The Difference Between Liquid Multivitamins and Pill Multivitamins

The Importance of Multivitamins

As Americans are growing more and more overweight, one of the great ironies is that our nutrition has actually gotten worse.  In fact, it is not unusual to find obese people who are actually undernourished, because they are not getting the proper vitamins and nutrients they need, despite the large amount of food they eat.  Multivitamins are a great way to give us the nutrients we need outside of our normal diet.  But which are better, liquid multivitamins or pill multivitamins?

A Little About Liquid Multivitamins

As you can probably guess, liquid multivitamins, unlike pill multivitamins, come in a liquid form.  They are drunk rather than ingested as a pill.  These are generally taken from purer extracts than the vitamins found in normal pills, and are then put into a liquid form which you can drink once a day rather than having to swallow a pill.

The Difference Between Liquid and Pill Multivitamins

In today's world of health, it is often taken as a basic assumption that liquid multivitamins must be better than pill multivitamins.  There are reasons for this.  For one thing, liquid multivitamins are generally more expensive than pill multivitamins.  More expensive is always better, isn't it?

Not always.  However, with liquid multivitamins there have been studies showing that liquid vitamins are in fact better.  Some of this has to do with subjective issues: whether or not you prefer to swallow a pill or drink a liquid, for example.  But others have a stronger basis and can show how liquid multivitamins are better than pill multivitamins.

Because of being distributed in liquid form, liquid multivitamins can actually prove to be more effective multivitamins.  The main issue here is absorption rate.  That is, what percentage of the vitamins and minerals we are taking are actually being absorbed into our system and not just passed through.  If we do not actually absorb the nutrients into our system, they are not doing us any good.

Studies have shown that the absorption rates for pill multivitamins are only about 10-20%.  That means that 80% of the vitamins and minerals you are getting are passing right through your system and aren't getting to where you need them.  This is not a very promising statistic.

Liquid multivitamins, on the other hand, have much more promising statistics.  Some studies have shown that liquid multivitamins can have absorption rates as high as 98%.  (This is not to assume that all liquid multivitamins are going to have this high of an absorption rate).  However, the liquid form does seem to improve our ability to absorb the vitamins and minerals included therein.  Thus, despite their higher price, liquid multivitamins can be much more effective than traditional pill multivitamins.