Someone messaged me last winter with a photo of two boxes side by side and one line underneath: “This one has double the milligrams for the same money — so it’s twice as good, right?”
It is a completely reasonable thing to assume, and it is the assumption that the word bioavailability exists to complicate. I avoided the word for years because it sounds like something from a lab coat. But it is worth understanding, because it is the difference between what you buy and what you actually get.
The label tells you what went in, not what turns up
Bioavailability is simply how much of a nutrient your body can take up and use, rather than how much was in the sachet when it was sealed. Those two numbers are never identical. Some of what you take is used, some of it passes straight through, and the ratio shifts depending on the nutrient and on you.
So the milligram figure on the front of a box is an input, not a result. It is a bit like knowing how much water went into the top of a watering can with a few holes in it — useful, but not the whole story. That is why a bigger number does not automatically win, and why I try not to let anyone choose a supplement purely on which column looks most impressive.
Why the same nutrient behaves differently on different days
This is the part that surprises people most. It is not a fixed property of the product; it moves.
Some nutrients travel more happily alongside a meal that contains a bit of fat, which is why “take with food” appears on so many packs and is not just there to be annoying. Others get on better or worse depending on what else is in your stomach at the time — certain minerals compete for the same routes in, so taking a pile of them together is not the same as spacing them out. And your own circumstances matter: age, how you eat, how varied that eating actually is across a normal week.
None of which you can read off a label. Which is my honest answer to “is that a good number?” — good for whom, taken when, alongside what?
Where the format comes into it
Form is part of the same conversation. A tablet, a capsule, a powder and a granule are not simply four different shapes of the same idea; they behave differently once they leave the packet, which I have written about separately in why granules behave differently from tablets.
There is also a much less scientific factor that I think outranks most of the technical ones: whether you take the thing at all. A brilliantly designed formula sitting unopened in a cupboard has a bioavailability of zero. That is not a joke — it is the single biggest leak in most people’s routines, and no amount of clever formulation fixes it.
It is one of the reasons I point people towards Bioniq GO when they arrive already lost in comparison tables. Rather than handing you a wall of numbers to interpret, you take the free Wellness Assessment — no blood test needed — and your answers about your age, how you actually eat and what you want to support are matched to one of 40 formulas. What arrives holds up to 23 science-backed nutrients in one daily dose of premium Swiss granules, no pills to swallow, and it is vegan-friendly. The decisions happen before the sachet reaches your kitchen.
What actually helps, in practice
- Read the timing note, not just the numbers. “With food” or “with a meal” is doing real work on that packet.
- Do not stack everything into one moment. If you take several separate products, bunching them all at once is rarely the best version of your own routine.
- Food first, supplement second. Nutrients from an ordinary varied plate come with a lot of company, and that company matters. Food supplements are not a substitute for a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle.
- Consistency beats intensity. A modest amount taken daily is a genuinely different proposition from a large amount taken when you remember.
- Match the product to the goal. If you are after something specific rather than general cover, our targeted nutrition range is the more sensible starting point than doubling up on whatever you already have.
The bit nobody can promise you
Here is where I stop short, because I would rather be useful than impressive: nobody can tell you, from a label or from a shop counter, exactly what proportion of a given nutrient you personally absorbed on a given Tuesday. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling certainty that does not exist.
What you can do is stop treating the biggest number as the best one, take things in the way the pack suggests, keep your diet doing most of the work, and choose a routine you will still be following in three months. That is the practical end of bioavailability — less chemistry, more habit.
If comparing columns of milligrams has stopped feeling like a good use of your evenings, build your personalised formula with Bioniq GO and let the assessment do the sorting instead. As ever, I am at the other end of an email if you want a second opinion first.
