidneys or the liver.

I think if you don’t test then maybe consider doing it next time you’re at the doctor for some of them.

Personally, I wouldn’t take any vitamins or supplements unless recommended by a doctor. If you have a varied diet of cereals, fruit, vegetables, nuts, fish and meat you won’t go too far wrong.

@yellowdog I haven’t read the other answers yet, so if I’m repeating, sorry. I was a huge fan of vitamins. I think I was taking 10 different ones a day. For years. Then I got really sick in 2017. It had nothing to do with the vitamins, but now I’m on about 8 different prescriptions a day. I stopped the vitamins because I didn’t want to take so many pills a day, and honestly, they can cost a lot of money. Bottom line, I have noticed NO DIFFERENCE in how I feel or in my health. If your doctor prescribes a vitamin, then I would take that, but I really don’t see that they are effective.

Just swallow them. No need to chew…

Just to follow up, a lot of doctors don’t test, so they don’t know you have a deficiency, so although I agree with @chyna about having a doctor be part of your decision making, I warn that if a doctor doesn’t even bother to run a test, because they think Americans don’t have deficiencies (I hear this all the time) that’s bullshit. Right now, the OP might be fine since he’s taking all of these vitamins.

I can tell you a regular one a day vitamin would never get my iron and red blood cell counts to the normal range. Those pills have 18mg of iron, I need much more.

I can also tell you that the commonly recommended 2,000 daily of vitamin D leaves me severely deficient.

I could give more examples, but no need. Those are my deficiencies, the OP might have perfect numbers for D and iron.

My iron and D when they get up into normal ranges I feel drastically better, but that’s because I am truly deficient, I’m not just popping pills. That’s why I always say, get a test. If you’re already in normal range then getting higher in the normal range probably won’t make you feel much different.

I feel sure that I was vitamin D deficient for at least 10 years before a doctor thought to test me for it.

I never liked pill form vitamins. I take liquid form via slim fast or Ensure or Boost other ones that absorb quicker. ( but check with your Doctor in case one is need to absorb slower?)

Try liquid vitamins. Here is one link or the Pros and Cons of taking these.

I also thought that the newest form of vitamins are in wafer form?
( like those Listerine wafers)?

Also I read that some pills depending on the maker DO NOT BREAK up in the body and thus no benefit or little is absorbed.
In the past read a book on mountains of pills that a Port a Potty firm’s janitor reported that all pills just ended up in the trash..not absorbed at all..so money wasted.

At least the port-a-potty firm’s janitor can re-use them.

Okay, that was TGFEF (Too gross for even Fluther). Apologies. And thanks for the information.

I agree with the porta potty man. I’ve seen the same thing.

I take a lot of supplements and my sense of taste is shot. I’m so used to taking nasty tasting supplements it doesn’t bother me so much. As I thought about your dilemma a few things occur to me.

First, supplements vary in quality. If you want to make sure they’re absorbed, your best bet is a liquid. After that is a powder form (capsules), and last are tablets. Quality is essential. That includes how they’re made as well as what’s in them. There are exceptions, but in general you get what you pay for.

As a side note, here’s a quick way to spot a quality vitamin that has B-12: look down the ingredient list, and if you see Cyanocobalamin, that’s a lower quality (synthetic) version of B-12. Cyano means there’s a cyanide molecule that your body must separate and process out of the body before it can use the nutrient. If the ingredient list just says, “B-12, it’s most likely synthetic. A quality B-12 contains Methylcobalamin.

Most encapsulated supplements are combined with magnesium stearate (also known as stearic acid) to keep the machinery from gumming up and slowing the manufacturing process. It’s possible to make powdered supplements without this additive but it’s more expensive because they must run the machinery slower. Read your ingredient list to know for certain.

My “traditional MD’s have told me that I needed a lot of steroids and inhalers as well as prescriptions for other problems. The side effects of all those medications would be significant, and not at all beneficial to my quality of life.

A few doctors told me I needed operations of different kinds, but having those various surgeries would have taken a toll on my health as well. I realized that I alone was responsible for my health, so being the health nut that I am, I made an about face from the “best” my doctors had to offer.

Over the years I have consulted a variety of natural health minded MD’s, naturopaths, and others. I learned something from each one. Best of all, I’m managing my health without any prescriptions, and I haven’t had- and don’t need any surgeries!

The bottom line is that although I’m not a fan of taking pills, it’s far better to take things that actually help my body than harm it.

I forgot to mention that magnesium stearate is processed from fat or oil, which means that if it’s combined with your powdered supplement, your digestive juices must work through the unwanted “fat” to get to the good stuff in your supplement.

@ Can use them for what fertilizer? The pills wouldn’t break up or be absorbed then either. In fact I bet that thaey still will be there 100 yrs from now? Lol

I take about six a day but not all at once. I was feeling weak for months and was concerned my duodenal ulcer was bleeding. After a few missteps I bought a bottle of Feosol iron pills and have not had one single weak day since the second day of starting them. I also take four gelcaps of D3 and Lugol’s Solutioin iodine/iodide drops. And I’d not end the day without Turmeric with bioperine. You cannot get these supplements with diet alone.