If you've decided that you want to start adding some form of supplement to your diet, you quickly discover that there's another choice to make: how to do it. Supplements come in many forms! These forms are generally known as the delivery mechanism and can impact how effective a supplement is. The question is, which form is the best, and are there other considerations to keep in mind? Let's talk about it.
Table of Contents
- What Are the Different Delivery Mechanisms for Supplements?
- What Are the Pros and Cons of Supplement Gummies?
- What Are the Pros and Cons of Supplement Capsules?
- Are Gummies as Effective as Capsules?
- Why Capsules are Still Better
- Reason #1: Some substances aren't viable in gummy form.
- Reason #2: Capsules can pack more in a smaller package.
- Reason #3: Capsules last longer.
- Are There Good Reasons to Take Gummies?
- Sources:
What Are the Different Delivery Mechanisms for Supplements?
When you browse the supplement aisle at your local pharmacy or the virtual store shelves on an online retailer, you'll see supplements in a variety of different forms. Some of them you'll know and recognize, while others you might not.
Gummies are a gel-like preparation most often found as a way to get children to enjoy – or at least not hate – taking their vitamins. They're chewy and candy-like and usually use added ingredients like food colorings and sweeteners to make the experience of taking the supplement more enjoyable. Because of this, they're immensely popular, and most supplements have a gummy form.
Capsules are one of the most popular forms of supplement. Usually consisting of a gel cap filled with powder, these isolate the actual taste of the supplement – which is usually unpleasant – and give you a simple container to swallow. The outer layer breaks down in your stomach, releasing the powder and allowing your body to rapidly process and absorb it.
Liquid supplements are somewhat growing in popularity, though they have some drawbacks. As a liquid, they're easy to consume, though they don't typically taste very good. They're generally easier to swallow than a pill, especially large pills, and they tend to have good bioavailability. Not all supplements can be made into liquid forms, however, because they can go bad quickly or denature into ineffective byproducts.
Powdered supplements are essentially the same as what comes in a capsule, just not in a capsule. They're often mixed with some kind of flavoring or sweetener and are meant to be used like a drink mix, to mix with water for a one-two punch of supplement and hydration. The biggest downside is simply that some supplements are hydrophobic and don't mix well with water.
Pills are similar to capsules but are compressed and not coated. Some are meant to be chewed up and swallowed, while others are just meant to be swallowed. Otherwise, they have many of the same pros and cons as capsules.
Liposomal formulas are a relatively rare form of supplement, where the supplement is suspended in a fat of some kind and is meant to be absorbed in the mouth rather than simply swallowed. They aren't regulated or approved of by the FDA, so they aren't as common; they're also costly and need to be stored properly so they don't go bad. Overall, the drawbacks are steep enough that relatively few supplements use this mechanism.
Out of all of these forms of supplement, gummies and capsules are by far the most popular, so those are the two I'm comparing today.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Supplement Gummies?
Gummies are the more palatable of the two kinds of supplements. Since they're meant to be chewed and swallowed, they are designed to taste good.
This is also a downside. That's because the ingredients of a supplement are generally not all that good tasting on their own. Many vitamins and minerals are bitter or astringent and unpleasant to taste on their own. So, gummies are usually mixed with sweeteners (which could be sugar, sugar alcohols, or artificial sweeteners like aspartame) alongside flavorings like citric acid and often a food coloring of some kind.
One note to make is that gummies can greatly resemble candy. This can actually be dangerous for young children who don't know any better and eat them like candy, giving themselves much, much higher doses of those supplements than they should get. Depending on the contents of the supplement, this can have a wide range of consequences.
Because of the added ingredients, gummies are often lower doses or less complex than capsule supplements. They simply can't hold as much of the various nutrients in each gummy as a capsule can. For an equivalent dose, you would need to eat several more gummies, which can end up costing more than an equivalent set of capsules.
Gummies also have a shorter shelf-life than capsules, though not as short as liquid supplements.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Supplement Capsules?
Capsule supplements don't have to worry about taste and can be entirely function over flavor. As such, they are a "cleaner" supplement; there are no sweeteners, colorants, or other additives that don't need to be there. It's simply a gel capsule and powdered supplement mixtures, no more, no less.
One of the biggest drawbacks to capsule supplements is their size. Many multivitamins and multi-mineral supplements can be fairly large, and the larger a pill is, the harder it is for some people to swallow. Since many of these supplements also require taking 3-6 capsules per day, that's a lot of difficult swallowing for people who have those difficulties.
Many capsules use animal gelatin for their actual capsule portion, which can be objectionable to some people, but doesn't have a tangible effect on the function of the supplement.
Are Gummies as Effective as Capsules?
Perhaps the biggest question is less of a matter of the physical qualities of the supplements and more of their effect on your body. Are gummies as effective as capsules, more effective than capsules, or less effective than capsules?
Unfortunately, for those looking for a clear answer, the actual answer is "it depends."
To see what I mean, let's look at three studies.
The first study was performed in 2019. It was actually a two-parter: a small pilot trial involving 9 people and a second clinical trial involving 31 people. The supplement in question was Vitamin D.
In this study, individuals were given 20,000 Ius of vitamin D, either as a single-dose gummy or as a tablet. Participants were then measured at their baseline serum Vitamin D levels and again at 3, 6, 10, 24, and 48 hours. Afterward, participants switched groups, were given the alternate method of vitamin D, and were again measured.
The results of this study found that Vitamin D gummies resulted in higher average blood concentrations of vitamin D than tablets.
Now, tablets and capsules are a little different in how they work, but a common assumption is that gummies aren't as effective because of all of the added ingredients, and this study seems to prove the opposite.
The second study also compared tablets and gummies. These studies took blood samples slightly more frequently and involved six individuals for a fairly small sample size. They also used a multivitamin and mineral supplement containing Vitamin E, Vitamin B12, and Folate (Vitamin B9).
This study showed something interesting. When comparing both the gummies and the tablets, Vitamin E and Vitamin B12 had similar absorption across both groups. However, folate differed significantly, and gummies showed faster absorption. It's worth noting that this was a very small study, though, and while a future study with a larger sample size was planned, no results have yet been released.
Again, it's worth noting that tablets and capsules are similar, but they aren't quite the same. However, relatively few studies have compared capsule vitamins to gummy vitamins.
A third study compared vitamin C gummies with vitamin C caplets. It looked at 30 individuals and took frequent blood samples, again to test for absorption of the vitamin over time. It found no significant difference between the two, indicating similar absorption speeds and patterns.
What do these studies mean? Gummy vitamins do seem to be slightly more beneficial for the absorption of certain vitamins, but not all of them. Much, much more study is necessary to evaluate all of the dozens of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids present in robust supplements.
Does all of this mean that gummies are the better choice? Well, not necessarily.
Why Capsules are Still Better
While some studies point to gummies as a more effective vehicle for certain vitamins, they have a few drawbacks that mean capsules are still frequently the better choice.
In fact, even after evaluating the evidence, I've still chosen to make MicroVitamin a capsule formula. Here's why.
Reason #1: Some substances aren't viable in gummy form.
Part of the reason why I've opted to use capsules for MicroVitamin is that certain ingredients can't really be made into a gummy, or if they can, it requires a full-size gummy for the amount I would want. For example, MicroVitamin includes 500 mg of Trimethylglycine, an amino acid byproduct, alongside dozens of other ingredients. A single 500 Mg dose of gummy trimethylglycine can be 1-2 gummies on its own. A full regimen of supplements like MicroVitamin could require over a dozen gummies.
There are also some ingredients that simply can't be packed into a gummy form and some that are much easier in capsule form than in gummy form.
Reason #2: Capsules can pack more in a smaller package.
When you don't need to worry about the gelling agent, the sweeteners, the colorings, and the flavorings, you can pack a lot more into a smaller space. That even leaves room for more of certain ingredients. MicroVitamin includes 126 mg of magnesium, which, again, would be 2-3 gummies worth of magnesium in dedicated magnesium supplements.
There's a reason why most gummy supplements are only 1-4 ingredients each; trying to pack more in would mean a single day's dose would be a huge handful of gummies. They may be more convenient to eat, but you'd be eating them all day.
Reason #3: Capsules last longer.
Another reason is simple practicality. Gummies are, well, gummy; if moisture gets into their container, especially if you live in a humid place or they're exposed to sunlight and heat, they can melt together into a sticky mess. They can also go bad faster, with some ingredients losing potency.
Capsules, meanwhile, have a longer shelf life. You can contain more doses in a smaller package and keep them around longer. Even if the price per dose is similar between them – and that can vary based on the supplements and brands you're using – the cost of repeated shipping can add up.
Are There Good Reasons to Take Gummies?
Of course! Gummies do still have their place.
Some nutrients, as mentioned in a couple of the studies above, may be better absorbed in gummy form than in capsule form. This still needs a lot more study to know which ones for sure, but the potential is there.
More importantly, anyone who has trouble swallowing larger pills but who still needs to get some kind of supplement into their diet should look into gummies. They're a very accessible form for certain supplements and multivitamin compositions. They may not be as convenient as a broad-spectrum multivitamin and multimineral supplement, but they can get you a few nutrients you need in a form that doesn't involve swallowing large pills.
As always, I highly recommend talking to your healthcare provider about your specific options. Determining what supplements you should be taking and how best to take them is ideally something you customize with your provider specifically for your own needs.
The truth is, the most important thing is evaluating your health and your diet, figuring out what gaps in nutritional coverage you have, and finding ways to close those gaps. That might mean adjusting your diet to include more whole foods and vegetables. It might mean adding a couple of small supplements. It might mean a more comprehensive supplement to cover all of the bases. From there, determining which form works best for you is as much a matter of personal preference as it is the science. After all, it doesn't matter how well-absorbed a supplement is if you can't swallow it, right?
Sources:
- Bioequivalence Studies of Vitamin D Gummies and Tablets in Healthy Adults: Results of a Cross-Over Study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31067745/
- Bioequivalence Pilot Study of Two Multivitamin Formulations in Healthy Adults: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7259245/
- Vitamin C Bioequivalence from Gummy and Caplet Sources in Healthy Adults: A Randomized-Controlled Trial: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31747355/
