Wiki says don't take pills for electrolytes, but then says to take some pills for electrolytes??

Generally folks in this group say drink your electrolytes cuz pills will burn your belly, but everyone also seems to take magnesium and multivitamins in pill form. Just wondering why some I pills are cool with a fasting gut and some aren't. I have to take pills for thyroid stuff so I figured I couldn't avoid that, but should I keep taking the multivitamins and magnesium too?

Answer

Because magnesium capsules and multivitamins are formulated to be safe for your stomach lining. Just putting a bunch of salt into an empty gel capsule and swallowing it is not safe for your stomach lining. It would be like reaching down in there and just pouring a spoonful of salt directly onto your stomach lining.

(Incidentally, some multivitamins can irritate an empty stomach too, though they won’t actually burn holes in your stomach lining like a capsule of salt will. I tried taking a multivitamin with iron while fasting, and immediately puked it back up.)