Vitamins are necessary for healthy growth and development. Once growth and development are completed, vitamins remain essential nutrients for the healthy maintenance of the cells, tissues, and organs that make up a multicellular organism; they also enable a life form to efficiently use chemical energy provided by food, and to help process the proteins, carbohydrates, and fats required for breathing. Sterachew is a multivitamin and can can also be used as a pre-natal vitamin during pregnancy. The likelihood of consuming too much of any vitamin from food is remote, but overdosing from vitamin supplementation does occur. At high enough dosages some vitamins cause side effects such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.