The moment you feel a cold coming on, what do you do? Chances are, you’ll suddenly start popping Barocca (or some other vitamin C supplement) and looking into zinc capsules. Where once our grandmas might have prescribed hot toddies and honey, we’re way more clued up about the role vitamins and minerals play in immunity. But what if we’ve actually got it all wrong?

Given that the supplement industry is set to be worth £214 billion by 2024, it’s clear that a lot of us are turning to powders, shakes and pills to get our vitamins. And if you’re one of them, you might be distressed to find out that scientists tend to think that most vitamins and supplements are a “waste of money” – especially when it comes to fighting disease.

Scientists from Northwestern University say that for non-pregnant, healthy people, there’s not enough evidence to suggest that supplements can prevent illness. In a report published in JAMA, Dr Jeffrery Linder, chief of general internal medicine in the university’s department of medicine, says that people are “wasting money and focus thinking there has to be a magic set of pills that will keep them healthy when we should all be following the evidence-based practices of eating healthy and exercising”.

If that wasn’t enough of a kick to those of us who do supplement, a clinical professor at the University of Georgia then told Insider that vitamins A, C, B and zinc are the most “useless” supplements to take because most people are already getting enough through their diets. 

So, are we really wasting our hard-earned money on supplementing for nothing?

Reema Patel, registered dietitian and nutritionist for Dietitian Fit and Co, tells Strong Women: “Generally, you can get many of the vitamins you need from your diet alone, so there is often little to no need to supplement. Some vitamins are easily obtained from foods that we regularly eat, such as antioxidants (vitamins A, C and E), which are found abundantly in fruits and vegetables. 

“However there will be some vitamins that need a bit more consideration to obtain enough in the diet.”

The NHS, for example, recommends that everyone in the UK takes vitamin D during the winter months. “And if you’re vegan, there are some important vitamins to consider supplementing that can be hard to find in a vegan diet generally, such as B12,” says Patel.

A 2011 meta-analysis review, published in the Open Respiratory Medicine Journal, that found that zinc lozenges reduced the duration of cold symptoms by 48%. That same year, a Cochrane review looked at 13 randomised placebo-controlled trials that all examined the effect of taking zinc soon after the onset of cold symptoms. It concluded that there was convincing evidence to suggest that zinc does “significantly reduce both the duration and severity of symptoms”. 

“Some research has shown that having adequate levels of zinc and vitamin C can help shorten the duration of colds, but this does not mean we are able to avoid them completely just by increasing our levels of zinc and vitamin C,” Patel explains. In other words, take zinc if you have a cold, not to prevent a cold.

But, she also says that you’re still better off trying to eat it, rather than supplement: “Vitamin C is generally easily obtainable in the diet from fruits and vegetables, and zinc is readily found from meat, fish, wholegrains and milk as well as nuts and beans, so it is rarely necessary that we need to supplement with these nutrients.” 

In fact, the way we think about colds is probably wrong in general. Dr Ross Perry previously debunked the myth that you can catch a cold in wet weather, explaining that: “Viruses and bacteria cause infections, and these are likely to be transmitted from person to person by inhaling them in the form of air droplets from a sneeze or a cough.” 

With that in mind, it probably makes sense that simply taking extra vitamins isn’t going to protect you from breathing in someone else’s disease.

“Where possible, we should aim to meet our nutritional requirements from food,” Patel advises. However, if you are someone who really does struggle to eat fruit and vegetables regularly, taking a multivitamin may be helpful to prevent deficiencies.”

If you are vegan, however, then you do really need to think about supplementation – and not just for B12. “Vegans may need to be more aware of certain nutrients such as omega 3 fatty acids, iodine, selenium, iron, calcium and vitamin D, as these nutrients can be harder to obtain from a vegan diet.” It’s worth saying that even then, you can get twice your daily requirement of selenium from a single Brazil nut, walnuts are loaded with omega-3 and pecans are a good source of calcium. But it’s a little harder to find plant sources of iron, iodine and vitamin D.

As ever, chat with your GP before taking a new supplement and it’s worth asking to have your levels checked before trying something new. If you have low energy, you might need to supplement iron, for example, but you’re only going to know if it’s a waste of money or not if you know for certain that you’re anaemic.

TL;DR, not all supplements are a waste of money but we should be aiming for a food-first approach to nutrition.

Images: Getty