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Supplements on a plant based diet: what the doctors say
Supplements on a plant based diet: what McDougall, Esselstyn, Campbell, Ornish and other doctors say about multivitamins and pills, with sources.
Updated . For education only, not medical advice.
Our view
Most of the doctors on this site start from one idea: vitamins and minerals belong inside whole foods, where they come packed together and in balance, and a pill that pulls one of them out and concentrates it is a different thing123. McDougall puts it simply: plants provide 11 of the 13 vitamins, so on a varied plant diet the one pill he advises is B1245.
Their case rests on trials more than theory: smokers whose blood carried the most beta-carotene from food had less lung cancer, yet smokers handed beta-carotene pills got more of it627. McDougall, Campbell and the Ornish program all draw the same lesson from those results about high-dose antioxidant pills8910.
We give the most weight to the low-fat clinicians who have fed patients this way for decades, and to Jeff Novick’s rule that whoever recommends a product should not be the one selling it11. Their short list is the same: B12 for anyone who eats no animal foods, and any other pill only for a need that has been shown12131415. Vitamin D, omega-3 fats and iodine are where they argue most, and each has its own page here, as B12 does161718.
Where they agree
Food comes first: McDougall, Campbell, Goldhamer, Nelson and Novick, the Ornish program and Rip Esselstyn’s PLANTSTRONG all say no pill can stand in for a whole food diet19193132021. Ornish himself said in 2019 that pills can help only as an addition to healthy eating22.
B12 is the agreed exception: McDougall, Barnard’s Physicians Committee, Rogers, Nelson and Novick each name it as the supplement a person eating no animal foods should take523241512. Even Campbell, the most doubtful about pills, called it in 2021 the only single nutrient with some evidence for supplementing25.
They also agree that more is not better with isolated nutrients: McDougall, Campbell and the Ornish program warn against high doses of beta-carotene and vitamin E8210. McDougall pointed in 2022 to the US Preventive Services Task Force, which that year advised against both pills for preventing heart disease and cancer8. Barnard tells the same story about iron, once pushed as a tonic in the 1950s until too much of it proved dangerous26.
Their criticism targets vitamin and mineral pills, not herbal remedies: McDougall and Campbell both set herbs aside as a separate question2728.
Where they differ
They part ways on whether a daily multivitamin is sensible insurance, on how much harm a pill can do, on who should decide that one is needed, and on how close the people recommending supplements stand to those selling them29143011.
Multivitamin or none
The Ornish heart program advises a daily multivitamin and mineral without iron, at roughly the recommended allowance, and Ornish said in 2019 that he takes one2916. Esselstyn’s heart study, reported in 2014, encouraged a multivitamin alongside B12, while his site’s FAQ, read in 2026, says those who fill up on leafy greens can do without one3132. Kempner’s patients on the rice diet got a multivitamin every day as a precaution, according to his 1975 paper33. On the other side, Goldhamer said in 2024 he dislikes many nutrients bundled in one capsule and would rather give just the substance and amount a person lacks34, and Nelson said in 2019 to take nothing besides B1215.
Harmful or merely useless
McDougall goes furthest: in 2015 he called beta-carotene and vitamin E pills toxic, a harm to families and not simply a waste of money14. In 2022 he said the people around us are sick from too much animal food and oil, not from missing nutrients35, and he waved off the depleted soil argument because shoppers eat crops grown in many different regions36. Nelson argued in 2019 that a flood of one nutrient can upset the uptake of others3. The Ornish program takes a middle line: high doses can harm, but a pill at the daily allowance only covers gaps37. Rogers, advising against creatine in 2026, conceded that his reading turned up fewer documented problems than he had feared, and he allowed that a professional athlete could reasonably use it3839.
Who decides
Novick’s 2012 rule is the strictest: a qualified professional must first establish the need, with the patient’s informed consent and continued monitoring30. His first step is a full look at the diet, fixing any low nutrient with food where possible13. The Ornish program starts from the opposite default, treating a basic multivitamin as cover for days when meals fall short and for people who absorb less with age or with drugs such as metformin40. A guest on Rip Esselstyn’s podcast in 2025 called B12, D3 and omega-3 essential for plant eaters and urged a yearly blood test4142.
Sellers and advisers
Novick will not back a product sold by a multilevel marketing scheme or by the same professional who advises it, and in 2009 he described that practice as an ethical failing1143. Nelson warned in 2019 against taking advice from the supplement business or from research it pays for15. The PLANTSTRONG post of 2025 featured the head of the supplement maker Complement and ended with a discount code for its products44. Chef AJ said in 2024 that the brand of B12 and vitamin D she uses is the one Goldhamer sells45.
Older views
A page on the Ornish research institute’s site, archived in 2003, recommended high daily amounts for most adults, among them 2 to 3 grams of vitamin C, 400 units of vitamin E and 10,000 to 20,000 units of beta-carotene, with folic acid, selenium, fish and flax oil and a multivitamin46. By about 2015 the program’s site said high-dose beta-carotene and vitamin E may do harm and that it advises nothing above the daily allowance1037. When Ornish listed his own pills in a 2019 webinar, among them omega-3, magnesium, curcumin, vitamin C, vitamin D and a multivitamin, McDougall replied that a major trial published that January had found little gain from omega-3 or vitamin D pills1647. Rogers even stopped B12 for a few weeks in 2026 before taking it again4849.
What each expert says
JMJohn McDougall
McDougall’s May 2010 newsletter told readers to skip vitamin pills: produce lowers cancer risk, he wrote, while beta-carotene pills given to high-risk groups raised it1. He relied on two Cochrane reviews from 2008 linking beta-carotene, vitamin A and vitamin E pills with more deaths50. In talks from 2015 to 2022 B12 remained the only supplement he recommends145.
Esselstyn’s 2014 report on his heart patients encouraged B12 and a multivitamin31. His site’s FAQ, as read in 2026, keeps B12 but finds a multivitamin needless for people who eat leafy greens in quantity, and says fish oil is not essential3251.
Campbell recalls working near the makers of single nutrient pills when their trade took off in the 1980s and spent three years testifying at the Federal Trade Commission over its health claims28. He grants that such pills can lift levels in the body for a while but does not advise them for the long run9. His standard case is beta-carotene, linked to less lung cancer when smokers had it from food, yet to more in a Finnish and American trial that gave the pill to some 29,000 smokers62.
Barnard said in 2024 that a plant based diet supplies the vitamins and minerals people need, with B12 the one to add52. His Physicians Committee answers the question of which supplements to take with B12 alone, calling a regular pill more dependable than fortified foods23. He has said most people need no omega-3 pill, while a vitamin D pill helps when the sun is out of reach1718.
Ornish said in 2019 that supplements used with judgment can help, on top of good food, never in its place22. His program’s site advises a multivitamin and mineral without iron plus fish oil or flax, and warned shoppers after New York’s attorney general found that four in five store-brand herbal bottles tested held none of the labeled herbs2953.
Goldhamer said in 2017 that his TrueNorth center mostly keeps away from nutrients in pill and powder form, using them for single patients with a particular problem, such as DHA for someone who cannot eat nuts or seeds1954. In 2024 he welcomed multivitamins that drop ingredients known to be harmful, while still preferring to supplement only what the diet lacks34.
Rogers said in 2022 and again in 2025 that B12 is the only supplement he takes5556. Closing a 2025 lecture on obesity, he named methylcobalamin as the single supplement such a diet requires24. In 2026 he told ordinary people to skip creatine, citing his concern that supplements are often contaminated38.
Novick’s 2012 position applies to every supplement: none taken at random, and none before a professional has established the need30. People who eat no animal products are his main exception, since they need a dependable B12 source12.
Nelson said in his 2019 video on DHA that people should take no supplement except B1215. He sees the single nutrient pill as a magic bullet idea and holds that the body is built to get its nutrients from food3.
A 2025 PLANTSTRONG post quotes Rip Esselstyn saying supplements come after a whole food plant based diet, sleep, movement and social ties21. His guest in that episode, who runs a supplement company, listed B12, D3 and omega-3 as the essentials41.
When Chef AJ ran a day of her meals through a tracker in 2019, B12 was her one shortfall, and she covers it with a supplement57. In 2024 she said she takes B12 and vitamin D45.
Gardner said in 2026 that once absorbed, an amino acid from a supplement is no different to the body from one out of chickpeas or fish58. He is still no fan of protein supplements, since a pill leaves behind the fiber and other nutrients that beans would bring, and he recalled deaths caused by contaminated tryptophan pills59.
Lisle said in 2025 that he distrusts anything heavily fractionated and concentrated, supplements included, even where no harm has been shown yet, and that he views oil the same way60.
We start from whole plant foods and keep a reliable B12 source in the plan, which is where nearly all of these doctors land142312. Any other pill, a multivitamin included, is a question for your own doctor, ideally one who does not sell it. This page is education, not medical advice.
Each small number links to its reference below: the video at the exact second, or the page where it was said.