By Lauren Duffy

Take a second to watch this Big Bang Theory clip of Sheldon Cooper at his finest. Note what he says about Vitamins! (Start at 0:18.)

I absolutely love the Big Bang Theory. Love love love it. Partly because it’s a clever show with witty humor, but mostly because the lead science geek, Sheldon Cooper (the guy in this clip), is the spitting image of how my 14-year-old brother will be some day. They have the same brown hair, tall and skinny figure, small lisp, graphic tee shirts, brains, and tendency to interject little silly facts. They are identical… it’s kind of creepy… but hilarious nonetheless. 

So the other night as I was watching an episode and comparing my brother to Sheldon, I noticed what he said in this clip about vitamins and it got me thinking… is he right?

Vitamins are tricky: taking too many is bad and not taking enough is bad, so you have to take just the right amount to keep your vitamins and minerals well-balanced. But how to you know how to take the right amount? And, is buying too many vitamins really just investing in “very expensive urine?”

First and foremost, after doing some research I’ve found that the best way to keep yourself healthy and your body functioning well is to take a daily multivitamin. Taking vitamins can prevent illnesses, give you good nutrients, keep up cell efficiency and function, and avoid negative effects of vitamin deficiency.

The keyword here is multivitamin. Multivitamins have a bunch of different vitamins and minerals inside, as opposed to vitamins that just have an overload of one vitamin inside which are often referred to as “megadose vitamins”. You should try to find a multivitamin at your local pharmacy or food store that you like and stick with that on a daily basis. I highly recommend taking daily vitamins in “gummy” form; if you haven’t tried a gummy multivitamin yet, you don’t know what you’re missing. They’re so freakin’ good! But the adult ones aren’t shaped like Flintstones or Dinosaurs… so that kind of sucks. However if you take a bunch of different megadose vitamins, that’s when you can run into trouble.

When choosing what daily multivitamin you’re going to purchase, look for one that says on the label that it gives you the daily recommended dose of the vitamins. My research has shown me that these specific multivitamins won’t “overdose” you, while other vitamins can. If you “overdose” a certain vitamin through megadoses, you can face some negative side effects. For example, too much zinc or Vitamin C can cause an upset stomach and cramping.

Some megadoses do exactly what Sheldon Cooper says they do in this clip: they just make you have very expensive urine. When your body can’t absorb some of the nutrients because there’s an excess, it flushes out the waste through your urine. So buying these megadoses is not the best way to go. I mean.. why would you ever want to waste money on pee…? But sometimes your body cannot flush out the excess nutrients through urine, and like I said, that’s when the negative trouble begins.

Keep in mind that these are just my amateur guidelines to help keep you healthy and happy without wasting money, but some of you may fall under a different category. Sometimes our bodies can be deficient in certain vitamins, so our doctors will tell us to take certain megadoses to make up for that. Or, if you’re getting sick, doctors may tell you to load up on the Vitamin C. So megadoses aren’t necessarily “bad”, they’re just not  always the best way to get your daily vitamins. 

So if you’ve always been a believer in megadoses, you may want to reconsider for the sake of your bank account. (Multivitamins aren’t too expensive.) Or if you’ve never taken a multivitamin before– now is the time to start! They will keep your body healthy, and in turn make your body happy. :)