Thread: Carbs in ,( yikes !!), vitamins....

...no kidding !! I went to replace my usual calcium/vitD at the health food store. They had a table with some vitamin and supplements on sale and I persused them because I'm a cheapskate; and because ALL OF YOU HAVE drilled into my "newbie"/ returning newbie" head to READ ALL THE LABELS, I did.
What a surprise !!! Some of the multivitamins had 9 carbs per capsule and the daily recommended dosage were 3 tablets!!! So imagine what this would do if someone was earnestly,relentlessly, and ruthlessly eliminating carbs from food only to find that they were ingesting 27gms of carbs not from food. It's got me wondering if some of the induction stalls could be caused by these unknown carbs....especially if these newbies were beginning the recommended regimen of vitamins and supplements. By the way, my original Calcium tablets had almost 7 carbs in them and I switched to another brand with none. Jeesh....what a wakeup call....

Yep, always read the labels.
You never know where those carbs lurk.



Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

i cannot find any caloric/nutritional info on my multi vitamin - not even online. i take a walgreen's brand w/out iron ... so should i find a new kind since these may have carbs??

I'd check with the pharmacists at walgreens first.
They are required by law to provide that information.



Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

I thought that vitamins/minerals were not suppose to provide any caloric or nutritional value except for the vitamins/minerals in the pill. At least thats what a nutritionist told me.

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how do you find out how many carbs are in the vitamins, cause mine don't say

Does anyone know about the Atkins basic 3 or essential oils? I have just ordered them. I have also been taking Atkins Dieters Advantage(4 tablets total) 2 times a day.

I was mistaken about the law and FDA requiring nutritional info on vitamins.


But here's some information that my pharmacist emailed to me.

"Look for vitamins that have the designation "USP" on the label. It means that the product meets the strict standards of the U.S. Pharmacopeia, an independent, non-profit body of experts in medicine and pharmacy. The "USP" label insures that the supplement meets FDA standards with regards to disintegration, strength, and purity. You will be surprised to find that many popular (and expensive!) brand vitamins do not carry the USP label, because the manufacturer does not want to perform the costly testing required. Generic and store brands more often do meet the USP standards, and are often less expensive.

The Dietary Supplement Verification Program (DSVP) program was launched in November 2001. It was created to help inform and safeguard the growing number of consumers who use dietary supplements. The program responds to the need to assure the public that dietary supplement products contain the ingredients stated on the product label.
If a product submitted to DSVP meets USP's rigorous standards, it will be awarded the DSVP verification mark. The mark helps assure consumers, health care professionals and supplement retailers that a product:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Contains the declared ingredients on the product label
<LI>Contains the amount or strength of ingredients declared on the product label (all ingredients must be listed)
<LI>Meets requirements for limits on potential contaminants
<LI> Has been manufactured properly by complying with USP and proposed FDA standards for "good manufacturing practices" (GMPs)"[/list]She also recommended a nationally advailable brand that has DSVP verification called Nature Made. As far as all of the vitamins they make being sugar free or carbs free, she wasn't sure. But at least they have nutritional info available.



Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

[This message was edited by Brightlady on 02-04-04 at 05:16 PM.]

Here's a link to the USP site.
It give you a list of brands that have DSVP approval. USP Verified Products

And How to Read a Vitamin Label



Always eat your veggies first!
LCE member since March 2002

The worst offenders are the chewable vitamins. I've seen chewables in multi's, calcium, Vitamin C, and probably there are others. They are almost always sweetened in order to be palatable. While occasionally these products are sweetened artificially, more often they are sweetened with sugar, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc. Some lozenges, such as zinc, B12, etc., are also occasionally sweetened.

If this is the case, you will often, but not always see those ingredients in #7 of the second link Brightlady listed in her post.

Of course, same thing applies to other chewable OTC's we might have around the house, such as acid reducers, anti-diarrhea tabs and such.

And, of course, with liquid cold and cough meds or lozenges......it always pays to read the labels.



BC
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