Whole-food patterns - vegetables, dals, millets, dairy or a B12 plan, nuts, seeds, fish or eggs, fruit in season - outperform isolated pills in almost every large trial for the diseases that actually kill. A supplement is a scalpel for a named gap, not a personality.
Vitamin D
Consider
Sun exposure is low (indoor work, covering clothing, northern winter), or 25-OH D is measured low, or a clinician is treating rickets/osteomalacia. Infants with limited sun: 400 IU as drops is standard guidance.
Skip
A 60,000 IU sachet every week because a friend does it. Already-sufficient adults mega-dosing through winter. Combining high D with high calcium without medical follow-up.
How
Test. Replete under advice. Maintain at DRI (600 IU, 800 IU if 70+) plus whatever sun you actually get. Take with a fat-containing meal.
Vitamin B12
Consider
Strict vegan or near-vegan with no fortified food. Adults over 50 with low stomach acid. Metformin or long-term PPIs. Documented low B12 or high MMA, or neuropathy being evaluated.
Skip
An omnivore with normal labs ‘for energy’. Sublingual sprays with theatrical pricing and no mcg on the label.
How
A cheap cyanocobalamin or methylcobalamin tablet in the 25-100 µg daily range (or as prescribed for deficiency, which is higher and sometimes injectable). Food still: dairy, eggs, fish, meat.
Iron
Consider
Confirmed iron-deficiency (ferritin/CBC) or a high-risk period already being managed: second/third-trimester pregnancy, heavy menses with documented anaemia, a 7-12-month infant who cannot hit 11 mg from food.
Skip
‘Just in case’ in a postmenopausal woman, a man, or anyone without labs. Iron in a person with high ferritin. Taking iron with chai, calcium, or thyroid tablets.
How
Only after the test. Then food plus the prescribed salt (often on an empty stomach or with vitamin C, away from tea). Recheck. Unexplained iron deficiency after menopause is a bleed until proven otherwise.
Folate / folic acid
Consider
Peri-conception: 400 µg folic acid daily, starting before pregnancy is visible, because the neural tube closes by week 4. Higher doses only if a clinician says so (prior NTD, some medications).
Skip
5 mg folic acid as a general tonic. Folate without knowing B12 when the smear is megaloblastic.
How
Tablet plus palak, methi, chana. The tablet is the peri-conception tool; the greens are the life-long one.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA)
Consider
Fish intake near zero, pregnancy/lactation (200-300 mg DHA), or a clinician treating high triglycerides with a real EPA/DHA dose. Vegetarian: algae DHA, not flax as a pretend equivalent.
Skip
A rancid 1000 mg ‘fish oil’ of unknown EPA/DHA. Flax oil capsules billed as brain food. Mega-omega-3 if you have a bleeding disorder or are on anticoagulants without advice.
How
Fatty fish twice a week is the default. Algae oil labelled with DHA milligrams if the kitchen has no fish.
High-dose vitamin E
Has not delivered the advertised heart or beauty benefit in large trials and can raise bleeding risk. Food (almonds, seeds, groundnut oil) is the form with a safety record.
Collagen powders
You already make collagen from amino acids plus vitamin C. The powder is a gelatin snack with better branding. If protein is low, eat dal, eggs, curd, fish - they come with leucine, which the powder often does not emphasise.
Random antioxidant blends
Isolated high-dose antioxidants have repeatedly failed to cut cancer or CVD in well-fed adults. Colourful plants work as a pattern. A red-green-blue pill is not a thali.
Biotin gummies
True biotin deficiency is rare. 5,000-10,000 µg doses interfere with TSH, troponin and vitamin D immunoassays - people have had missed heart attacks and wrong thyroid treatment. Food biotin is in eggs and dals.
Zinc lozenges for months
A short course in a cold is a maybe. Months of 40 mg+ induces copper deficiency, anaemia, and neuropathy. Food zinc does not.
Iron + calcium + tea at the same moment
They cancel. Iron away from tea and away from calcium tablets. This is an interaction, not a vibe.