The Back-to-school Supplement Push: Are children’s gummy vitamins healthy?
Anyone else noticed their social media feeds and the internet full of children’s vitamins ads now that September is here?
It used to be just ads about school-wear promotions and shopping checklists, but it’s expanded to the supplement industry, which like any other business, depends on capturing our attention. It does this by convincing us that we are always lacking in some way. While this might be true in some cases, it raises the question: do we actually need what they’re selling and what exactly are they offering?
There’s been a gradual growth in a sector now referred to as “candyceuticals”, with gummy supplements leading the way. There are multivitamin gummies for children, gummies for hair, skin and nails, gummies for immunity, and even gummies that promise to improve our focus containing potent mushrooms. But when we look at the ingredients list, many of these gummies contain sugars and artificial sweeteners and these are often the first ingredient on the list. This means that they are just essentially candies with some vitamins added (1).
What’s the problem, I hear you say? It’s only a bit of sugar and the kids won’t take it if they were just the bog-standard pills. The issue is that the ingredients can undermine the very immune benefits that they promise to deliver. Parents trying to reinforce their children’s immune system as they head off back to school can have their efforts wrecked.
How sugar affects our immune system
Sugar interfere’s with immune function in a variety of ways:
Reduces the immune system’s ability to recognise invaders (2)
Increases the response of inflammatory markers (3)
Decreases the activity of protective white blood cells (4)
Reduces mobilisation of neutrophils, another key immune cell (5)
Competes with vitamin C for cellular uptake (6, 7, 8)
Sugar and hormonal health
Modern sugar-heavy diets create low-grade, chronic inflammation - the exact opposite of what we want for children. Raised inflammatory markers disrupt insulin signalling so our muscle, fat and liver cells stop responding appropriately to this hormone (insulin resistance). In a healthy state, insulin helps control our blood glucose levels and is anti-inflammatory (9) but insulin resistance is linked with numerous conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, PCOS, psoriasis and even cognitive decline.
Sugar and gut health
Both Ayurveda and modern science highlight the gut as key to our overall health. Excess sugar disrupts the gut microbiome (bacterial environment) by preventing good bacteria from staying there and driving up pro-inflammatory species (10). The good bacteria that it prevents from sticking around is key to protecting our gut lining. Without it, we can get leaky gut where toxins from our gut travel into the general circulation, causing inflammation.
The gut lining is also left vulnerable by high levels of sugar through disruption of the goblet cells in our intestine that are responsible for providing a protective mucous layer (11).
Another vital part of digestive health is the liver which also sufferes under long-term high-sugar diets (10). This limits its ability to detoxify and process necessary nutrients and vitamins.
And the sugar alternatives are no better. While research shows that artificial sweeteners produce a reduced glycaemic response (12), they are linked with gut microbiome disruption (13).
Erythritol and maltitol in particular have been praised for creating a lower glucose response, but both have been found to impact the gut. Erythritol has been found to increase gut inflammation (14) while xylitol and maltitol have been found to increase the number of bifidobacteria in the colon (15).
When over 50% of the UK population consume ultra-processed food including an excess of sugar (16), this makes it all the more important that we pay attention to this.
Sugar, mucous and respiratory health in children
Mucous plays a key role in our body, keeping our eyes, nose, lungs and other parts hydrated and protected. However, in excess, it can cause problems.
Particularly in the second half of Winter, Ayurvedically-speaking, we enter Kapha season which lends itself to more stagnation and mucous-type conditions. And with children being in their Kapha phase of life, we generally see that they experience more respiratory and congestion-like symptoms.
The anatomical explanation for this is that childrens’ respiratory systems are still developing, so their airways are smaller and their tongue is relatively larger. They also have a greater demand for oxygen in comparison to adults so they are more prone to respiratory distress (breathing difficulties). This is why anyone who has done Basic Life Support (BLS) training will remember that the CPR procedure is different for adults and children.
Research shows that sugar intake increases mucous production, potentially leading to more congestive symptoms and airway obstruction. One way is that it increases the expression of MUC5B which is a gel-forming mucin (17).
Another way is that high glucose intake increases histamine release from mast cells (18, 19, 20) which leads not only to an increase in mucous but also inflammation and allergy-type symptoms. When it comes to coughs and colds, any increase in histamine release can increase mucous in our airways (21).
Lastly, certain mucous-like fungal infections such as candida have also been found to have sugar sensors which they use in order to adapt and thrive (22).
When considering sugar, it’s helpful to take a broader perspective. Beyond the fizzy drinks, sweets and chocolate, think white-refined flour products too. But remember, this is not to say that sugar is inherently bad. Glucose is fundamental to cell function. The problem occurs when simple sugars are consumed in excess or replaced with artificial substitutes.
Practical guidance for families:
The most helpful things we can do to look after ourselves when we’re under the weather with a cold are:
Rest/sleep
When we sleep, our body and brain are busy clearing out free radicals. This is the body’s time to restore and repair itself.
Sleep is also crucial for our immunity. A study of 164 people showed that when given the rhinovirus, people who had had less sleep, were more likely to develop the symptoms of a clinical cold when compared to people who had a longer sleep duration (23).
Stay hydrated
Water has a purifying and lubricating effect on the body. Without it, our cells wouldn't function properly and our body wouldn't be able to flush out toxins.
The temperature of the water can also be key to our health. Drinking cold water has been shown to increase nasal congestion whereas drinking warm water loosens it (24).
Eat simple foods if hungry
Our body’s capacity to metabolise is weakened when we are unwell as it focuses on the infection. Burdening our body with complex, fancy meals or takeaways makes it difficult to process. Keep it simple with meals that are cooked and warm so that your body doesn’t need to work as hard to gain the nutrients it needs.
Maintain some sort of routine
The body thrives on rhythm and routine. We just have to think to a time when we travelled abroad to another time zone and experienced jet lag to appreciate this. Our sleep and digestion are often first to feel off-kilter. And as we know, these are both key factors to maintaing good health. Keeping a consistent bedtime and waking-up time can really support our overall wellbeing as we align with the circadian rhythm.
All of these habits are simple yet dependable and low-risk ways to support both child and adult immunity from a foundational level so that we can manage when those back-to-school bugs inevitably arrive. There’s no 100% defence against seasonal illnesses but we can do our best to bounce back better.
Key takeaway
Gummy “immunity” products marketed to children often deliver more sugar (or controversial sweeteners) than clinically meaningful benefit, and their routine use might counteract our health goals central in this back-to-school season. Prioritising sleep, hydration, simple meals, routine and mindful supplementation where needed, offers a safer and evidence-based approach for resilient child health through Autumn and Winter.
Resource: Here are all the different names of sugar you might notice when you read an ingredients list on an item of food or supplement:
References:
1. Merks et al. (2025) Gummy dietary supplements for children – helpful or harmful? Pediatria & Medycyna Rodzinna, 21(2)
2. Clement et al. (2021) Pleiotropic consenquences of metabolic stress for the major histocompatability complex calss II molecule antigen processing and presenting machinery. Immunity, 54(4)
3. Hu et al. (2019) Effect of high glucose on cytokine production by human peripheral blood immune cells and type I interferon signaling in monocytes: implications for the role of hyperglycaemia in the diabetes inflammatory process and host defense against infection. Clinical Immunology, 95
4. Pavlou et al. (2018) Sustained high glucose exposure sensitises macrophage response to cytokine stimuli bt reduces their phagocytic activity. BMC Immunology, 19
5. Fainsod-Levi et al. (2017) Hyperglycaemia impairs neutrophil mobilisation leading to metastatic seeding. Cell Reports, 21(9)
6. Corpe et al. (2013) Intestinal dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) transport mediated by the facilitative sugar transporters, GLUT2 and GLUT 8. The Journal of Biochemical Chemistry, 288
7. Malo and Wilson (2000) Glucose modulates vitamin C transport in adult human small intestinal brush border membrane vesicles. The Journal of Nutrition, 130
8. Vera et al. (1993) Mammalian facilitative hexose transporters mefiate the transport of dehydroascorbic acid. Nature, 364
9. Sun et al. (2014) New insights into insulin: the anti-inflammatory effect and its clinical relevance. World Journal of Diabetes, 5(2)
10. Do et al. (2018) High glucose or fructose diet cause changes of the gut microbiota and metabolic disorders in mice without body weight change. Nutrients, 10(6)
11. Sato et al. (2025)Long-term consumption of sucrose-sweetened drinks disrupts intestinal barrier function by impairing goblet cell differentiation. Cell and Tissue Research, 400
12. Gan et al. (2022) Intake of sugar substitute gummy candies benefit the glycaemic response in healthy adults: A prospective crossover clinical trial. Gels, 8(10)
13. Van de Abbeele, et al. (2023) Low-no-calorie sweeteners exerted marked compound-specific impact on human gut microbiota ez vivo. International Journal of Food Sciences & Nutrition 74(5)
14. Jiang et al. (2023) Erythritol aggravates gut inflammation and anxiety-like behavioural disorders. Bioscience, Biotechnology & Biochemistry, 87
15. Ruiz-Ojeda et al. (2019) Effects of sweeteners on the gut microbiota: A review of experiemental studies and clinical trials. Advances in Nutrition, 10
16. Rauber et al., 2019. Ultra-processed foods and excessive free sugar intake in the UK: a nationally representative cross-sectional study. BMJ Open, 9
17. Ye et al. (2016) Effect of high glucose on MUC5B expression in human airway epithelial cells. Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology, 10(1)
18. Nagai et al. (2012) High glucose increases the expression of proinfalmmatory cytokines and secretion of TNFaB-hexosaminidase in human mast cells. European Journal of Pharmacology, 687
19. Nishibori et al. (1986) Glucose modulates the release of histamine from the mouse hypothalamus in vitro. Journal of Neurochemistry, 47(6)
20. Yao et al. (2025) Dysregulated mast cell activation induced by diabetic milieu exacerbates the progression of diabetic peripheral neuropathy in mice. Nature Communications, 16
21. Kim et al. (2012) Histamine regulates mucin expression through H1 receptor in airway epithelial cells. Acta -Oto-Laryngolica, 132
22. Van Ende et al. (2019) Sugar sensing and signaling in candida albicans and candida glabrata. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10(99)
23. Prather et al. (2015) Behaviourally assessed sleep and susceptibility to the common cold. Sleep, 38(9)
24. Saketkhoo et al. (1978) Effects of drinking hot water, cold water and chicken soup of nasal mucus velocity and nasal airflow resistance. Chest, 74(4)