SUPPLEMENT ESSENTIALS
You heard about supplements. Your friends, family and coworkers told you about them. Celebrities and influencers talk about them. Commercials. They are all over grocery stores, convenient stores, online, and there are even supplement stores. Where the heck do you start?
The BIG question: What supplements should you take?
Take 30 minutes and do some research on supplements. Go anywhere- Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. Listen to as many people as possible. Read as much as you can.
What did you find? Did you find a lot of similar information? Did anything make sense? Was any of it digestible? Or did you feel like it was more marketing than information? Was it like walking into a used car dealership and being bombarded with salesmen convincing you that everything is great and glamorous? Did you even learn what a supplement is or how to go about deciding if you truly need to take any? Now you are even more confused.
My first point: The supplement industry is congested and complicated. It is ridden with paid influencers, advertisements, and fraudulent marketing. But it doesn’t need to be observed that way. Not when you are properly educated and are able to dissect the industry in its most simplistic forms.
The title of this blog is “Supplement Essentials,” and my goal here is to begin our supplement education journey with the essentials. And when I say ‘essentials’ I am not about to spew off my opinions on what supplements I believe are ‘best.’ Essentials means essential nutrients. And if your first thought is ‘What are essential nutrients?’ then that is exactly why I am starting with this post.
Every single human being needs air, water, shelter, sleep, and food to live. I believe we learn this in 1st grade. But let’s dive into the food piece. Is it just food we need? What kind of foods? What is it about food that makes it required for life? Phenomenal questions. This is something we never think about. We just eat and go about our lives. But there are essential nutrients in food that are solely responsible for the fact that we need food to live.
To break this down- in food, there are essential macronutrients and essential micronutrients.
Essential macronutrients consist of
9 Essential Amino Acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine) from proteins.
2 Essential Fatty Acids (linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linoleic acid (omega-3)) from fats.
3 Essential Carbohydrates(sugars, starches, and fiber). It can be argued that carbohydrates are not essential, but I am sparing that argument today.
Essential micronutrients consist of
13 Vitamins (Vitamin A, C, D, E, K, and B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, and B12).
15 minerals (Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Chloride, Sulfur, Iron, Zinc, Iodine, Selenium, Copper, Manganese, Fluoride, and Chromium).
Food contains a plethora of chemicals and nutrients, simple and complex, but these EAAs, EFAs, ECs, vitamins, and minerals are essential for life. We need to consume them or they will play a role in malnutrition, metabolic dysfunction, chronic fatigue, long-term health risks, organ damage, and death.
With that established, let’s discuss the difficulty of consuming all of these nutrients on a consistent basis. You don’t necessarily need to consume them daily, but over the course of a given week, month, etc, you should intake enough of each. But that is much easier said than done. Most of these nutrients come from whole foods, which simply aren’t consumed as much in 2026. They are often more expensive, less convenient, and not as tasty compared to more ultra-processed food alternatives.
Not an excuse, but this is the reality of the situation. We are more obese, disease-ridden, and unhealthy than we have ever been. As a whole, we aren’t taking preventative health and nutrition seriously, at least until problems arise. We aren’t seeing nutrition as a solution- we are seeing it as a drug. Non-whole foods (processed foods, fast foods, sugary drinks and snacks) are addicting and over-consumed. We need to see food as nutrients, rather than using them to fulfill our next dopamine hit.
The Solution: Eat more whole foods = consuming more essential nutrients. And, when necessary, use essential supplements to fill in nutrient gaps.
What are essential supplements?
These are supplements that mimic essential nutrients: EAAs/protein, EFAs/fats, ECs/carbs, vitamins, and minerals. I say mimic because they aren’t food- they are food-based (or sometimes synthetic) nutrients found in powders, liquids, gels, gummies, or pills. They are taken to fill in nutrient gaps or deficiencies. Supplements are an incredible option to the nutrition world when taken appropriately.
How do you know what to take?
To be honest, you may never know exactly what and how much. But one way is by talking to your doctor and getting bloodwork done. This can give some insight into some of your nutrient levels- but not all. There are also fluctuations and inconsistencies with nutrient levels, so knowing what your nutrient levels are exactly may never be known. This is okay though!
An approach that I believe is best to take is to not over-complicate nutrition or worry about it- if you make the right choice. And that single choice is to make the determined effort to eat a variety of whole foods. This gives the greatest chance of intaking all the essential nutrients on a regular basis. And for insurance reasons consider at least occasionally supplementing with one or more of the essential supplements, which include:
Essential Amino Acids or Protein: powders, bars, drinks, snacks
Essential Fatty Acids/Omega-3s: fish oil, krill oil, flax seed oil, algae oil (liquids or pills)
Essential Carbohydrates: fiber (powders, pills), other carbs (powders, gels, liquids, drinks)
Vitamins: individual or multivitamins (pills, liquids, powders)
Minerals: individual or multiminerals (pills, liquids, powders)
I will not discuss brands, doses, quality, fillers, types, etc regarding supplements. This will be saved for future blog posts. For now, choose a brand that you trust and a product that matches what you (think you) need. You can message me for unbiased and honest advice- considering Supplement Coaching is part of what I do for a living. I will say that people spend way too much time on brands, country of manufacturing, 3rd party testing, fillers, what others say, etc- and not enough time on the nutrition/supplement facts panel for what is ACTUALLY in the product that gives it the benefits/purpose.
Understand real whole foods to understand essential nutrients to understand essential supplements. This is the best approach as you take your first steps in TRULY understanding supplements.
