The Best Time of Day to Take Multivitamins
, by Sandesh Prasannakumar, 9 min reading time
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, by Sandesh Prasannakumar, 9 min reading time
Daily use of multivitamins is common among people, especially those with a busy lifestyle and who care about their health. But when is the best time to consume these supplements so that they are most efficiently absorbed into the body and have the best results? When I should take my multivitamin, depends on the specific nutrients included in it that this list can tell.
To understand how to get the most out of these ingredients, keep on reading to find out exactly what the latest research has to say about the best time to take multivitamins. Whether you are using a general once daily or a nutrient formula specific to your needs, timing the usage of the supplement will enable you to meet your wellness goal.
It is possible that you can benefit from tablets by turning to your multivitamin as soon as you wake up in the morning. For instance, some of the nutrients, such as vitamin B12, vitamin D, magnesium, and CoQ10, are more effective during the day than they are at night.
One of the most important vitamins, which includes B12, helps the body produce energy, but it is limited after wake-up time. Taking foods that are rich in B12 early in the morning helps replenish the body of this nutrient and may lead to increased energy in the workplace. Supplements of vitamin D, which is a fat-soluble vitamin, can also be taken early in the morning as it is easily stocked up for use later.
Similarly, the absorption of magnesium and CoQ10 is best done in the morning hours, and it is recommended to take them with meals. You can get your quota for these nutrients after being famished for a long time. This is most appropriate after an overnight fast.
Therefore, if you are a general user of multivitamins/day or if you use multivitamins/day that have higher B12, vitamin D, magnesium, and CoQ10, the best time to take it will be in the morning when you wake up. You’ll get the right nutrients to kick-start your day effectively with it.
For some ingredients, morning is good, but for others, like vitamin C, calcium, omega-3s, or antioxidant-rich foods, afternoon or early evening should be better.
Vitamin C soluble in water is easy to use up and has always been a problem in retaining it in the body for a longer period. If you cannot get a morning dose, an afternoon or dinnertime dose may be useful to fend off vitamin C exhaustion later at night. This also allows you to get the immunity and antioxidant boost from Vitamin C when it might be needed at some point in the day.
Calcium is also related to the circadian rhythm, and it is said that calcium absorption tends to be higher in the evening and at night. A majority of people use calcium supplements with the belief that they are healthy for the bones. It is recommended to take it in the afternoon or evening when bone growth is at its best; thus, the drug will help make it better.
Also, some findings show that our body utilises omega 3s optimally for its anti-inflammation and triglyceride-lowering abilities in the later part of the day or towards the evening. Therefore, the multivitamin with omega-3s may also be taken in the afternoon, which is usually considered to be an ideal time to have a snack.
Last but not least, vitamins E, C, and selenium act as antioxidants that help clean up the free radicals that have accumulated through the day due to metabolism that decreases during the evening. This may help in the recovery process and even fight ageing. Well, if your multi-packs extra antioxidant power, as it were, the early evening should be just about right.
When it comes to vitamins, in an ideal world, the vitamins are consumed in a number of evenly spaced intakes that correspond with the Chrono-nutrition. But when it comes to a simple one-a-day multivitamin formula, start by considering your key nutrient priorities:
After that, compare the time against the vitamin’s constituents and see how it fairs. A morning dose is suitable for a multivitamin and minerals supplement and other supplements that contain high energy and B vitamins. It is generally observed that the multis, which are specialised or catering to a particular condition, are more effective during the afternoon to evening shift.
Timing of your supplements may vary by a few minutes or sometimes even an hour, but using the above simple guidelines is useful for enhancing the absorption. Just remember that taking them in the first place and being as consistent as possible still remains the most crucial – no matter when exactly you finally decide.
The majority of multivitamin tablets should be taken with food as dietary fats and proteins facilitate the digestion of the vitamins. Vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as carotenoids, are fat-soluble vitamins that require fats for their absorption. B vitamins are soluble in water, and vitamin C can interfere with proteins and amino acids that are needed to gain access to the cells. Ideally, it is advisable to have a multivitamin at a time when you have taken food or immediately after you have eaten because your body does not have to compete with the other nutrients in order to absorb the full range of essentials.
2. What are the ways in which caffeine interferes with multivitamin absorption?Caffeine has the effect of how easy it is for the body to absorb and metabolise minerals and B vitamins into the body. This is because caffeine and vitamin B are both absorbed in the same part of the gut and therefore, they compete with one another. Caffeine also has the ability to reduce the absorption of iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium and phosphate. Therefore, we should avoid the use of multivitamins with coffee or any product containing caffeine, such as tea. Basically, it is advised to take your vitamin after you have had your morning coffee to avoid interference.
3. Is there a problem with taking a probiotic supplement in addition to the oil that I should also take separately?Although the superior and more expensive multis do have probiotics added, few of the basic multis do. The strains and CFU counts are often too low in those that do contain them to be used for the identification of unknown strains. Therefore, it is advisable to take a standalone probiotic product apart from a multivitamin to ensure that your gut is filled with beneficial bacteria that strengthen your immune system, enhance the absorption of nutrients in the gut, and help in digestion. You can have your probiotic and vitamin at two different times with a 30-minute gap. Many people find that taking Probiotics on an empty stomach first thing in the morning is effective. Then, they should have a meal and take the multivitamin that they should be taking.
4. Can I take my multivitamin and these other individual supplements at the same time?Most multivitamin manufacturers advise that you take the multivitamin together with other individual single-nutrient supplements from fish oil, vitamin C, zinc, and so on. However, one has to be careful when taking very high doses of fat-soluble A, D, and E, K vitamins as they accumulate from different sources and become toxic. Also, be careful with the duplicate levels of B vitamins if your multi provides substantial amounts of B vitamins already. If one takes multiple sources of B supplement, then take it in the morning and at night. Lastly, it is worth mentioning that some of the plant preparations can interfere with multivitamins; for instance, St John’s wort can affect the bioavailability of B vitamins and other nutrients. So, if possible, try to leave a gap of 2-3 hours while using these two. It could be between two different days.
When one starts analysing the factors discussed above, it may appear that there are many factors to consider in order to get into optimal multivitamin absorption; nonetheless, this is not a tough task at all. Choose the primary nutrient(s) you want to focus on for supplementation purposes, with no more than three nutrients as a starting point. Then, it will try to figure out when it should take those — preferably together with food to enhance their efficacy. Add other specialised nutrients into the layers as desired. The next important factor to focus on is frequency after the time slot has been determined to be the best. If you do this, then you will be on the road to receiving the full benefits of your everyday multivitamin.
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