Get up close and personal with exclusive, inspiring interviews and taste profiles delivered with a cheeky twist to your inbox daily.

Success! You’re all signed up. 🎉
Please enter a valid email address.

By subscribing to our email newsletter, you agree to and acknowledge that you have read our Privacy Policy and Terms.

Proof That We’re Probably All Taking Too Many Supplements

Turns out you *can* have too much of a good thing.

Health
Proof That We’re Probably All Taking Too Many Supplements
Have you ever felt nauseous after taking one of your vitamins or supplements on an empty stomach? Yeah, us too. Same with Jules Miller, founder of vitamin and supplement company The Nue Co. This feeling (along with knowledge from her pharmacist grandfather) is what led to her starting her company in the first place. The Nue Co. uses organic foods that are bursting with vitamins and minerals to create all sorts of protein powders, probiotics, and supplements. There are powders to help you debloat, powders that will make your skin glow, and food for your gut (she literally named them “gut food”).

But what exactly does wellness mean to Miller, someone who was diagnosed with IBS as the result of a too-stressful job, who then started taking every supplement under the sun before she realized she was doing it all wrong? We sat down with the founder herself to get the answers. The good news? Through her journey towards wellness, she said goodbye to IBS and hello to a good slice of pizza.

 

How high stress levels led to the birth of The Nue Co.:

“My grandfather was a pharmacist—he dedicated his whole life to supplements, and he was actually part of the research team at Cambridge University in the development of B12. There are very few people in the world that know how supplements are made or the details behind supplements as much as my grandfather. He’s always really, really hated pills, and I was just so fascinated by that. We were all so in love with pills and don’t know how they’re made, and the one man in my life that really does know how they’re made refuses to take them. In my mid-20s, I was heading up a startup in London and became relatively stressed out, started consuming a lot of supplements, and developed IBS. One day my grandfather said, ‘How do you feel when you take these pills on an empty stomach?’ I was like, ‘I feel nauseous.’ I thought that was normal. He was like, ‘Thats your body trying to break down an alien ingredient.’ That was kind of the insight that lead me to develop our whole product proposition, which is a highly absorbable supplement made purely from food.”

On what wellness means to her:

“I think it changes at different stages of your life. Something that really speaks to me at the moment is mental health—the big message a few years ago was ‘Strong is the new skinny.’ I think that its actually mentally strong is the new skinny. It all comes down to the relationship that you have with you body and your mind and your soul. I’m not somebody that eats clean 100% of the time and works out five days a week—I am in tune with what makes my body feel good and what gives me mental clarity.”

The supplements she is currently taking from her brand:

“I always tell people that they shouldn’t jump to supplements. If you’re eating a balanced diet and you feel fine, there is no need for you to start popping pills all of the time. Right now, I’m really busy because we just launched the company, so I’m actually taking three or four of my supplements every day, [but] on a good day, when I’m eating right, I don’t do that. Currently, I wake up in the morning and have a heaped tablespoon of my Plant Protein with a teaspoon of my Skin Food—that is a non-negotiable, that is just part of my beauty regime. I usually have the Energy Food either about 11 o’clock when I start to get a little bit tired, or at 3 o’clock. I only ever have the De-Bloat Food after a big meal or if I am actually feeling bloated. I don’t suffer from IBS anymore, so I don’t need to have ongoing treatments or ongoing supplements for that.”

 

Why you should double-up on your probiotics before flying:

“Try to acclimatize yourself to the new time zone [when traveling]—don’t arrive and fall straight asleep. Hydration is the biggest thing, so drink as much water as you possibly can during the flight and after the flight. The most important thing when you travel is to take probiotics. When you fly with a plastic bottle, and you see what the pressure does to the bottle, that is quite literally what happens to your gut when you fly. It is terrifying. Try and prep your gut for that experience. I double-up my probiotics before and after my flight. It’s not just for the benefits of your digestion, but for the benefits of your immune system.”

Her advice to those looking to live a healthier lifestyle:

“I think that there is a lot of information out there that people latch onto and presume that it’s right for them. I think that it’s really important to be in tune with what works for you. When I first got sick, I also gave up wheat, dairy, sugar, and became quite obsessive with the things I was reading. When I stopped and analyzed how I was reacting to food, I realized that one of the things that was affecting me the most was actually raw vegetables—having a salad was affecting me more negatively than having a pizza. Try to block out the noise and listen to your body.”

Part of the series:

Get Well

VIEW THE SERIES
You May Also Like