See what your food covers before you buy a supplement

Why track supplements together with food?

A supplement on its own tells you very little. Whether you need it, and how much, depends on what your meals already give you.

• Avoid buying what you don't need. Many plant-based days already cover vitamin C and folate. Seeing your food first shows where a supplement actually fills a gap.
• Stay under the upper limits. Some nutrients, like vitamin A, iron and zinc, have safe upper limits. A multivitamin plus a separate pill plus fortified foods can add up faster than you'd think.
• See the whole day at once. Switch a supplement off to see how your day would look without it, before you decide to stop or start one.

Supplements plant-based eaters ask about

• What supplements do vegans need? B12, vitamin D, omega-3 and the ones you usually don't need.
• Vitamin D on a vegan diet: D2 vs D3, and how much to take.
• Vegan omega-3: ALA from food and algae oil for EPA and DHA.
• Iron-rich foods for vegetarians and vegans and calcium without dairy: usually from food, not pills.
• Are multivitamins worth it for vegans? What to check on the label.

How the upper-limit warning works

For many vitamins and minerals there's a tolerable upper intake level: the most you can take daily without a risk of harm. Vegochef shows it on each nutrient's page, next to your target and what you've had today.

For adults, the US National Institutes of Health set the upper limit at 45 mg a day for iron, 40 mg for zinc and 3,000 µg for vitamin A from retinol (beta-carotene from plants doesn't count toward it). A daily iron tablet plus a multivitamin plus iron-rich meals can come closer to these than you'd expect. When food and supplements together pass a limit, the bar turns red, so you can talk to your doctor or adjust before it becomes a habit.

Any supplement, with the amounts from the label

• Single nutrients: common supplements like vitamin B12, vitamin D3, iron and omega-3.
• Multivitamins and anything else: add your own with the amounts from the label, and it counts like the rest.
• Every day, ticked off: routine supplements come back each day on the Home screen, and you can switch one off to see your day without it.

It works for anyone, but it's built for plant-based eaters, who are most often told to take B12 and vitamin D and want to know what else, if anything, they need.