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Do supplements work? I pulled apart an £1,800 stack · No Forking Nonsense - The Nutritionist UK

• 0:00
  @paulthenutritionist: Hello and welcome to No Forking Nonsense, the second most listened to nutrition podcast in The United Kingdom. And we've got one goal to answer your nutrition questions with no nonsense. To send your question in email podcastthenutritionistuk dot com. Give me your name, what your problem is, what your question is, a little bit about yourself and we'll get your questions answered. Let's get stuck in to today's question.
• 0:24
  Hi Paul, I've got a cupboard full of supplements, green powders, fat burner, BTAAs, testosterone booster, magnesium, ashwagandha, the lot. It's costing me about £150 a month and I take them religiously, but honestly I've no idea if any of them actually do anything or if I'm just flushing money down the toilet. Which ones are worth it and which ones are a con? Okay, that's from Will. I love this question because the honest answer is going to give, well it's going make you a lot richer, that's for sure.
• 0:57
  And that cupboard that you've described, well, I could have probably written it blindfolded because it is very similar to many men who are in their thirties and they've been probably sucked into the 2000s, 2010s supplement. Absolute scam. So I guarantee there's loads of people who are kind of like to have similar stories to this. The greens powder one, I mean it's probably AG1 that you've seen most podcasts and influencers swear by, the fat burner, pre workout, those little tubs and pills that promise energy, focus, gains, better sleep, all of it. If I am honest, like Will, you have probably got no real idea if any of them are actually doing anything.
• 1:48
  The thing to say is that obviously the supplement to some industry is worth billions and it is built entirely on really good marketing and the fear of missing out. So today what we are going to do is we are going to go through the small handful that are actually backed by real evidence and the ones that are a complete waste of money and time and the truth about where your £150 in Will's case could be better spent. The first place to start is that the word supplement is our biggest clue here. So supplement, we think of the dictionary definition for that, is about by definition something to fill a small gap. They're not replacements, they're not the main thing, it's a small gap around an already good diet and lifestyle, it's the cherry on top and I've done talks before where the top of my pyramid is supplements and it's like the top 2%.
• 2:51
  But the marketing has kind of flipped that completely so people are eating shit, they're going out drinking and smoking but then they are spending a fortune to get a 1% edge using lion's mane, mushrooms and some neurotropic. Rule one before we spend a penny is that no supplement on earth outperforms getting actual food, sleep and training, movement, none of it. If the foundations aren't there, the tubs are a completely waste of time, they're just kind of decoration. With that said, let's go through Will's cupboard. The ones that are actually worth your money, there is a short list of supplements, are generally strong evidence behind them, short is a keyword.
• 3:39
  We've done a supplement podcast before, so this is a bit of a refresh, creatine. But Creatine is the most researched supplement in existence, hundreds of studies, and it, you know, generally works. It helps strength, it helps power, it helps muscle, and there's growing evidence that it may help with cognition and brain health too. It's really cheap, it's safe, and plain creatine monohydrate is all you need. You don't need expensive versions, so if oil keeps one thing, have creatine.
• 4:07
  Vitamin D. This isn't a performance supplement. In The UK we barely see that, well I say that, it's been fucking boiling for the past what feels like two years, so I'm not taking vitamin D at the moment, but mostly, most of the year, we barely see the sun, right, for a large chunk of the year and that goes for most of population because it's genuinely low and the official advice is that most of us should consider supplementing through autumn and winter, and this one's kind of worth it for everyone listening. Now I like to have between 3,004 international units, might be a bit more, might be a bit less depending on your weight, depending on various different components. Protein powder, now this is genuinely useful and I always kind of toy whether it's supplement is convenient, it's basically just milk but it's a cheap way to heat your protein.
• 5:03
  You can throw it in smoothies, can drink it, you can put it in food, you can cook with it. It is more of a tool than a supplement in my opinion. Caffeine, a real proven performance booster whilst you're training as long as you're training before 2PM, but a coffee does the job so pre workout is a waste of money and if you're not too caffeine sensitive, caffeine is pointless and I could go on a big tangent here. I do a lot of work with sports teams and there are still athletes who could be playing their sport at the highest level, who are taking a lot of caffeine supplements despite probably having enough adrenaline to get them through the first half. And still they're consuming a lot of caffeine because they think it will give them the edge but they're not consuming enough carbohydrate, they're not consuming enough electrolytes, it's kind of like pointless.
• 5:55
  Again, if you're someone who drinks a lot of caffeine, having more caffeine before a sports event or before training probably isn't going to do too much for you. There are caveats to caffeine, but most people, if I'm honest, don't need too much more than that, maybe a really high quality multivitamin in there as well. The stuff that can be binned from Will's lift, list, fat burners, absolute height. There is no pill that meaningful burns fat. At best they are usually caffeine with a big marker, at worst they are a waste of money that makes you jittery.
• 6:31
  Fat loss comes from what you eat, bullsilk. BCAAs, probably the most pointless supplement that still exists from the naughts is if you are eating enough protein, which if you are training and you are stuck in that bodybuilding world anyway, most people are. If your protein's decent, branched chain amino acids are very unnecessary. They are a complete waste of time. Testosterone boosters, most of them are absolutely a con, the evidence that these over the counter boosters do anything meaningful, which your testosterone is so thin, like it is like non existence.
• 7:13
  If you genuinely think your levels are low, you can get a blood test from your GP and they'll be able to help you there. Greens powders, the big one, because everyone is talking about them at the moment. They are not going to hurt you, but they are wildly overpriced, especially AG1. So just quickly on AG1, so you know, 90 a tub, if you have used the discount link, the person who referred you on gets £50. Good to know.
• 7:40
  Greens pads in general are not a replacement for fruit and veg and actually eating a couple of pieces of actual fruit with some actual veg will give you the fibre and the volume of a scoop of green dust because I mean it is just spirulina most time and if yours is costing a big chunk of that £150 my friend, then it's the first thing to drop. Ashwagandha and the rest. So ashwagandha, there's emerging research about ashwagandha with regards to reducing cortisol, which is stress hormone. But there's also emerging evidence that you've got to cycle it because what can happen is you can reduce your cortisol for too long, we actually need cortisol. The evidence is still a little bit, what's the word, grey about that.
• 8:33
  But there is evidence to suggest it can be calming and it can reduce cortisol but just don't the dosages is less of a question mark over it and if you're having it daily and you've had it daily for a long time, you need to come off it. The lion's mane mushroom is completely pointless, the dosages, the claims, a lot of expense it's not where your money should go. So here is where Will should probably spend £150 a month. I would say if you are spending £150 a month chasing those marginal gains that I have referred to, while the things that will probably transform how you look and how you feel are mostly free. Imagine redirecting that to better food in the trolley, so whole proteins, vast majority of fruits and veg, you know a really cheap tub of creatine, maybe some high quality protein powder, some vitamin D, all of this sorted for pennies a day and the rest you can invest in your sleep, your training, you know, get a better gym membership, get a better mattress, buy yourself an aircon unit so you're sleeping better and all of those are going be way more powerful than anything in your cupboard.
• 9:56
  The industry is very good at selling you the idea that the answer is in a little plastic tub which is very colourful, when it never is. The boring stuff is usually free or very cheap and usually very accessible. So the vast majority of supplements are selling you a lot of pipe and usually a lot of bullshit because The industry is not regulated very well. The genuinely worthwhile list is very short, cheap and boring creatine, vitamin D, brain powder, maybe magnesium, separate compensation. But most of the rest, fat burners, the boosters, BCAAs, greens powders, you can probably throw in the bin and lose nothing but expensing a foul tasting green powdered trite spirulina or the root of a broccoli or whatever it is.
• 10:54
  So sort your food, sort your sleep get yourself I mean sleep is the biggest win get your training sorted then and only then once that pyramid is sorted, add a couple of cheap things at work. Do that and you will feel loads better, you'll feel richer, you'll look better and you'll be in a good spot. So for all of you, stop buying things which are doing very little, trying to get 2% when you haven't sorted the 50%, which is boring but it makes a difference, and I say that a lot, it is very boring. That is your question answered and if you know someone who has a cupboard full of shite that they don't really know what they do, then send this to them because it could be the cheapest favour that you ever send them. I hope that all made sense, hope you've enjoyed this episode.
• 11:51
  If you've got any questions or would like to download a free supermarket tax list, I'm just going to talk about it for twenty seconds. So, tax list, I went through every supermarket in The UK and I picked out high protein, high fibre, those things which are claimed to be healthy and I break them down into breakfast, into lunch, into dinner, into snacks and I put them in a resource and you can download that for free. Made it for my clients, but I've made it available for everyone and you can access that. If you would like to, then click the top link below. If you'd like to send a question, send it to podcastanutritionistuk dot com.
• 12:35
  I hope you found this helpful. I hope I've saved you some money. Finish your supplements, they're probably not doing a lot, but do not replace them. And if you're using nutrition geeks, there is a lot of bad press about those at the moment, so probably chuck them away, that's the reason why they're so cheap. Thanks for listening to this episode of No Forking Nonsense.
• 12:53
  If you would like to get your question on a future episode, email podcastnutritionistuk dot com. If you would like a free meal maker resource, click the top link in the description and don't forget to follow me on Instagram PaulTheNutritionist. Chat to you next week.