"take with food"?

[Annie456]

I've just started taking lots of supplements and vitamins and quite a few of them say "take with food", does this mean before or after? and why?

[undercovers]

well at the same time would be bext, but right after is fine too. There are two reasons for this depending on the suppliment, some upset some peoples stomachs and guts if they are concentrated (e.g. the only thing going through the digestive process) so to reduce the number of people affected the manufacturers advise to take with food. The other more probably reason is that having food the the digestive tract will slow the speed that the suppliments will travel through you meaning that more can be absorbed - in some cases (if the suppliments if in pill form) they will pass right through without even changing shape too much unless they are comsumed with food.

[Gef]

Supplements are a waste of money. Just eat a balanced diet.