Do Vitamins Give You Energy? An Expert's Guide

Clinical research has demonstrated that vitamins, minerals, and botanical supplements can provide an energy boost without the risk of dependence or the side effects associated with caffeine. Vitamins and minerals are essential for the body to generate energy, maintain health, and function properly. To sustain day-to-day energy levels, it is best to get vitamins from food. However, if you cannot meet your daily needs with food alone, you can opt for supplements to make up the difference. The answer to the question of whether vitamins give you energy requires an exploration of multivitamins, vitamin deficiencies, and where energy actually comes from.

A multivitamin is not an instant energy boost, but depending on your diet and personal health, you may discover potential energy-related benefits. Along with other B vitamins, vitamin B12 helps convert the food you consume into energy that your cells can use. For healthy adults who follow a balanced diet, taking a multivitamin will not provide a significant energy boost. Carbohydrates are the most important source of energy in the daily diet, and the best sources of carbohydrates are bread and cereals, fruits, some dairy products, sugars, and more. If you follow a strictly regulated diet or eat fewer than 1800 calories a day, taking a daily multivitamin can provide essential supplemental nutrients to your diet.

Vitamins that give you energy include B vitamins. To get them naturally for vitamin B12, make sure your diet includes options such as seafood, liver, fish, red meat, eggs and cheese. Supplements, including a daily multivitamin supplement, can help close any nutrient gaps that may be lacking in the diet. Multivitamins are a formulation of a combination of individual vitamins designed to provide complementary nutrition and can be presented in the form of pills to swallow, chewable tablets, or liquid. If you are not at risk for iron deficiency, most multivitamins formulated with iron contain the recommended amount needed daily.

When this is the case, there are plenty of supplements and vitamins that can help boost your energy when you need it most. But do supplements actually increase energy? Some may make a difference but others may need more research to support claims about increased energy. At the time of a Gallup survey in 2019, 50 percent of Americans regularly took a multivitamin supplement or a specific type of vitamin or mineral while 48 percent did not. It is important to note that none of these vitamins can replace diet, exercise, hydration, and quality sleep. Vitamin D is known as the “sun vitamin” because your skin produces it when exposed to the sun's UV rays.

If you have taken vitamins sporadically over the years and are thinking about taking them daily, consider taking a daily vitamin B12 supplement as it is only found in animal foods. Those who follow strict vegetarian or vegan diets should take a daily vitamin B12 supplement. Taking a multivitamin complex will not correct any underlying conditions and delaying treatment may harm your health. While it is possible to receive all the micronutrients in the diet through food sources alone, studies suggest that millions of Americans are vitamin deficient and do not have access to these essential components of good health. To learn more about vitamins that give you energy and other ways to overcome fatigue, visit these publications.

Ben Liebhardt
Ben Liebhardt

Amateur travel fanatic. General web buff. Certified travel junkie. Twitter nerd. Infuriatingly humble web practitioner. Certified beer nerd.

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