Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Dr. Libby: The One Thing That Could Change Everything

Episode Date: May 25, 2025

Feeling tired, foggy, or just not yourself? You might be low in iron — and not even know it! This week, Megan chats with Dr. Libby, clinical nutritionist and author of Fix Iron First: The One Thing That Changes Everything. With 25 years of experience, Dr. Libby explains why iron deficiency is so often missed, especially in women, and how fixing it can boost energy, clear brain fog, stop hair loss (!!), and transform your wellbeing. Plus, Megan opens up about her own surprising health discoveries.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is the Jono, Ben and Megan podcast thanks to HelloFresh, your home advantage for delicious midweek dinners that everyone will love. Joined in studio by Dr Libby, she has a PhD. She is a nutritional biochemist, 13 times best-selling author and an international keynote speaker, but she's here because she's got another new book, Fix Iron First. Good morning, Dr Libby. Good morning, Megan. It's very nice to have you in studio. We'll get to this. I could chew your ear off a lot right now because I've got my own nutritional battle going on, but we'll get to that. Fix iron first is all about how we're not getting enough iron. That's right. So it is the most common nutritional deficiency in the whole country, and it particularly affects women across the menstruation years during their pregnancies and perimenopause and it's also affecting a growing number of

children so it's pretty concerning. It doesn't just affect energy but it can bring on symptoms of anxiety, it can bring on thyroid problems, there's sort of nothing iron deficiency doesn't touch. Why is this becoming more prevalent? What are we doing I I guess, wrong that's making us more iron deficient? It's not necessarily that we're doing something wrong. Our requirements are actually significant and I don't think that gets spoken of enough. So women need, across the adult years, need 18 milligrams of iron per day just to prevent deficiency. And if we eat in a vegan or vegetarian way, we have to multiply that requirement by 1.8. So it's 32.4 milligrams of iron

that we need. And it's really hard to eat that much. If you're breaking it down into spinach terms, how much spinach would you have to eat? Kilograms. But if we talk about it as, and I'm not suggesting this, but just to put it into context, to get 18 milligrams, that's over half a kilogram of beef per day. And no one's doing, I'm not suggesting people do that, but no one's doing that. So that's where supplementation is actually quite crucial for a lot of people across the menstruation years. So how would you know if you're iron deficient? The first thing is we get tired, but it's really easy to just sort of fob that off and think, oh, I'm busy, I'm stressed, I handle a lot. So we don't often act on it.

But our hair will start to fall out so the part in our hair gets wider. That's one of the things we might notice. Our heart races, we get heart palpitations at times. So we just pale in the face. So you notice before you go to bed that you're a bit washed out. If you pull your eyelid down, it should be beautifully bright red in there. And it's quite pale in iron deficiency. Is mine red? A little bit pale.

Oh, God. Okay. We want it lush, bright red. So I was going to say, how does it affect you day to day? But you feel more tired. Yeah. How would you know if you're just, you know, because we get up quite early so I am perpetually quite tired. How would you know if you're tired or you're iron deficient?

So it's almost a blood test is the quickest, best way to find out obviously. And that can be a really important part of getting answers. But it's a deeper tiredness. It's not just, it's not tiredness that's not restored really by sleep. Right. So you notice that. A really important thing that I'm really busting to bring to life with this Fix Iron First book message is anxiety is a big deal for a lot of people these days.

And there was actually a study published in 2023 and it was called the Clinical Manifestations of Iron Deficiency. And anxiety is one of the symptoms of iron deficiency. Now, I'm not saying that everyone who experiences anxiety is iron deficient, but it concerns me that it's not looked at and it's not considered as a potential factor for a lot of people. And it's true for people of all ages, but I really want teenage girls to understand that. I'm going to be quite open here. I've been to the doctor for anxiety. It's affected me for the first time in my life. And the first thing they did was give me a blood test. I found out I was deficient in a lot of areas. I also had high cholesterol and pre-diabetic.

And so I've been doing a complete flip of my nutrition and watching everything I eat and it has helped the anxiety so much. So because I thought, well, why are we doing a blood test? Like it's it's a brain thing. Why are we worried about what I'm eating? But yes, I totally agree with you that I would never have known about the deficiencies had I not gone to get that blood test. And whether that be iron or for me it was you know the pre-diabeticness whatever it is do you do you recommend people going in and just saying hey can I have a blood test to see where I'm at certainly with iron absolutely but for all

of those things Megan and what a what a joy what a relief you know great big out breath to feel so different from the changes you've then made so you've got a brilliant doctor who went there first uh and and sussed all of that out and that's what i really want people to understand is we often try to make health really complicated or we think that there's something really drastically wrong or that there's something happening with the brain and there might be and so please have all of that checked But let's address any nutritional deficiencies that might be there and make those changes first because the outcomes change the whole trajectory of your life. If you think about, let's say you're diagnosed with anxiety as a teenager, you can grow up sometimes feeling, it's not true for everyone, but when I speak to girls, girls they'll say I feel like there's something wrong with me and when you perceive there's something wrong with you it has such a big impact on the choices you make on the friendships you stay friendship groups you stay part of your belief in your own intelligence and the education you feel capable of getting

the jobs you feel confident in applying for so when we have that when we believe there's something wrong with us, it can literally change the path of our life. And can you imagine for some, it's not true for all, but can you imagine that if we correct iron deficiency or as you talk about pre-diabetes that you're experiencing, if we correct those things, it can change the whole course of our life. So that's, I'm on a real mission to bring all of that to life so that we correct some of these really simple things that can make a big difference. It has such a big ripple effect. Yeah.

No, I completely concur with everything you said. That rings true for me at my age. And I would hate to think that there were teenage girls feeling that way when, you know, a blood test can set us on the right path to finding out what the deal is. What should you do if you find out you have a deficiency in something, say it's iron, because nutritionists aren't cheap. That information can be really hard to find on the internet. And what is the right information? What should you do?

Firstly, knowing how much you require each day, because it does change across our lifetime. And it's also different for men and women. It's different for boys and girls. So firstly, knowing how much you need. And then there are things online you can plug it into to see what that actually looks like. I've mapped it out, obviously, in Fix Iron First so people know how to quantify that. There's also free information on my website on drlibby.com.

Amazing. You work out. And also, too, there are people who eat in a vegan and a vegetarian way and it comes from deep inside them so it's a genuine it's a genuine choice it's almost part of their identity so it's very very important to them there are also people who eat that way because they've been influenced by their peers or they feel pressured to eat that way they're embarrassed to be seen eating meat and so they they would be someone I would challenge them and say, is that really true for you?

And it might be, but sometimes we need, for those people who are doing it because they feel like it's a fad, it's not a deep desire from within them, then including, for example, some more red meat is a great way, obviously, to boost iron. So our red meat is our richest source obviously to boost iron so our red meat is our richest sourced offal meats are our richest sourced um but i have literally i've been almost underground for the last five years um researching iron so it's kind of it's all i want to talk about

yeah but and i've developed developed a supplement with bioblends called iconic iron and we've actually obtained ferritin iron from organic peas. So that's a supplement that would actually suit everybody, whether they're vegan eaters or meat eaters. And yeah, the clinical trials have just been extraordinary and the difference it makes to our blood iron levels and our ferritin. Yeah, that must do your head in, those people that are... And I've done it. I've wanted to be vegetarian for a little bit, and I didn't have enough information. So you're just eating a lot little bit and I didn't have enough information. So you're just eating a lot of salads and you're not getting enough. If you're going to choose to live your lifestyle one way, I think you need to really know your breakdown of your macros.

You need to know what you're doing. Yeah, it's so true. And we might do something with the best of intentions or believing that it's the best thing for us. And our body has this extraordinary wisdom and it'll give us believing that it's the best thing for us. And our body has this extraordinary wisdom and it'll give us feedback when it's not happy. And whether that's through, you know, fatigue or things like more anxious feelings, whatever, a really pale face, that's just information. So our body can be our best friend if we allow it to be. Yeah, I totally agree with you. Thank you so much for coming in. Dr. Libby's new book is called

Fix Iron First. The new supplement is out there as well. And if you need some more information, you can go to drlibby.com. It is, and the supplement's at bioblends.com. Thank you so much for your time. Pleasure. Loved our chat. Thank you so much.