We Audited A Typical Supplement Shelf. Most Of It Can Go.

We asked eleven readers to photograph their supplement cupboards. The average contained fifteen products and represented about £780 a year.

We took the aggregate list to a dietitian and a pharmacologist and asked a simple question of each item: what is the evidence that this does anything for a generally healthy woman?

The four that earned their place

Vitamin D. Deficiency is genuinely widespread at northern latitudes in winter. 10 micrograms daily from October to March is standard public health advice in the UK.

Creatine monohydrate. The most studied sports supplement there is, with consistent effects on strength and power, and emerging work on cognition in women. 3 to 5g daily. It does not require loading.

Omega-3. Worth it if you eat oily fish less than twice a week.

Iron — only with a known low ferritin, and ideally alternate-day.

The ones with a case, conditionally

Magnesium glycinate for sleep and cramps has modest evidence and a benign profile. Inositol has reasonable support in PCOS. Folic acid is essential preconception and in early pregnancy, and is a genuine public health intervention rather than a wellness product.

Protein powder is food, not a supplement, and is a perfectly rational way to hit a protein target.

“No one has to prove efficacy before sale. Independent testing regularly finds products at a fraction of their stated dose.”Ines Vogel, PharmD

The ones the evidence does not support

Multivitamins in people eating a varied diet. Collagen for skin — the peptides are digested into amino acids like any other protein, and the trials are small, short and largely industry-funded. Detox and greens powders, which mostly deliver an expensive fraction of one portion of vegetables.

Apple cider vinegar capsules, biotin at high dose (which interferes with thyroid and troponin assays, a genuine clinical problem), and most 'hormone balancing' blends, which are not standardised and occasionally contain undeclared actives.

The regulation gap

“In most jurisdictions supplements are regulated as food,” says Ines Vogel, PharmD. “No one has to prove efficacy before sale. Independent testing regularly finds products at a fraction of their stated dose, and occasionally at several times it.”

Look for third-party certification — Informed Sport, NSF Certified for Sport, or a published certificate of analysis by batch.

What to do with the rest

Check for interactions before anything else: St John's wort reduces the effectiveness of hormonal contraception, high-dose vitamin E and fish oil affect bleeding risk, and several 'natural' products interact with thyroid medication.

Then apply the audit question. If you cannot name what a supplement is for, what would change if it worked, and how you would know — it is a candidate for the bin.