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A while ago I promised a series called The Proof Gap, where I take the biggest claims in health and sort them into three piles: proven, promising, and oversold. This is the first entry, and I am starting with the one you spend the most money on: supplements.
The global supplement industry passed 180 billion dollars. Most of what it sells has little evidence behind the claims. But sorting supplements into neat piles turns out to be harder than it looks, and the reason why is the most useful idea in this whole piece.
Most supplement articles ask “does it work.” That is the wrong question, and it is why they mislead you. The right question is “proven for what, and in whom.”
Vitamin D genuinely works, for correcting a deficiency. That is not the same as saying it lengthens everyone’s life. Omega-3 has strong evidence, for people who eat little oily fish and for specific cardiovascular situations. That is not the same as a universal “heart and brain” booster. The supplement can be proven and the popular claim still oversold, at the same time.
Here is the principle underneath the whole series, and it is worth sitting with:
The strongest evidence in supplementation is usually not for taking more. It is for correcting something that is missing.
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