What are the top 10 supplements everyone should take in the UK?

Everyone is four people at least: the honest list for a young vegan woman, a lifting man in his forties, a woman in her seventies and a pregnant woman, each written from the survey and the public health advice

What are the top 10 supplements everyone should take in the UK is a question whose middle word does not survive contact with the people it describes, because a list for everyone has to be on the list of every person at once, and the honest way to test it is to write the lists of four readers who could hardly be more different and see where they overlap. The first reader is a vegan woman in her twenties. Her list, from the national diet survey and the removal test, is vitamin D through the winter like everyone, vitamin B12 always, since it comes only from animal foods and fortified products and a long deficiency damages nerves irreversibly, iodine unless fortified foods supply it, since the UK has no salt iodisation and dairy, fish and eggs are its sources, omega-3 as an algal oil for the adequate intake that oily fish would otherwise meet, iron by a ferritin test while she has periods, and folic acid at 400 micrograms if she could become pregnant. The second reader is a man in his forties who lifts. His list is vitamin D through the winter, creatine monohydrate as the one want with an authorised claim and a long mark on the lean-mass ruler, protein as powder only if his food falls below 1.6 grams per kilogram, and magnesium if his plate is short of the greens, nuts, seeds and whole grains that carry it, which the survey says is likely; iron is off his list by default, B12 and iodine are supplied by his diet, and folic acid does not apply. The third reader is a woman in her seventies. Her list is vitamin D through the winter and the rest of the year for bone, calcium from food with a supplement only where the diet cannot supply it, resistance training as the bone intervention that is not a supplement at all, B12 by a blood test since absorption falls with age and with common medicines, and protein per meal at the higher dose an older muscle needs; iron is off her list since the loss stopped at the menopause, and the men's and the vegan's lines do not apply. The fourth reader is a woman who is pregnant. Her list is written with a midwife and not with this page: folic acid to the twelfth week and vitamin D throughout by public health advice, no vitamin A as retinol, no herbal shelf, and iron, iodine and anything else on her own blood results.

Four honest lists, each short and each different, and laid over one another they intersect in one place, which the next section names, and diverge everywhere else, which is what the word everyone was concealing.

The one intersection, the nine entries that belong to someone in particular, the shelf's favourites that are on nobody's list, the worked example, and the verdict

Laid over one another, the four lists overlap in exactly one place: vitamin D through the UK winter, because skin synthesis stops at UK latitudes between about October and March for the vegan, the lifter, the older woman and the pregnant woman alike, the survey finds a large share of adults low through those months, and the public health advice is a daily supplement at a stated dose for all of them. That is the whole of the list everyone should take, and it is one item. The other nine places in a top ten are entries that belong to someone in particular and that the word everyone was inventing a reason to sell to the rest. B12 and iodine belong to the vegan, since the others' diets supply them. Creatine belongs to the lifter, as a want rather than a need, and would do nothing for the older woman that resistance training does not do better, though it has trials in older adults alongside it. Iron belongs to the young woman by a ferritin test and is off the older woman's list and off both men's, with a gene that makes extra iron harmful in a meaningful minority of northern Europeans. Folic acid belongs to the pregnant woman and to the young woman who could become pregnant, by public health advice at 400 micrograms, and to nobody else. Calcium from food and resistance training belong to the older woman's bone. Magnesium belongs to whichever plate the survey finds short, which is more often the lifter's than the older woman's, at a dose the reference sets for adults of either sex. Protein powder belongs to the lifter below 1.6 grams per kilogram and to the older woman whose meals cannot carry 30 to 40 grams each, and to nobody eating enough. Omega-3 belongs to whoever eats no oily fish, as fish oil or algal oil. The shelf's favourites appear on none of the four lists by evidence: the multivitamin supplies the water-soluble vitamins to people the survey does not find short of them and carries the two minerals it does find short at token doses; the probiotic has strain-specific trials in specific conditions and no claim for a healthy gut; the omega-3 for everyone is for the fish-avoiders only; and the greens powder closes no line on anyone's list.

The worked example is on the list of whichever reader's plate the survey finds short, and that is the honest extent of it: {FL}, 1500mg magnesium bisglycinate stated as 300mg elemental at 80% of the 375mg reference intake set for adults of either sex, two capsules with the evening meal, carrying the authorised claims for normal muscle function, normal psychological function, normal nervous system function and the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, batch tested for lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium with the certificate on request, UK made under GMP and BRC, 180 capsules for £19.99 at 22p a day, on the lifter's list by the survey, on the others' only if their plates say so, and in pregnancy only with a midwife's agreement. The verdict on the top 10 supplements everyone should take in the UK is that everyone is a word that fails as soon as four real people are written down: their lists intersect at vitamin D in winter and nowhere else, the other nine entries belong to the vegan, the lifter, the young woman, the pregnant woman or the older woman and not to the others, and the shelf's favourites belong to nobody, so that the top ten everyone should take is a top one with nine footnotes addressed to someone in particular.

What to check on the label

Questions people also ask

What is the one supplement everyone in the UK should take?

Vitamin D through the winter, which is the only entry that survives four very different readers at once: skin synthesis stops at UK latitudes between about October and March for a young vegan woman, a lifting man in his forties, a woman in her seventies and a pregnant woman alike, the national survey finds a large share of adults low through those months, and the public health advice is a daily supplement at a stated dose for all of them; every other entry on a top ten belongs to one of those readers and not to the others, which is why the honest top ten for everyone is a top one.

Should everyone take a multivitamin?

It appears on none of the four readers' lists by evidence: it supplies the water-soluble vitamins at full dose to people the survey does not find short of them on a varied diet, carries the two minerals the survey does find young men short of, magnesium and calcium, at token doses because a tablet cannot hold a useful amount, often carries iron a man or an older woman should not take, and is a wrong-shaped product for a pregnant woman unless formulated without retinol; the one useful line it may carry, vitamin D at a winter dose, a separate vitamin D supplies for pennies.

Should everyone take omega-3?

Only the people whose diets have no oily fish: the adequate intake of 250mg of combined EPA and DHA a day is met by two portions of oily fish a week and by almost nothing else in a UK diet, so the vegan takes it as an algal oil, the fish-avoider as a fish oil read per capsule for its EPA and DHA and bought for its authorised heart claim, and the reader who eats mackerel, salmon or sardines twice a week does not take it at all; omega-3 for everyone is a shelf's phrase rather than a survey's finding.

Do men need the same supplements as women?

The doses are the same per kilogram and per reference value, and the lists differ by stage rather than by sex: iron is on a young woman's list by a ferritin test while she has periods and off a man's by default, with a gene that makes extra iron harmful in a meaningful minority of northern Europeans; folic acid is on the list of a woman who could become pregnant and on no man's; creatine is on the lifter's list whichever sex lifts; and vitamin D in winter, magnesium for a short plate and the diet-dependent B12, iodine and omega-3 lines apply to anyone whose diet or season calls for them.

How do I work out which supplements I personally should take?

Write your own list the way the four readers' lists were written: from the national diet survey's measured shortfalls, vitamin D in winter for everyone and magnesium, iron, iodine and omega-3 by plate and diet; from your blood tests, ferritin for iron and serum B12 where absorption or diet puts it in doubt; from the public health advice for your stage, folic acid if you could become pregnant and nothing herbal if you are; and from your training, creatine as a want and protein for a measured shortfall; a list written that way is short, is yours, and contains none of the ten the shelf wrote for everyone.

Sources

1. The UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey: a substantial minority of women of reproductive age have low iron stores and intakes below the reference, a large share of adults have low vitamin D status in winter, iodine intakes are low in young women, and magnesium intakes fall below the reference in many adults, with B12 deficiency concentrated in older adults, vegans and those on metformin or acid suppressants. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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

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