WORDS CHARLOTTE HAIGH
The number one question for most people when it comes to supplements is: do I need to take any at all? Generally, says dietician Helen Bond, the answer is ‘no’. ‘You don’t need vitamin and mineral supplements if you’re an average person with no particular needs and you have a great nutritionally balanced diet that includes each of the five food groups and lots of variety. Unfortunately, though, very few of us have that kind of diet. Only a third of us are managing to eat five portions of fruit and vegetables daily – and that’s the minimum we should be having. We’re not getting anywhere near enough fibre, few of us eat enough oily fish and over 50 per cent of the food we eat falls into the ultra-processed category, meaning it contains too much salt and sugar and not enough nutrients. In the UK, there are problems with deficiency in lots of nutrients, including zinc, iron, magnesium, selenium, iodine and vitamin D.’