Vitamin storage

Check your vitamins for spotting or moisture; keep them in a dark, cooler, drier place than your bathroom.

Move it or lose it: Keeping your vitamins in the bathroom cabinet could render them useless.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—If you store your vitamins or supplements in a bathroom cabinet or kitchen cupboard, it's time to find another spot. That’s because temperature and humidity changes in those rooms may be degrading their potency and effectiveness, according to a new study.

THE DETAILS: Finding the right place for vitamin storage is more than a matter of convenience or space. Crystalline-type substances such as vitamin C, some types of vitamin B, and other dietary supplements are susceptible to a process called deliquescence (deh-lee-KWEH-cents). Which is when humidity causes a water-soluble solid to dissolve. As shown in new research, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, deliquescence can happen when you open and close the bottle cap on your favorite vitamin over weeks and months.

Each time that bottle is opened, humidity and temperature fluctuate inside the container, which eventually degrades the vitamin. “The humidity in your kitchen and bathroom can get quite high,” says Purdue University food science professor Lisa Mauer, PhD, a coauthor of the study. “Depending on how long your shower lasts, for example, bathroom humidity can reach 98 percent.”

Read on to see three easy tips to keep your vitamins from losing their potency.