SUPPLEMENTAL INFO

We spend an average of £200 a year on supplements, but which ones will actually improve your health and fitness?

- Harry Bullmore asks a clinical dietitian and a nutritionist

Supplement adverts are everywhere – multivitamins, collagen, sleep aids, green powders and more. Many are discussed as if they’re essential for better health, yet their name suggests otherwise: they are designed to supplement any shortcomings you have in various vitamins, minerals and other dietary compounds, courtesy of your diet, lifestyle and genetics.

In which case, surely social media’s massive “supplement stacks” - great piles of pills gobbled down each morning or night - are overkill for many of the recreational exercisers taking them? Perhaps the gaps they are trying to fill could be better met with food.

To test my hypothesis, I asked some nutrition experts which supplements are actually worth your while, which ones to avoid, and how to find products that are genuinely beneficial.

The supplement dilemma

Supplements are sold as a way to help you feel better. To do this, they are designed to fill in nutritional gaps and supply your body with the resources it needs to function at its best.

However, most supplements will only be effective if you are low or deficient in the nutrient they are providing, clinical dietitian and University of Lancashire lecturer Vassiliki Sinopoulou tells me. The placebo effect often does some heavy lifting too, she adds. Signs you are low or deficient in a certain nutrient include tiredness, low mood and headaches. However, these are also common consequences of a typical 21st-century routine of low sleep, high stress and poor diet quality.