Choosing a Multivitamin for Gastric Bypass Patients
Since my gastric bypass surgery a little over three years ago, I’ve become really interested in nutrition. Some of my friends, aware of my interest and all the research I’ve done on nutrition and vitamins, ask me from time to time to help them select a good multivitamin supplement. Selecting the right multivitamin is very important for gastric bypass patients since we don’t absorb vitamins and minerals very well after our surgery.
It can seem very confusing when you try to compare different brands of vitamins, but there are a few simple things to look at when you’re choosing a multivitamin.
The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery provides specific guidelines for vitamin and mineral supplementation for gastric bypass patients. As they advise, look for vitamins A – E, which are usually listed in alphabetical order on the label. There should be a bunch of B vitamins in there, which might be listed as B1, B2, etc. or might be listed by other names like thiamine and riboflavin. Unless you’re looking at a gummy vitamin (which I promise won’t have everything gastric bypass patients need according to the ASMBS guidelines), they should all be in there. A good multivitamin should have vitamin K, too.
The ASMBS also says to look for copper, zinc and selenium. You should see a long list of other minerals, including potassium, magnesium, manganese, chromium and iodine. If you want a multi with iron, look for that too. However, you can take a multi without iron and take iron at another time. I think that’s easiest anyway, because then you can take your calcium and multi at the same time if you want, which means fewer times a day that you have to take vitamins.
Next to each ingredient it will show you how much of that ingredient is in the multivitamin. You don’t need to know how much vitamin A, how much vitamin E, etc. we need in there. Next to the amount, it will have a percentage (it’s the percent of the Recommended Daily Allowance that is in there). It will look like this: vitamin D 400 IU 100%. Just go down the list and see if most of them are 100% or at least close to that.
If most of the ingredients say 100%, you need to take two a day. To meet the guidelines established by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), you need a total of 200% of most things. So if you have a vitamin that only has 50% of most things, you’d need four a day. If you’ve got one of those “all in one” bariatric vitamins like Optisource or Bariatric Fusion, you’d need to take eight tablets a day to get 200 % of most things.
Keep in mind, this is just your multivitamin we’re talking about. The ASMBS guidelines state that you’ll still need calcium citrate, iron, B12 and most likely D3. Based on the results of your blood work, which you should have done regularly, you may need to add additional vitamins to your regimen. You will need these other things no matter which multivitamin you take, even if you take one of the “all in one” brands that require you to take eight tablets a day to meet ASMBS guidelines.
Bariatric Nutrition. http://nutrition.otago.ac.nz/__data/assets/file/0005/4784/BariatricNutritionReading.pdf. Suggestions for the Surgical Weight Loss Patient.
