The vinegar test is actually not a good test to determine a vitamins ability to break down. This is because certain vitamins, like Centrum for instance, are not designed to have the outer shell breakdown. In fact, the outershell basically stays intact even once it comes back out of you the other way. But the stuff inside (where the nutrients are) do get absorbed out.
That being said, centrum is really a bad vitamin supplement. It does not surprise me that medical schools might teach that this supplement is fine because unfortunately their curriculum is not designed to adequately teach nutrition or health. This is not meant to be a slight on medical schools, but more just a fact about their priorities (medical schools are intent on teaching people how to become doctors, not nutritionists). Also, many of the textbooks and curriculum for medical schools are created by and donated by the pharmaceutical companies. The creator of Centrum is Wyeth, so there is a bit of an undue influence here.
Centrum contains isolated beta carotene, and presumably preformed Vitamin A. These are both unhealthful ingredients according to the studies. It also contains iron which is also bad (again, unless you are anemic). According to the studies, the Vitamin D levels are too low in Centrum to impact serum levels positively. Neither the calcium nor selenium levels are sufficient either. Also, their nutrient sources are not from food, so this is not ideal.
One thing I will say positive about Centrum is at least they don't use megadoses (this is good). It is also cheap, but you get what you pay for, unfortunately.
Joey
|