![\"Expert](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/9744a91f393e9b57d9a5c942c378322acf305f2e.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nIn her role as program director of nutrition and food sciences at the University of South Australia, Evangeline Mantzioris sometimes lectures pharmacy students.<\/p>\n
She once asked them what they might recommend if someone walked into their pharmacy and said they were tired.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Expert advice: what experts think of the most popular vitamins and supplements taken in Australia.Credit: Aresna Viianueva<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said, \u2018We\u2019d suggest iron\u2019,\u201d Mantzioris recalls. \u201cI said: \u2018If someone comes in and says they\u2019ve got a headache, would you give them antihypertensives?\u2019 They said, \u2018No, no, we\u2019d send them to the doctor first.\u2019 I said, \u2018Well, what\u2019s the difference?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the perception they are \u201cnatural\u201d, the less stringent regulation of vitamins and supplements creates a false sense of security among consumers, says accredited practising dietitian and nutrition researcher Danielle Shine. Unlike medicines, we tend to think they are \u201csafe\u201d to take. But that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n
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Still, there are times people need to supplement their diet (for instance, topping up folic acid during pregnancy) or when they simply choose to.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow we absorb and process nutrients from our diet depends on a range of factors, including age, alcohol and tobacco use, health conditions, medications and genetics,\u201d says associate professor Dr Joanna Harnett from the University of Sydney\u2019s school of pharmacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile ideally a balanced diet should be the primary and natural source of nutrients, supplementation may be necessary to address increased needs or deficiencies related to these factors.\u201d<\/p>\n
By some estimates, up to 70 per cent<\/a> of Australians (mostly women)<\/a> use vitamins and supplements. What do the experts have to say about the most popular supplements we consume?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In her role as program director of nutrition and food sciences at the University of South Australia, Evangeline…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64,63,137,532],"class_list":{"0":"post-128733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nutrition","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-nutrition"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}