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May is here, and with it comes the annual urge to reset, restock, and reorganize everything including the supplement drawer.

We're starting the month with something the wellness industry will not thank us for: an honest audit of what's actually worth taking, what's quietly doing nothing, and the three questions that should gate every future purchase.

It's the edit we wish existed when we were spending $300 a month on things that sounded right.

Let's get into it.

At some point, the supplement drawer stopped being wellness and started being a personality.

Seventeen products. A collagen powder you use maybe three times a week if you even remember. An adaptogen blend that costs $68 and tastes like dirt. A greens powder that is definitely not replacing vegetables, no matter what the label says.

No judgment. We've been there. But the supplement industry is worth over $177 billion globally and is not, actually, on your side. So here's the honest edit on what's genuinely worth it, what you can quietly return to the shelf, and the three questions to run before you buy anything ever again.

Multivitamins. The logic makes sense until you look at the data. For most healthy adults eating a reasonably varied diet, multivitamins don't move the needle on disease prevention or longevity. You are, quite literally, producing expensive urine.

Vitamin C megadoses. The immune mythology has been studied more times than we can count and keeps underwhelming. If you eat actual fruit and vegetables, you're almost certainly covered.

Collagen. Five years of aggressive marketing, genuinely mixed evidence. Your body breaks ingested collagen down into amino acids before it does anything. It doesn't travel directly to your skin. The glow-from-within promise is mostly a vibe.

Greens powders. Not a vegetable. Not even close to a vegetable. Often packed with proprietary blends that make actual dosing impossible to verify, and priced at a point where the money would go significantly further on, you know, groceries.

Biotin. Unless a blood test has confirmed a deficiency — which is genuinely rare — your hair is not going to change. Most people already get plenty from food. The before-and-after content is doing a lot of heavy lifting here.

Generic probiotic blends. Strain specificity matters enormously in the probiotic category and most off-the-shelf products don't have the clinical evidence to back what's on the label. Taking a probiotic isn't the same as taking the right probiotic.

Standalone prebiotics. Same logic. If you're eating fiber-rich food, you don't need a supplement to tell your gut what to do.

Vitamin B12. Fully plant-based, vegan, or have absorption issues? Yes. Eat meat and got a normal blood panel? Probably not necessary.

Calcium supplements. If you're getting enough from food and don't have a bone density concern, high-dose calcium supplementation is not obviously doing what you think and there's enough emerging research on cardiovascular implications to make it worth questioning.

Iron. Bloodwork only. Too much iron has its own set of problems and it's not something to casually supplement without a reason.

Magnesium. One of the few supplements with real, consistent evidence across multiple use cases. Glycinate or l-threonate for sleep and stress. Malate for muscle recovery. If you're training, sleeping badly, or running on cortisol fumes — this one is actually worth it.

Vitamin D. The gap between what most people need and what they actually get from sunlight is real, especially in low-sun months or if you're spending most of your day indoors. Get your levels tested. Supplement based on actual data, not vibes.

Creatine. The most well-researched supplement in existence and somehow still has a reputation problem. Performance, muscle, and increasingly interesting emerging data on cognitive function. It's not just for gym bros.

Colostrum. The evidence is still building but the gut-barrier and immune support data is more compelling than most of what's trending. If you're going to try one newer-category supplement this year, this is where we'd point you.

Seed Daily Synbiotic. Not all probiotics are created equal and Seed is one of the few that has invested in strain-specific formulation, third-party testing, and actual clinical research. If you're going to take a probiotic, take one that can back its claims. The difference is real.

Three questions. Run every supplement through them before you buy.

If it’s three yeses, great. Otherwise, leave it.

The supplement shelf is not a wellness plan. It's a category with an extraordinary marketing budget and a genuinely complicated relationship with honesty. Buy less. Be more specific about why you're keeping what you kept. If you need a list of supplement brands we recommend, check out our list - The Edit.

Honestly? That's the most advanced wellness move of 2026.

You just read our honest take on the probiotic category — and why most of them don't make the cut. Seed is the exception. Their DS-01 Daily Synbiotic is built with 24 clinically and scientifically studied strains, engineered to actually survive delivery to where it matters in your gut. No proprietary blend smoke screens. No inflated claims. Just the science, done properly. Order a 3 month subscription and get 10% off.

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Five things worth your attention this week

🏃 Move — If you're training without tracking recovery, you're honestly missing half the data. WHOOP's strain and recovery breakdown is the most useful thing we've seen for figuring out how hard is actually hard. Get a free WHOOP and one month free when you join.

🥛 Gut — ARMRA Colostrum is our current answer to "if you're adding exactly one thing, make it this." Gut barrier support, immune function, and research that actually holds up under scrutiny. Get 15% off with code WELLNESSBUM.

💊 Stack — Momentous has become the standard for supplement quality in the performance space. Third-party tested, athlete-grade formulations, and honest about what the research supports. Worth knowing if you're rebuilding from scratch. Get 14% off your first order and 35% off subcriptions.

🎙️ Listen — Diary of a CEO's episode with the peptide expert is the kind of deep dive that makes you feel like you actually understand what's happening in longevity science. Dense, smart, worth the full listen. Spotify link

🎧 Also listening — Science Vs on boredom: is it actually good for you. The answer is more interesting than you'd expect and honestly a little permission-coded. Spotify link

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The most radical thing you can do in wellness right now is have a short supplement list and actually know why everything on it is there.

See you Wednesday!

Valerie