Multivitamins: Size Does Matter

Have you noticed how multivitamins have grown – significantly – in size over the past decade or so? We went from small, round One-a-Days to multivitamins large enough to choke a horse. Why? Can anyone tell me why? My girlfriend Ceil weighed in, “I hear you. They can miniaturize computer/phone components/cameras to help surgeons and spies, etc. and they can't make vitamins smaller?!?!?”

My internist recently suggested that I start taking a multivitamin, specifically Centrum Silver for Women. I remembered how much trouble I have swallowing aircraft carrier-sized vitamins as I walked down the vitamin aisle at our local CVS Pharmacy. “No problem,” I thought. “I’ll just look for an illustration on the box to make sure it’s a size I can swallow.” Have you noticed that some manufacturers have put illustrations of “actual” pill size on their boxes? Of course, when I picked up the Centrum box I couldn’t find any illustration.

Resigned, I turned to leave, box in hand, but then I noticed the Centrum Silver for Men sitting right next to the women’s box. Guess what? The men’s vitamins, 100 in a bottle just like the women’s, were packaged in a smaller box! When I held a box in each hand, the women’s box was significantly heavier. Larger and heavier. Why? Can anyone tell me why men get a smaller, lighter multivitamin? Why we can miniaturize anything, except apparently vitamins?

By now I was muttering and mumbling loud enough that a CVS employee who was restocking a nearby shelf heard me.

“Can I help you,” he asked.

“Do you know why the Centrum Silver women’s vitamins come in a significantly larger and heavier box than the men’s? It doesn’t seem fair. Vitamins in general are huge these days, and these women’s vitamins must be larger than even the men’s vitamins,” I said, showing him the two boxes.

He hefted the boxes in his hands. ” You’re right, the women’s box definitely looks larger and is heavier. Maybe Centrum figures women are tougher than men. Maybe Centrum figures if women can give birth they can also swallow pills that would choke most men.”

And that, my friends, is as likely an explanation as any.