JOHN YANG: Making sure you get the right amount of daily vitamins can be difficult.

Today, a booming multibillion dollar industry of gummy vitamins and supplements says it makes it easier and tastier.

But how do they compare with traditional vitamin pills?

Ali Rogin is back with her conversation with Shyla Davis-Cadogan, a registered dietitian at the Virtual Nutrition Service Culina Health.

ALI ROGIN: Shyla, thank you so much for being here.

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN, Culina Health: Of course.

ALI ROGIN: Let's take a step back and talk about how do people know what vitamins they need to take in addition to the nutrients that everybody just gets with the food that they eat?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: Yeah.

So it's easy to think that you need a whole bunch of vitamins for whatever reason, but there are ways to know.

And the most concrete way to know is to get a blood test so that you have a visual representation of what you're lacking and what you're sufficient in.

ALI ROGIN: And why is it that gummy vitamins have become so popular in recent years?

What is driving people to go out and buy them?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: They're tasty and the marketing is really appealing.

It's a fun, chewable, candy like way to get nutrients in.

So that's appealing to a lot of people.

ALI ROGIN: But how effective are they, especially when you compare it to a more traditional vitamin that you take as a pillow?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: I'd say for the most part the efficacy is relatively the same.

However, there's a couple of things.

The first thing is that it can be difficult for manufacturers to get enough or the same amount of vitamins and nutrients in a gummy vitamin versus a pill or a tablet.

And then the second part is that the efficacy, it can go down quicker in gummy vitamins because they're more susceptible to moisture versus like a pill or a tablet supplement.

ALI ROGIN: And how easy or difficult is it for somebody to figure out how much of a particular vitamin they're getting when they ingest a gummy?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: All it takes is just reading the label.

And then you also have to consider that what it reads on the label is assuming that you are properly storing that supplement.

So if you are storing it in your medicine cabinet, in your bathroom, for example, that is a very moisture filled environment versus if you store it in like a dark cabinet that's in your room.

So the efficacy of those vitamins may be reduced because they're just more easily degraded in those environments that they're not suited for, like moisture.

ALI ROGIN: So how does that work?

If the vitamin, if the gummy is around more moist environments, how does that degrade the nutrition value that you get from one?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: It's because the gummies, how they are encapsulated, so how they're actually put in and create it together makes it overall just more susceptible to external influences, whether it's light, whether it's moisture versus a pill that's harder, it's not going to be as susceptible because of how they're just made differently.

ALI ROGIN: And plus there's the added sugar that gets into a gummy.

So tell us about that.

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: Yes.

So the main components of a gummy vitamin are going to be gelatin, sugar, usually also corn syrup, which is an additional form of sugar.

And then the vitamin pre mix and then they just concoct it all together and then you get a vitamin gummy, you mold it, all that fun stuff.

And so the added sugar is definitely a component to think about and one of the biggest, I would say the biggest thing to consider as your overall intake.

Because vitamins and gummy vitamins definitely have different amounts.

ALI ROGIN: And a lot of these gummies seem to be particularly marketed towards children.

Tell us about that.

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: Yeah, so kids, they don't really want to take their vitamins.

That's like a task that's not very fun and manufacturers know that.

And so gummy vitamins, they look and often taste like candy.

So marketing to children, it's just an easy go.

Parents see it as something that's going to attract their children.

They know their children's probably going to eat something that tastes like cherry versus taking a pill and swallowing it, which isn't even fun, not even for a lot of adults.

So I think that's why marketing is really high for children especially.

ALI ROGIN: And when it comes to pediatric nutrition though, should they be taking vitamins or is that something that should be worked out on a case by case basis with a pediatrician?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: It's definitely on a case by case basis, especially for children.

A lot of supplements and you know, the amounts of them, they aren't always tailored to kids.

So the supplements that are marketed more towards children, manufacturers will be mindful to not fill those supplements with too much of anything because of the small bodies.

But because they're children, it's really especially important to work with a pediatrician so that you know that you're not giving your child something they don't need or too much of something that they're already getting.

ALI ROGIN: How much regulation or lack thereof is there of this industry?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: Very little.

The FDA doesn't regulate supplementation.

So it's up to the companies to be transparent to engage in third party testing, to, you know, put things on their labels.

Whether it's NSF International certification or US Pharmacopoeia USP certification.

Those are just examples of two reliable third party programs that companies can send their product to and get robust testing done.

ALI ROGIN: You are a nutritionist doing one one consulting with lots of different patients.

Are there ever situations where you would recommend gummies yourself?

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: It depends if there's a patient that has tried everything.

Supplements don't work, chewables don't work, and they are just consistently inconsistent in taking a vitamin that they need because they're deficient.

Gummy vitamins often are attractive to clients.

They find it as something that's like not a task but just an extra little taste of orange after their dinner.

And if that gets them to get that vitamin that they're deficient in, it's a net positive to me.

ALI ROGIN: Shyla Davis-Cadogan with Culina Health, thank you so much for joining us.

SHYLA DAVIS-CADOGAN: Thank you so much.