Vitamins

Vitamins are nutrients your body needs in small amounts and cannot make in useful quantities on its own. Thirteen of them are essential: A, C, D, E, K and the eight B vitamins. A varied diet covers most of them for most people. In the UK, two gaps come up again and again: vitamin D between October and March, and vitamin B12 on a fully plant-based diet.

Fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins behave differently

Vitamins A, D, E and K dissolve in fat. Your body stores them, so the exact hour matters less, but they absorb better with a meal that contains some fat. Vitamin C and the B vitamins dissolve in water and are barely stored, so a steady daily amount suits them better than one large weekly dose. That single difference explains most questions about timing, and why some products are oil-based softgels while others are plain tablets. If you would rather cover the basics with one product than buy five, a daily multivitamin is the simpler route.

The back of the label decides more than the front

Two products showing the same number on the front can work out differently. The same logic applies to minerals such as magnesium and zinc, which often share the same bottle. What we look at:

• Vitamin D3 (colecalciferol) rather than D2, because D3 raises blood levels more reliably. Drops and sprays help if capsules are hard to swallow.
• B12 as methylcobalamin alongside cyanocobalamin, so you can pick the form you prefer.
• Vitamin K2 as MK-7, which stays in the blood longer than MK-4, and is often combined with D3.
• Natural vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol) instead of the synthetic dl-alpha version.
• Buffered vitamin C, such as calcium ascorbate, when plain ascorbic acid feels harsh on an empty stomach.

How we choose the vitamins on this page

We judge every vitamin on three things: the form, the dose and whether the combination makes sense. A D3 with K2 as MK-7 earns its place. A twenty-ingredient blend with token amounts of each does not. We buy directly from the brands, with no intermediaries, so the stock you receive is authentic, and our compliance team checks every product before it goes live. We test products ourselves and independent labs spot-check batches. We are equally clear about wording: we only use health claims approved by the European food safety authority (EFSA). Read how we select brands and products.

Who these products genuinely suit

Vitamin supplements make sense when your diet has a clear gap, when your routine keeps you out of daylight, or when you follow a diet that leaves one nutrient short. They sit next to meals, not instead of them. The effect is also quiet rather than dramatic: with vitamin C or a B-complex, give it two to three weeks of consistent use before you judge anything, and longer for vitamin D, where blood levels build slowly.

UK government advice is unusually specific for one nutrient. Everyone should consider 10 micrograms (400 IU) of vitamin D a day during autumn and winter, and all year round if you have little sun exposure or darker skin. That is why our vitamin D3 selection is the busiest part of this category. The fat-soluble vitamins are also the ones to count carefully, because they accumulate. Check what your multivitamin already provides before you add a single vitamin on top of it.