I speak to I guess over 1000 people a year about their health and try to give some practical steps they can implement to maintain or to improve it. Usually I will ask about the supplements they are using and of course I get a variety of replies. A typical response among supplement users is that they have accumulated a cupboard full and at various times use some of them for often no particular reason.

Some of the more common stories I hear are people using glucosamine type products as a preventative for arthritis when there is no evidence at all to suggest any such benefit. Another is the continuous use of things like echinacea to prevent colds when again there is no evidence to suggest a preventative role. I see little point in using a medicinal product to solve what are often nutritional problems.

My foundational view on supplements is not to use anything that is ineffective and secondly not to use anything you don't actually need. My base supplementation is to take my own multi antioxidant/multi vitamin and multi mineral formula and good, stable Omega 3 fish oil every day. For most people, most of the time, this is all that is really needed. In saying that, I will often suggest a booster type of product for the first few months before settling to a maintenance programme.

You should not need to take small groups of vitamins and minerals. A well formulated multi should have all these at the right levels. My only concern with most multi nutritional products available in stores is that the marketing departments have insisted that the products be formulated as a 'one a day” supplement. Unfortunately this means that most products have insufficient amounts of the really important ingredients such as minerals and antioxidants that can take up a lot of capsule space. I do not believe it is possible to make an effective 'one a day” supplement that has the right amount of antioxidants and minerals. A well formulated multi should need 2-4 capsules daily to deliver the right amounts of beneficial nutrients.

John Arts is a natural health commentator, researcher and supplement formulator. If you have questions or would like a free health plan you can contact John on 0800 423559. You can join his newsletter at www.johnarts.co.nz.