Many people love liquid vitamins and more companies enter the market daily to provide them.  It is easier for people to take a liquid vitamin than to swallow a large vitamin pill.  For many people who have a gag reflex, some pills can’t be taken without crushing them first.

Any medicine, supplement, or vitamin in a liquid form begins to work faster than the same components do in a pill format.  This is not as big an advantage for vitamins as it is for medicines, but it is still a consideration.

Another advantage to liquid vitamins is the absorption rate.  Because pills have to dissolve before they go to work, some of the active ingredients may get diverted or wasted.  It is said that 95% to 98% of the liquid vitamins are ingested by the body.

Considering the good points, everyone should be happy taking their liquid multi vitamins rather than choosing the pill format, but there are some disadvantages to liquid supplements.  Here are five of them.

1. Liquid supplements do not have a long shelf life.  In pill form, vitamins and minerals are concentrated and sealed in a preservative until the time they are taken.  The liquid version must be used within a smaller window of time.  Antioxidants degrade in time and oxidation of the minerals and vitamins follows.  When this occurs, the liquid is left rather useless and inert.

This does not make the vitamins dangerous; they just aren’t effective.  Refrigeration helps to extend the productive shelf life.  Even in the refrigerator, when the expiration date is reached the vitamins are of little value.  Buying in smaller amounts helps to assure vitamins are used prior to their expiration date.

2. Certain enzymes will not last more than a couple of days in a liquid form.  This means that they have to be omitted from liquid vitamins and minerals.  These same enzymes will last for a much longer time in pill format.  For that reason, more than one vitamin has to be taken each day if you use the liquid format.

3. Liquid vitamins tend to weigh more than pills.  This may not be a large concern, but if you order many vitamins online, it adds up to more shipping charges.

4. Pills are more convenient when traveling because they are less bulky and take up much less space.  With liquid supplements, you have to take the whole bottle with you.  Athletes who hike or camp often can easily pocket pills to grab on the run, but with liquids, they have to stop and hunt the bottle up and meticulously measure out the right dosage.

5. One problematic thing about liquids, according to some authorities, is how they are absorbed by the body.  A pill will travel along in the body until such time as it dissolves and releases all its vitamins and minerals at one time.  Since vitamin absorption takes place at the start of the small intestine, the pill usually reaches its destination intact.

Liquids are attacked by stomach acids as they pass through.  This can destroy the integrity of the supplements and may dissolve some parts of the liquid before it can reach the intestine and do any good.

Conclusion:

There are good arguments from both camps on the reliability and benefits received from liquid or pill vitamins.  You may want to express your concerns to your pharmacist to get his/her input and opinion.  Technologies change, and some of the problems with liquid vitamins may not be as pronounced today as they were a short time ago.

Related Posts from Super Size Your Health

• What are Vitamins And Minerals?
• Benefits Of Vitamin Supplements