Old topic but.. Not sure i believe in skipping pills, the soil is just too lacking.. Raw vegetables does not contain the nutrition we need because of this.
I too am not very favourable to supplementation, but found a compromise. Let's remember that, if the databases are correct, the food they analyzed is the one we eat, with all its deficiencies in basic elements. Aside from the fact of statistical variability of course.
What I've started to do is to log my dietary intake into some dedicated app like cronometer. That gives to me the possibility to check my average intake of macro and micro-nutrients across a representative time. After that, I can easily spot the possible deficiencies and correct them 1- by dietary intake, 2- by supplementation if 1-is not feasible or practical.
For example, I was surprised to notice that Iron, contrary to my beleif, is more than enough in my diet, almost twice the RDA on average, even though I do not eat legumes (vegetables, nuts, cocoa are enough).
Niacin or B3 is a potential deficiency to me since I eat few cereals so I added some niacin-rich cereals. I'm low on the zinc-copper ratio (common problem among vegetarians) so I started to take zinc pills to shift the ratio. Ground flaxseed and walnuts provide omega3s.
By this approach I've been able to reach an ideal (not perfect) diet to my present needs. I only plan to take regular supplements of zinc, vitaminD, Iodine for now. Plus a multivitamin-mineral once a week. It is a continuos observational process though, having blood lab analyses would help (especially vitamin D), maybe I'll do that in the future as well.
