Gummies are the next big thing, but are they really a good thing?
As you get older, you take a lot more pills, some prescription and some are supplements. Vitamins and such, for example.
The prices aren't cheap, at least at the retail store. Oftentimes, a small bottle of vitamins or supplements can cost $20 or more. If you shop online, you can find the cost a lot less, particularly if you buy in bulk.
Prices are all over the board, however. Some retailers are selling a small bottle of 100 vitamins for more than another retailer is selling a bottle of 500, with the same dosage and chemical content. You really have to look at the cost per pill when comparing these things. In most cases, Amazon shows this value, in other cases you have to get out your calculator.
But one thing is clear, vitamins and supplements presented as gummies are usually 5 to 10 times as expensive as pills. I'm not sure why we want our vitamins and other pills to be treated like candy. That only is it far more costly, it seems to me to be rather dangerous.
For example, I acquired from a friend of mine a large bottle of vitamin C gummies. I also got a large bottle of vitamin C pills which has a lot more servings for a lot less money. But what concerns me is that the vitamin C gummies taste like and look like candy, down to the sugar crystals dotting the outsides. A child could easily confuse these with actual candy and would be tempted to eat the entire bottle. I'm not sure what the results would be other than a lifelong immunization from scurvy.
It just strikes me as odd that we put child-proof caps on everything these days, even things that you don't think a child would want to consume. I have a child-proof cap on my mouthwash, but nobody at their right mind wants to drink mouthwash. I'm sure a child trying to drink it would spit it out shortly.
But pills? We make them intentionally enticing by making them look like and taste like candy. It makes no sense to me.
Marijuana gummies - which is what most people think of, when you say, "Gummies" in the first place - merely compounds the problem. Little Suzie goes to visit Hippie Grandma and ends up passed out on the floor after eating a whole box full. Since it takes nearly an hour for the effects to be felt, it isn't hard for a child to wolf down a handful without feeling initial effects. As an adult, even a whole one of these makes me fall asleep, or more precisely, pass out. I can't imagine what a handful would do to a kid. Why aren't these provided as pills? Why are they not in childproof packages? (Many times they are not!).
I recently ordered some multivitamins for "Men over 50," and the cost per bill was about 4 cents each. The same multivitamin in gummy form was 15 cents each, and some places wanted as much as 29 cents apiece. I'm not sure paying several times the cost of something in order to have it as candy is really a cost-effective thing.
Of course, many question the efficacy of many of these vitamins and supplements. Many nutritionists point out that if you have a balanced diet you probably don't need a multivitamin. And in some cases vitamins and supplements can actually be harmful to you. The vitamin supplement industry is a little shady to say the least.
Making these things look like candy it's just icing on the cake, so to speak.