What is Enteric Coating?

Enteric coating. Ever heard of it?

You may have come across the words before when reading and aspirin bottle or seen it grace the label of certain supplements. But, do you know what it means and why it’s a beneficial feature?

The Benefits of Enteric Coating

Enteric coating is a like a shield that protects the delicate vitamins and minerals of a supplement from harsh stomach acids. It also helps protect you from experiencing side effects, like nausea. Certain minerals, such as zinc and iron can upset the stomach.

Stomach acid can easily damage and destroy nutrients reducing the effectiveness of certain supplements and medications. Enteric coating allows the supplement to navigate this harsh environment, timing dissolution when it reaches your intestines, where nutrient absorption ideally takes place.

Here’s the Biology 101 on how enteric coating works with multivitamins:

When you initially swallow your multivitamin, it travels down the esophagus and into your stomach. When you ingest food and other substances, it is the stomach’s job to activate stomach acids to breakdown food into smaller digestible particles. Then, these particles are swept into the intestines, where nutrients are absorbed into the intestinal walls and through to the bloodstream. In the bloodstream, nutrients are delivered to the organs, tissues and cells. The enteric coating that preserved the vitamins and minerals to this point is shuttled through the intestines with other unabsorbed substances, down the colon and discarded in your stool.

While improving absorption is the primary benefit of enteric coating, it has other benefits too. Enteric coating creates a smoother surface of the pill, making it easier to swallow. It also eliminates that unpleasant aftertaste traditionally associated with consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements.

Timed release is another benefit of enteric coating. Since the enteric coating dissolves slowly, the release of nutrients continues deeper into your digestive tract, increasing overall absorption.

Is Enteric Coating Natural?

Manufacturers of high-quality supplements will use natural ingredients for the enteric coating, however there are some synthetic options, so read the label carefully. The natural ingredients for enteric coating include:

• Purified water
• Ethylcellulose (extracted from wood pulp)
• Medium chain triglycerides (extracted from coconut and/or palm kernels)
• Oleic acid (extracted from palm and tall oils)
• Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (extracted from wood pulp)
• Polydextrose (extracted from corn)

Less than 5 percent of the multivitamins on the market today have an enteric coating and even fewer use natural ingredients. If your multivitamin doesn’t seem to be working or makes you feel sick or nauseous, it’s time to investigate a new option, look for a high-quality multivitamin.