When I was in high school, I would get the same question every morning from my dad. “Did you take your gummy vitamins yet?” It eventually became part of my morning routine along with eating breakfast, pouring coffee, and brushing my teeth. 
Fast forward to this summer before venturing to Happy Valley for my freshman year. My family and I were strolling through the aisles of Sam’s Club, and I couldn’t believe it when my dad didn’t even glance at the gummy vitamins sold in bulk. Of course I began questioning him as to why he wasn’t buying any, and he simply said, “Apparently, they don’t work”.
So of course this is going to be one of my blog topics, because I simply do not understand why such delicious little pieces of beneficial happiness could have been lying to me my whole life. The first red flag that should have told me these weren’t all they are cracked up to be, is the taste. Companies aim to pack the gummies with sweet flavors in order to have more people buy them to take each day. There then rises the issue of balancing flavor with benefit. If you compare them to chewable gummies, they have significantly less nutrients, including iron for example.
Interestingly enough, gummy vitamins are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. So what exactly does that mean? Unfortunately this means that no one is checking to see if the vitamins actually contain what they claim. Therefore, they most likely contain fewer vitamins that the chewable tablets, which are regulated by the FDA. Essentially, gummy vitamins are lying to us.
Another concern with these gummies is over consumption, which becomes quite easy when they don’t taste like your typical chalky vitamin. Some of the fat soluble vitamins such as vitamins A and D, are stored in fat tissues when over consumed. This can have negative toxic effects on the body.
So are they really all they are cracked up to be? In my opinion, no. Since they are not FDA approved, do we really know if they are containing the right amount of essential vitamins that we need? I think that chewable vitamins would be a better option, and possibly an experiment could be done to compare the two types of vitamins, and see which had a more positive impact on the health of the person taking it.
When I was younger I was always so jealous of my friends that took gummy vitamins, I viewed them as some sort of candy. However, my mom would never buy them for me and my brother, as she didn’t really believe their legitimacy. After reading your blog I am thinking that my mom may have been on to something, and I guess I wasn’t really missing out on too much. Here’s an article where three nutritionists weigh in on the use of gummy vitamins and if they’re worth it http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teen-vogue/do-gummy-vitamins-actuall_b_7034380.html
I found this blog post to be extremely informative considering I take gummy multi vitamins every single day. One of the concerns yo mentioned is overconsumption and I believe that could be true because the dummies just fast like candy and I could see how someone would just regularly eat them as a snack or something. I have heard however that multivitamins can be used a prevention of hangovers.
This post actually just made me so sad! My gummy bear vitamins and I have a very long history, and this is the first time i have ever heard a skepticism about them. I always kinda considered that they could just be mostly a placebo effect, but I try not to think about it because I love them so much! Are all gummy vitamins not approved by the FDA or just certain companies? Here’s an article that claims they know the “dirty truth” behind my beloved gummies:
http://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/dirty-truth-gummy-vitamins-dont-want-know/
My doctor always stresses the importance of a multi vitamin because I don’t take one. I’m going to bring this up my next appointment and see what he says.