If I Could Only Take 1 Supplement for the Rest of My Life - What Would It Be?
It's not magnesium. It's not omega-3s. It's not vitamin D or creatine.
If I could only take one supplement for the rest of my life — what would it be?
It’s not magnesium.
It’s not omega-3s.
It’s not vitamin D or creatine.
These nutrients all have well-established benefits. I use them myself.
But if I had to choose only one, the decision wouldn’t start with popularity or research citations. It would start with a simpler, more fundamental filter:
Which essential nutrient can my body not make, that I also can’t reliably get from food or water in today’s environment?
When you apply that lens, the answer changes.
It’s no longer about what’s trendy or even what’s well-studied — it’s about identifying the irreplaceable inputs your biology depends on, and making sure they’re present in the right amounts, every single day.
This isn’t about you taking the same thing I take. It’s about showing you the reasoning process — how to match your unique biological demands with the nutrients your body cannot make, in the context of modern food availability, environmental exposure, and your own preferences.
Most people never go through this exercise.
They assume that “eating clean” or taking a general supplement stack covers the bases. But without asking what your body actually requires, whether you’re getting it, and in what form, you’re making decisions without a reliable baseline. And that can leave important systems running below capacity for years.
In this article, I’ll walk you through:
The one supplement I would keep if everything else was off the table — and the reasoning that led me there.
My #2 and #3 picks, and how they fit into my nutrient priorities.
Why this choice is more relevant now than it was even 50 years ago.
A simple, repeatable way to think about your own nutrient intake so your decisions are specific to your biology and your circumstances.
Here’s the nutrient I wouldn’t want to be without — and the reasoning that may change how you think about your own priorities, so you can give your body the building blocks to sustain energy production, support hormone balance, preserve cognitive clarity, and reduce the risk of deficiencies that affect longevity: