Which supplements are actually necessary for my health?

Necessary is a word the public advice uses sparingly: the three supplements it names for a season and a life stage, the one that is necessary by diet, and why those four are the whole of the necessary list

Which supplements are actually necessary for my health is a question whose honest answer is shorter than any shelf would like, because necessary is a word the UK public health advice uses for very few supplements, and the shelf uses for all of them. The advice is written for the whole population by people who have read the surveys, and it names a supplement as necessary only where the food supply or the body cannot be relied on for a nutrient at a life stage or a season. There are three such supplements and a fourth that follows from a diet, and between them they are the whole of the necessary list; everything else is conditional on a reading, which the second section takes.

The first is vitamin D, which the advice recommends for everyone at ten micrograms a day through the autumn and winter, because from October to March the sun is too low in the UK sky for the skin to make it and the national survey finds a share of adults below the blood threshold through those months, and for some groups all year, those who are rarely outdoors, who cover their skin, or whose skin is darker and makes less from the same sun. It holds authorised claims for normal muscle function, the maintenance of normal bones and the normal function of the immune system, and it costs a few pence a day; it is the one supplement that is necessary for an adult with no test and no reading, and it is necessary for a season rather than for life.

The second is folic acid, which the advice recommends for anyone who could become pregnant and through the first part of pregnancy, at a standard daily dose, because the neural tube closes in the first weeks after conception, before most pregnancies are confirmed, and folate protects that closure; a higher dose is prescribed by a doctor for those with a higher risk. It is necessary for a life stage, and a pregnancy is a doctor or midwife's conversation for everything else on this page. The third is the vitamin drops for children from birth to four, which the UK scheme supplies free to eligible families and the advice recommends for all children in that age range, containing vitamins A, C and D, because small children eat variably and cannot make enough vitamin D from a UK sky; it is necessary for a life stage and it is the one supplement on this page for anyone under eighteen, with everything else for a child a parent's question to a doctor.

The fourth is necessary by diet rather than by the advice naming a stage: vitamin B12 for anyone eating no animal foods, because no plant food supplies it in a usable form, the body's store runs down over years without it, and the deficiency when it arrives is a nerve and blood problem that is harder to reverse than to prevent; a vegan takes B12 as a matter of course, and the advice for plant-based diets says so. Those four, vitamin D for a season, folic acid and vitamin drops for a life stage, and B12 for a diet, are the necessary supplements, and the list is complete.

The necessary list closed at four, with everything else made conditional on a test or a reading, the shelf's necessary products that are necessary for no one, the worked example on a plate reading and the verdict in the next section.

Everything else is necessary only on a reading: iron on a ferritin, omega-3 on the fish count, calcium on a dairy-free plate, magnesium on a plate short of its foods; the products necessary for no one; the worked example; and the verdict

Every other supplement is necessary only when a test or a reading finds the shortfall it corrects, and the reading is the step the shelf removes when it calls a product necessary. Iron is necessary on a ferritin from a doctor and never on a guess, because the body stores it rather than excreting it, the symptoms of too much and too little are the same tiredness, and a share of the population carries a condition that loads iron; a woman with heavy periods is the person most often found short, and the test is the only way to know. Omega-3 is necessary on a count of oily fish: a person eating two portions a week has the intake the claims were assessed at, and a person eating none has a shortfall a supplement at a gram or so a day corrects, with the claims for heart function and triglycerides and nothing beyond them. Calcium is necessary on a plate without dairy, read against the reference intake, with the fortified plant milks counted and a supplement for the remainder, below the upper level. Magnesium is necessary on a plate read for the foods that carry it, nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and green vegetables, with the survey finding a share of adults and especially young men and women below the reference intake and most older adults at it. Iodine is necessary on a plate without dairy and fish; zinc on a plate without meat and shellfish; each is read, and the reading takes a few days of honest counting and costs nothing.

The shelf's necessary products are necessary for no one, which is said plainly because the word is doing the selling. The multivitamin is named by the advice for no life stage, the large trials find no outcome benefit in general populations, and it gives a person with a full plate twenty things they did not need while giving a person with a shortfall the wrong dose of the one they did. The greens powder, the immune blend, the general wellness complex and the detox product are named by no advice, correct no measured shortfall, hold no authorised claim as blends and are necessary in the only sense the shelf means, which is to the shelf. A person who takes a multivitamin because it feels prudent has spent on prudence what would have bought a vitamin D for the winter, a ferritin from a doctor and a few days of counting, which between them would have told them what was actually necessary.

The worked example is placed on a plate reading and not on the word: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV, two capsules with the evening meal, is necessary for the person whose few days of counting found a plate short of nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and greens, which the survey says is a share of adults, and is necessary for no one whose plate is full of them; it holds authorised claims for normal muscle function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, is batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, and is spaced from certain medicines on a pharmacist's advice for anyone taking one. The full label breakdown is here. A person who is pregnant or breastfeeding takes nothing on this page beyond the folic acid and vitamin D the advice names without a doctor or midwife; a person on a prescription medicine asks a pharmacist; a person with a kidney or liver condition asks a doctor; and a child's supplements beyond the drops are a parent's question to a doctor.

The verdict: the supplements that are actually necessary are the ones the public advice names, vitamin D for everyone through the autumn and winter, folic acid for anyone who could become pregnant and through early pregnancy, vitamin drops for children to four, and vitamin B12 for anyone eating no animal foods. Everything else is necessary on a reading, iron on a ferritin, omega-3 on the fish count, calcium and iodine on a dairy-free plate, magnesium on a plate short of its foods, and the multivitamin, the greens and the immune blend are necessary for no one. The list is short because the word is strict, and the shelf uses it loosely.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

Which supplements does everyone actually need?

Only the ones the UK public health advice names for a season or a life stage: vitamin D at ten micrograms a day for everyone through the autumn and winter, when the sun is too low for the skin to make it, and all year for people rarely outdoors or with darker skin; folic acid for anyone who could become pregnant and through early pregnancy; vitamin drops for children from birth to four; and, by diet rather than by stage, vitamin B12 for anyone eating no animal foods; every other supplement is necessary only when a blood test or a plate reading finds the shortfall it corrects, and the multivitamin is named for no one.

Do I need a multivitamin for my health?

No, by the advice and by the trials: the public health advice names a multivitamin for no life stage, the large trials in general populations find no benefit on the outcomes that matter, and a multivitamin gives a person with a full plate twenty things they did not need while giving a person with a shortfall a dose of the one thing they did need that is rarely the right one; the same money buys a vitamin D for the winter, a ferritin from a doctor and a few days of counting the plate, which between them find what is actually necessary and correct it at the right dose.

How do I know which vitamins I am deficient in?

By a reading and, for some, a test: a few days of honest counting of the plate against the reference intakes shows whether oily fish, dairy, meat and shellfish, and the nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and greens that carry magnesium are present, which settles omega-3, calcium, iodine, zinc and magnesium; a blood test from a doctor settles iron, which is never guessed because the body stores it, vitamin D in anyone unsure through the winter, and B12 in anyone on a plant-based diet with symptoms; the symptoms the shelf lists, tiredness, poor sleep and low mood, belong to a dozen causes and name no nutrient.

Are supplements necessary if I eat a healthy diet?

Vitamin D still is, through the autumn and winter, because no diet supplies enough and the UK sun from October to March cannot make it in the skin, which is why the advice names it for everyone regardless of plate; folic acid still is for anyone who could become pregnant, because the neural tube closes before most pregnancies are confirmed; B12 still is on a diet with no animal foods, however healthy; and beyond those a healthy plate read honestly for its fish, dairy, meat and magnesium foods usually finds nothing else short, which is the point of reading it rather than buying on the word necessary.

Is this site's magnesium necessary for my health?

Only on a plate reading: the national survey finds a share of adults, and especially young men and women, below the reference intake for magnesium from a plate short of nuts, seeds, pulses, whole grains and green vegetables, and a person whose few days of counting finds that shortfall corrects it with 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate as 300mg elemental at 80% NRV in two capsules with the evening meal, batch tested for four metals, UK made under GMP and BRC, at 22p a day; a person whose plate is full of those foods needs nothing from the tub, which the page says rather than calling the product necessary, and a person on a medicine asks a pharmacist about spacing.

Sources

1. The GB claims register, vitamin D entries: vitamin D contributes to normal bones, teeth, muscle function, immune function and calcium absorption, with UK guidance suggesting 10 micrograms daily in autumn and winter. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/great-britain-nutrition-and-health-claims-nhc-register
2. The UK public health advice on folic acid: 400 micrograms a day from before conception until the twelfth week of pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects, with a higher prescribed dose for women at increased risk, and a pregnancy multivitamin should not contain vitamin A as retinol. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/folic-acid-updated-government-advice
3. The UK government's Healthy Start scheme, which supplies free daily vitamin drops for children from birth to four years and vitamin tablets for pregnant and breastfeeding women to eligible families, the clearest statement of which supplements the public health advice treats as necessary for a life stage rather than optional. https://www.gov.uk/healthy-start
4. The deficiency and cognition literature: vitamin B12 and iron deficiency are established, testable causes of fatigue and cognitive symptoms, identified by routine GP blood tests and corrected by treating the deficiency. PubMed record

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