The cupboard already has a tub. The internet would like you to add fish oil, magnesium, and something for "women over 40". We have stood in that aisle.
The honest question is whether those are different jobs, or the same job sold three times.
The short answer
- In Europe a food supplement is a food, sold as a scoop, a capsule or a measured drop, meant to sit beside dinner. It is not a medicine.
- Amounts on two packs add. Two products at 80% NRV of the same vitamin are 160% if you take both.
- Omega-3, iron and a broad multinutrient are different jobs. Two broad multinutrients are usually the same job twice.
- We do not sell omega-3 or iron. If those are what you came for, look elsewhere rather than stacking us on top.
These are foods, with a scoop
Europe has a rule for this. We looked it up because the aisle makes it sound more complicated than it is. A food supplement is food, in a dose you can count, whose job is to add something to what you already eat.
That gives you three things, and they are more useful than the marketing.
They are foods. They can carry the health claims Europe has actually signed off, in those exact words. They cannot be sold as a medicine.
They sit beside dinner. The job is in the name: they supplement. A pack that talks as if dinner were optional is arguing with itself.
The dose is the product. A powder you scoop, a capsule you swallow, a liquid you measure. The daily amount on the label is the number that matters.
In Ireland the FSAI oversees this. Same rule as the rest of the EU.
Why two bottles can be too much of the same thing
The percentage on a pack is for that pack's daily dose. It has no idea about the other bottle in the cupboard.
If a multinutrient already gives you 100% NRV of B12, a second "energy" capsule with more B12 is not a second benefit. It is more B12. Some nutrients have a ceiling EFSA is willing to call tolerable. Others are simply wasted. Either way, you cannot see the total unless you add the labels yourself.
Magnesium is the frequent double. It turns up in multinutrients at a modest amount, and again as a standalone evening product. That can be on purpose: our own magnesium is a complement, and we have already said a product that is only magnesium makes more sense if you want a full dose. It can also be an accident. Two modest amounts become one large one, and nobody is holding the sum.
Omega-3, iron, and a second multinutrient
People search for a multinutrient plus omega-3 plus magnesium as if that were a standard set.
Omega-3 is a fat from fish or algae. It is not in our formula. If you want it, that is a different shop, and putting a multinutrient on top does not create it.
Iron is a mineral with a narrow margin. We do not include it. A second product that does, taken because a multinutrient "felt incomplete", may be the right call and may be the wrong one. That is a GP conversation, not a bundle.
A second multinutrient is the one we would talk you out of. The nutrients overlap. The % NRV adds. You pay twice for the same B vitamins.
The honest basket, for most households, is one broad product that matches the age on the pack, plus a specific second product only if you can name the job it does. "It was on offer" is not a job.
We would rather you bought less
We sell one daily powder in three strengths. Of course we would like it to be the one in the cupboard.
The truthful limit is also obvious. We are not a complete nutrition strategy. We have no omega-3, no iron, no calcium. A person who needs those still needs those. Using us as a reason to skip them, or stacking us with two other multinutrients "to be sure", are both mistakes we would rather not be paid for.
If this page empties someone's cupboard a bit, that is the point of it.
Empty the cupboard onto the table
- Put every bottle out. Add the daily amounts for each repeated nutrient.
- Drop any second multinutrient that duplicates the first.
- Keep a standalone only if you can say, in one sentence, which nutrient it is for.
- Read the age line. A children's formula and an adult formula on the same person is the same duplication with worse arithmetic.
- If you cannot name the job, you do not need the bottle.
Sources
- Directive 2002/46/EC on food supplements
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex XIII (NRVs)
- FSAI, food supplements
- EFSA, tolerable upper intake levels
- EU Register of nutrition and health claims
Written by Lina and Stanislava, founders of MyDailyPocket. This is here to be useful, not to replace your GP. No supplement is a substitute for a varied, balanced diet. Stay within the dose on the pack.
