UK madeIndependently testedFully disclosed dosesHalal certified

Home / Everyday

Everyday health

Most of your diet is fine. These are the gaps.

A reasonable diet covers most of what you need. These are the handful it usually does not, what covers them, and what to be sceptical of on the way.

01

What a UK diet usually misses

The gaps

Not everything. Four or five things, reliably.

A reasonable diet covers most of what you need. The ones it tends not to are vitamin D between October and March, magnesium, iodine if you avoid dairy and fish, and B12 if you eat little meat. That is the list a daily multivitamin should be built around — and most are not.

AmountNutrientWhy
25 µgVitamin D3Contributes to normal immune function and the maintenance of normal bones.
200 mgMagnesiumContributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
150 µgIodineContributes to normal thyroid function and normal cognitive function.
100 µgVitamin B12Contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.

What to avoid

Multivitamins with forty ingredients. Most are present at amounts too small to do anything, and they are there to lengthen the label.

Worth knowing

The NHS suggests everyone in the UK considers a vitamin D supplement from October to March. That one is not brand advice, it is government advice.

02

The evening one

Sleep & tension

Magnesium, on its own, at a dose that does something.

Most multivitamins include a token amount of magnesium so it can appear on the label. Three hundred milligrams of bisglycinate is a different proposition — and bisglycinate rather than oxide is the difference between absorbing it and not.

AmountNutrientWhy
300 mgMagnesium bisglycinateContributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, to normal muscle function and to normal psychological function.

What to avoid

Magnesium oxide. It is the cheapest form, the least well absorbed, and the reason people think magnesium disagrees with them.

Worth knowing

Take it in the evening. There is no authorised claim for magnesium and sleep, so we are not making one — but the psychological function and fatigue claims are real and authorised.

03

The honest version

Live cultures

We cannot tell you what this does. We can tell you exactly what is in it.

There is no authorised health claim for live cultures in the UK, which means every brand claiming 'gut health' on a label is on the wrong side of the rules. What we can do instead is name all three strains in full, and guarantee the count to the end of shelf life rather than at manufacture.

AmountNutrientWhy
10 bnLactobacillus rhamnosus GGStrain named in full. The strain is the part the research is done on.
10 bnBifidobacterium lactis BB-12Selected for surviving stomach acid and bile.
5 bnLactobacillus acidophilus NCFMCharacterised since the 1970s.
2 gInulinChicory root fibre, as the food source for the above.

What to avoid

Any product that gives you a species but not a strain, or a CFU count 'at time of manufacture'. Both are ways of saying less than they appear to.

Worth knowing

If you are immunocompromised or seriously unwell, speak to your GP before taking live cultures.

04

On a twelve-week timescale

Skin & hair

Twelve weeks, because that is how long the trials ran.

The collagen studies that reported a measurable change ran eight to twelve weeks before anyone measured anything. So that is what we ask for. There is no authorised health claim for collagen in the UK — the claims on that product are for the vitamin C and zinc alongside it.

AmountNutrientWhy
10 gMarine collagen peptidesA protein source. No authorised claim exists for collagen itself and we are not inventing one.
80 mgVitamin CContributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin.
10 mgZincContributes to the maintenance of normal hair, skin and nails.

What to avoid

Anything promising visible results in weeks. If the research took three months, the product cannot take three weeks.

Worth knowing

This is the one product in the range that is not vegan — it is marine collagen, and it contains fish.

The short version

Start with one thing and give it a month.

Vitamin D first

If you take nothing else, take this from October to March. It is the one the government actually recommends.

One at a time

Add one product, give it a month, then decide. Four at once and you will never know what did what.

Food first

None of this replaces eating properly. It covers what eating properly in the UK still tends to miss.

Other guides

NurturePerformanceHealthy ageing

Shop the everyday range