Where our data comes from, and why

The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) is the UK government's ongoing survey of what people actually eat, run by the Department of Health and Social Care. It tells us where the population is falling short, not what to do about it.

The UK's Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) sets the intake level each nutrient should reach. Where SACN hasn't revisited a figure recently, we also check it against the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which has completed a fuller, more recent review across every vitamin and mineral. Where the two differ, we say so rather than picking whichever number suits us.

Closing a population gap and proving a supplement helps are two different questions. Where clinical trial evidence exists for a specific dose, we use it. Where it's thinner, for ingredients like Omega-3, CoQ10, and Vitamin K2, we say that plainly rather than imply a certainty that isn't there.

We don't think you should just take our word for it. We're actively working with independent scientists to review and adapt our formulations, and we'll share more as that develops.

Most supplement brands don't show this. We'd rather you could check it.

A cohort has to do two things at once: reflect how people actually live and change, and make it simple for you to know exactly which one is yours. Get either wrong and the whole idea falls apart, too clinical and nobody recognises themselves in it, too vague and it stops meaning anything.

The science tells us where the body's needs shift with age and sex. For women, the split follows a genuine demographic pattern. UK figures put the average age at first birth around 29 and a half, with the years from 30 to 49 covering peak fertility and the family-building stretch, before the shift into menopause, averaging 51, begins to reshape what the body needs again.

For men, there's no single biological turning point in the same way. The pattern is more about how life is actually lived, the demands of work and family in your thirties and forties, and, later, the specific health checks that start to matter with age.

None of that came from a spreadsheet alone. We tested it against real conversations, with friends, with people who've answered our early research, with anyone willing to tell us honestly how their forties felt different from their thirties. Where the published evidence and what people actually told us lined up, that gave us real confidence. Where a boundary came down to a judgement call, a round number chosen partly because it's easy to find yourself in it, we made that choice deliberately, and we'd rather tell you that than dress it up as more precise than it is.

Six groups, not sixty. Grounded in evidence, tested against real life, and simple enough that you can find yours in five seconds.