Supplements

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I take two supplements. That is the whole list and it has been for years.

During the reset: one

Creatine monohydrate, and nothing else.

This is deliberate and it is the part people push back on. The reset is a diagnostic as much as a diet. Strip the inputs down, and when you feel different on day six you know what caused it. Add a greens powder, a multivitamin, and a protein shake, and you have learned nothing about your own body.

Fourteen days, one variable. Then you know.

The creatine I use · How to choose one

After the reset: one more

Once the fourteen days are done I add a multivitamin. Here is the honest reasoning.

The case against multivitamins is real. Large trials in well-fed populations have found modest or no effect on major health outcomes. Anyone telling you a multivitamin transforms your health is selling something.

Why I take one anyway: I travel. Weeks in Brazil, weeks in the States, and stretches where the food is excellent alongside stretches where it is not. It is insurance against the inconsistent weeks rather than a substitute for the good ones. That is a modest claim, and modest is what the evidence supports.

The one I use is whole-food based and contains no iron. Most men without a diagnosed deficiency do not need supplemental iron, and unlike most nutrients the body has no active way to excrete the excess. If you are a menstruating woman or your doctor has told you that you are deficient, that is a conversation with them rather than with me.

Paradise Herbs Earth's Blend, no iron

One note on the marketing in this category: products are often sold on ORAC antioxidant scores. The USDA withdrew its own ORAC database over a decade ago, on the grounds that antioxidant activity measured in a test tube does not reliably predict what happens in the body. I buy this for the whole-food formulation and the absence of iron.

The rule, plainly

During the fourteen days: creatine only. After the fourteen days: add a multivitamin if you want one.

What I do not take

Longer than the list of what I do, and more useful.

Protein powder. Eggs, chicken, and fish cover it.
Greens powders. You are juicing carrots and eating steamed spinach. That is the greens powder, and it costs less.
Pre-workout. Coffee, which is honest about what it is.
Collagen. The evidence is thinner than the marketing.
Anything with a proprietary blend. A label that will not tell you the doses is hiding the doses.

The order that matters

If you are starting from nothing, spend your attention here, in order: food, hydration, daily movement, sleep, creatine, and then a multivitamin if your eating is inconsistent.

Most people want to start at five. Starting at one is what works.