We sat down with a registered nutrition advisor to talk through how she approaches a daily supplement routine - not as a prescription, but as part of a broader conversation about food, lifestyle and filling in the gaps that real life leaves in an otherwise balanced diet.
"Start with the gaps, not the supplements"
Her first point was blunt: most people approach the supplement question backwards. They look at a product and ask whether it's good, when the more useful starting point is asking what their diet reliably provides and what it doesn't. "Someone who eats oily fish three times a week, plenty of meat and a lot of dairy is in a different position to someone who eats mostly plant-based or whose diet is fairly repetitive," she said. "The answer is never one size."
For B vitamins specifically, she noted that B12 is the one most commonly flagged in dietary assessments - it occurs almost exclusively in animal products. B6 and niacin are present across a broader range of foods, including wholegrains and pulses, but absorption can vary. Pantothenic acid (B5) is widely distributed but can still fall short in diets centred heavily on processed food.
"Someone who eats oily fish three times a week is in a different position to someone eating mostly plant-based. The answer is never one size."
Trace minerals: the overlooked category
Selenium and iodine came up as nutrients that often fly under the radar in UK dietary assessments. Selenium in UK soil has declined markedly over the past few decades - a consequence of shifting away from high-selenium North American wheat imports - which means the selenium content of UK-grown foods is lower than it once was. Iodine, meanwhile, relies heavily on dairy and white fish intake; those who avoid or reduce these groups can find their intake genuinely low.
Green tea: more context than claim
When asked about botanical extracts like green tea, she was measured. "There's a lot of marketing around green tea, which makes people either over-rely on it or dismiss it entirely. What I'd say is that it's a well-established part of dietary traditions in many cultures and it pairs well with the kind of daily routine we're describing - not because it does something dramatic, but because it's benign and familiar." She drew a firm line at making any health claims for the extract itself. "The B vitamins and minerals have authorised claims attached to them. The botanical is there as a complementary addition. That's the honest framing."
On simplicity and compliance
The conversation kept returning to the question of what people will actually do consistently. A single capsule taken once a day at a predictable time has one significant advantage over more complex protocols: it's easy to do and easy to remember. "The most sophisticated supplement in the world doesn't work if it stays in the cupboard," she observed. For most people, she argued, a modest, consistent daily routine outperforms an ambitious but irregular one every time.