What Supplements Does a Nutritional Therapist Take Every Day?

My 4 Daily Essentials

One of the questions I'm often asked when I’m out with friends or meeting with clients is a simple one: "What supplements do you actually take yourself?"

The answer is usually more straightforward than people expect.

One thing that's noticeably changed since my nutrition journey began is that my supplement cupboard has become smaller, not bigger. Over the years, I have learned that consistency matters far more than focusing on the latest ‘superfood’ ingredient.

I don't believe anyone needs dozens of supplements, and I most definitely don't use them as a substitute for eating well. Food comes first, always. But life isn't perfect. Appetites change, travel disrupts routine, stress creeps in, and even as a nutritional therapist, I don't manage a flawlessly balanced diet every single day.

That's why four supplements always feature in my daily routine. Each one plays a different role, and together they give me a nutritional foundation I feel good about relying on for the long term.

The products I'm going to talk about here are simply the ones I choose to use myself. There are plenty of good supplements available, but these are the formulations I know well, trust and have chosen to make part of my own routine.

Why I Don't Take Lots of Supplements

When you visit a health food shop, the choice can be overwhelming. The shelves are lined with hundreds of products, each promising to enhance, balance or optimise something. It's easy to come away feeling like your health routine is inadequate unless you leave with something for every ailment imaginable.

My approach is different. Food remains the foundation of good nutrition, and no supplement will make up for a diet that's consistently low in vegetables, protein or variety. Supplements work best when they fill specific, well-defined roles rather than trying to cover every base at once.

The four products in my routine are my personal favourites because each addresses an area where my diet, lifestyle or biology genuinely benefits from extra support. Simple as that.

1. A Multi-Strain Live Culture Formula

Gut health sits at the centre of a lot of what I do professionally, and it's just as relevant in my own life. The gut microbiome, the trillions of bacteria living in our digestive tract, influences far more than digestion. Research links a healthy, diverse microbiome with immune function, metabolism, vitamin synthesis and communication between the gut and brain.¹

Some live bacterial strains have also been shown to help reduce the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea, while others may help ease symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), including bloating and abdominal pain.^2,3 The important point is that these effects are strain-specific. Different strains perform different functions, so choosing a product isn't simply about the highest CFU count or the greatest number of strains. It's about selecting one that's appropriate for your individual needs.

I travel reasonably often, and my diet isn't always as fibre-rich as I'd like during busy weeks. A daily live culture supplement helps support digestive regularity and maintain a balanced gut environment when my usual routine slips.

Around 70% of the body's immune cells are associated with the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), reinforcing the close relationship between gut health and immune function.⁴ For me, though, it's less about firefighting digestive issues and more about maintaining a stable baseline.

2. A Comprehensive Multivitamin

Even the most carefully planned diet has gaps. While I, like many, would love to fill my cupboards with organic food, it’s not always affordable or practical. There are also ongoing questions about whether some modern farming practices may have reduced the nutrient content of certain crops. What's more, few of us can eat with textbook precision every day.

On top of that, real life gets in the way. Travel days mean irregular meals. Busy weeks mean shortcuts. Appetite naturally dips during stress, illness or simply a change of season. Restrictive diets and individual nutrient requirements can also make it harder to consistently meet recommended intakes.

As we get older, our nutritional needs may change, and people who are highly active, follow vegetarian or vegan diets, or are intentionally eating less to lose weight, including those using GLP-1 medications, may need to pay closer attention to their nutrient intake.

For me, a broad-spectrum multivitamin acts as a safety net for those gaps, not to replace a healthy diet or provide unnecessarily high doses of single nutrients. I think of it as an insurance policy, there to support the days when my diet isn't quite as balanced as I'd like it to be.

3. Vitamin C

Vitamin C carries more responsibility in the body than most people realise. It is involved in numerous important reactions throughout the body. Alongside its role in collagen production, it's needed for synthesising carnitine (important for energy production), producing neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline, regenerating vitamin E after it's been oxidised, and improving the absorption of non-haem iron from plant foods.

Because vitamin C is water soluble, the body doesn't store it in any meaningful way, so a steady daily intake matters more than an occasional large dose.

I tend to favour vitamin C products that contain more than just ascorbic acid. In whole foods, vitamin C naturally exists alongside flavonoids and other polyphenols, and there is growing interest in whether these compounds work together to influence absorption, antioxidant activity and other biological effects. Although the evidence is still evolving, I generally prefer formulations that reflect this broader nutritional picture.

4. Vitamin D

Vitamin D is the one nutrient I recommend to all of my family and friends, and it's non-negotiable in my own routine.

Unlike most vitamins, we don't get much vitamin D from food. Oily fish and egg yolks contain some, but rarely enough to meet daily needs on their own. Our main source is meant to be sunlight on skin, and for a large part of the year, daylight in parts of Europe simply isn't strong enough to produce meaningful amounts, even on a bright day.

Vitamin D not only contributes to normal immune system function, but it also helps to support the maintenance of normal muscle function and normal bones. Given how much of the winter I spend without reliable sun exposure, supplementing isn't optional for me; it's essential.

There's also a growing body of research looking at vitamin D's relationship with mood and general well-being. Vitamin D receptors are found throughout the body, including in immune cells, skeletal muscle and regions of the brain involved in mood regulation. This has prompted researchers to investigate whether vitamin D status may influence health far beyond bone health.

Within this context, research has increasingly examined whether vitamin D status is associated with depression and other aspects of mental health. Observational studies often report that lower vitamin D levels are linked with more depressive symptoms, while intervention studies suggest that supplementation may offer modest improvements in some deficient individuals.⁴

At this point, you might be asking, “But what about magnesium and omega-3?” This is a good question, but the reason is simple: I don’t believe everyone needs the same supplements all the time.

I eat plenty of oily fish, walnuts and chia seeds (which feature often at breakfast), and my magnesium intake from food is generally good. Other supplements come and go depending on what I'm doing, my exercise routine, my travel schedule or my health goals, but these four are simply the ones that remain constant.

Will these be the right four supplements for everyone? Probably not. Nutrition is personal, and factors like age, diet, health conditions and medications all influence what someone may benefit from. What matters most is building habits you can maintain, choosing products with a clear purpose and recognising that supplements are there to complement a healthy diet, not replace it.

My routine will no doubt evolve as my health and circumstances change, but for now, these are the four supplements that remain part of my daily routine because they continue to fit my lifestyle and nutritional priorities.

Written by: Jacqueline Newson BSc (Hons) Nutritional Therapy

References

1. Sanders ME, Merenstein DJ, Reid G, Gibson GR, Rastall RA. Probiotics and prebiotics in intestinal health and disease: from biology to the clinic. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2019;16(10):605-616.
2. Szajewska H, Kołodziej M. Systematic review with meta-analysis: Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea in children and adults. Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. 2015;42(10):1149-1157.
3. Goodoory VC, Khasawneh M, Black CJ, Quigley EMM, Moayyedi P, Ford AC. Efficacy of Probiotics in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Gastroenterology. 2023;165(5):1206-1218.
4. AlGhamdi SA. Effectiveness of Vitamin D on Neurological and Mental Disorders. Diseases. 2024;12(6):131.