You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talks EDB.
Yes, welcome back to the Weekend Collective. By the way, if you missed any of our previous hour, we had a chat with Eric is stan for the Minister of Immigration on the new parent boost quality policy, and also Jordan Williams and the Taxpayers Union joined us to talk about oh, just polls and all the questions and that it's actually quite an interesting discussion, especially when it comes to the margin of era, which is my pet peeve.
But anyway, if you want to check that out, you go to a website or to iHeartRadio look for the Weekend Collective. We get our hours up very quickly after they've concluded, and this will be no different. But you, of course you're here right now. So this is the Health Hub and we're going to have a chat about just how busy our lives are with school, you know, school runs, sports, drop offs, appointments with stuck in trap,
we're running eight late for something. But there's this talk about burnout versus I mean, are you burning out and or are we just living busy lives and we need to be able to cope with it. But of course does a nutrition play a part of that? And of course I mentioned nutrition because joining us she is a nutritional biochemist and she's very familiar in news talks, a B audiences, and she's joining us now is doctor Libby Weaver. Good afternoon, Tim, Good afternoon to you.
Thanks so much for having me join you for this chat.
Thanks for coming on board. I was about to say that we're coming across on zoom and you're The office you are in is quite an intriguing background because it looks to me like you're trying to get a little bit of copper intake or something.
It's funny that, given that copper is so important for our iron absorption and iron utilization once it's inside us. So it's very funny that you say that. No, I'm in beautiful burly heads in Queensland this afternoon. Where make you jealous? It's twenty degrees in sunshine.
Ah, well it's cold here, but I like about a thirteen degree here, but the sun is still shining. Thank goodness. Is there something just on that? Just to get into it, there are always sort of topics to jure social media, people talking about being burnt out or and it seems to be almost the I don't want to say it's a trend, but we are stating our level of burnout more frequently, and I look at what previous generations have gone through and put up with where are we at
with that? And does nutrition play a part in how we are dealing with our busy lives.
I love this as a thing to ponder, tim, and my answer, of course is yes, nutrition plays a role in absolutely everything, including our resilience. And we can dig right into that, which I think I hope will be
really helpful to listeners. But firstly that the idea of burnout is actually it's not a medical condition, but and I agree with you, it is a term that is probably overused right now, but there are certainly some people for whom it's very real, and it's described as unrelent fatigue, a sense of exhaustion that's not relieved by sleep, and it persists. And it's also it's very much linked, certainly the World Health Organization link it to the workplace, to
our professional lives. But obviously, when someone is genuinely burnt out, and i'll describe the chemistry of that in a moment, of course, it can impact our personal lives. So essentially, so, cortisol is a really beautiful substance that we make inside of us. When we make the right amount of it, it has a lovely anti inflammatory effect, and when we make too much, it changes many aspects of our metabolism.
It disrupts our ability to regulate blood glucose. But when we ask when in our brain, we've got our hypothalamus the master control center. It talks to the petuittory and says, hey, we're either stressed or we're not. And if the signal is sent to the petuittory, that there is stress. And I'd love to sort of unpack what people perceive stress is these days, because I think it's playing into that that then sends a message to the adrenals you need
to make things like adrenaline and cortisol. So after many years of the petuitory demanding cortisol production from the adrenals, I think part of what happens is the body can
no longer supply the amount that's required. We need magnesium, big group vitamins, and vitamin C to literally be able to make cortisol, and when we can't meet demand, that's when the symptoms of burnout, genuine burnout actually kick in, which is the fatigue, the muscle soreness, the stiffness, or essentially conditions of inflammation then start to kick in.
How does I mean, how does does the what's the role of healthy lifestyles? And I know we're here to talk about nutrition in the sort of space, but something as simple as going for a walk and exercise and other things like that that because I mean, everything ties in together, isn't in the great White I'm a just about to sing out and John the circle of life. But I mean, it's not simple, is it. It's not just a case of you know, where you take this,
eat this vegetable or eat this. There's a whole holistic thing to the way we perceive things and their attitude to burnout and stress. And you stop me anytime, because I think that's my question somewhere in there.
Yeah, and I agree with you. I do feel we've made there's this tendency right now to make health really complicated. And for some people it is. I'm not denying that, but there are also for many people, there are some real basics, some real fundamentals that we're not necessarily doing so well at so we literally require nutrients, require the whole range of nutrients for our body to be able
to function at its best. And a lot of people might get enough food, but they don't necessarily get enough nutrition because when they're relying on ultra process food and too much takeaway food that can be lacking in nutrients. Then of course there's the movement that going for a walk, the stretching, just the using of our body in a physical capacity, exposure to sunlight, exposure to sunshine, getting good
quality sleep. So there's so many, you know, real basic fundamental requirements that I call the body our earth suit, that our earth suit needs, and for some of us, we're just not doing that well enough, and we tend to think then that there's something really complex that's required. When I like to get the basics right and then let's see what's left over.
So when it comes so eating a processed diet, if you are cooking your own food, buying your own and actually, let's not pretend that's easy for everyone, because you know, buying fresh fruit and vegetables and things, there's a cost
to all that. But if you are able to do your own cooking or providing for yourself, is that generally that everything in moderation sort of question answers it or because the leading question after that is is there a role for vitamins and supplements or are they just expensive wheaze?
So it really so, I very much think that supplementation is required for people these days. I wish it wasn't the case. I'm the first person on the planet who wish we could get everything we need from our food
these days. But because of depleted soil levels of certain nutrients, because of the constant, persistent, relentless production of stress hormones, and also our exposure to more pollutants than ever before through what we eat, drink, and absorb through our skin, air quality, etc. We literally require more nutrition to be able to deal with those pollutants and those persistent elevated
stress hormones. So you sort of couple that together with depleted soil levels, and that is a key role for supplementation to play for a lot of people these days, unfortunately. And then of course there's the times in our life where certain groups in the population actually require an amount of nutrition that they might not be able to get from food. So, for example, across the menstruation years, women need eighteen milligrams of iron per day just to prevent
deficiency and to put and that's quite a lot. So to put that into context, it's just over half a kilogram of beef each day. Now, I'm not suggesting everyone goes out and starts viewing that, but easy for some favor for everybody. So there are times in our life where our requirements have actually increased and we can do it through food if we're very dedicated and very focused
on it. But that takes education, and it also takes a real commitment to eat for society, whereas a lot of women across that time in their life, unfortunately are still influenced by sort of dieting mentality or restricted eating in some way, and so meeting iron requirements can be really tricky with answers.
That sort of sounds quite I mean that that makes me feel very It makes me feel anxious that we've got this catastrophe that we can't get what we need from our from our flora and fauna in terms of just our own environment eating wise, it feels really bad. I mean, I think you need to give me some hope on.
This and get well. It's partly I dedicated one of my cookbooks to farmers. I got to know a lot of local farmers too, because if farmers stopped caring, the world's going to fall apart. So the quality of everything
stems from the soil. And it's why I wish, you know, I encourage people to go to farmers markets if they have access to them, and you know their names, and shake their hands and thank them for the food that they grow, because, as I said, if they stop caring, honestly, everything will fall apart, because it really does begin with the health of the soil, and our knowledge of that
is really growing. And it's also where if we can you know, if you live in an apartment, if you can grow things in a pot on your balcony, or if you can have some raised garden beds, if you do have a backyard. It is sort of returning to what our grandparents did, but it's it's really worth that time and investment in. Certainly from my values perspective, are.
There simple things when it comes to my producer is chatting to because I heard you on Chatting on Mike Mike Costkings Show a week or two ago, and there was you made a comment about the copper pipes that we don't. We actually get copper from the fact that we used to get water supply from copper pipes, and because the copper helps you absorb by it and things
like that. But my producer was saying that there's a thing you can buy and stick in your kettle called it it's like an iron lucky iron fish, and it's just basically it helps contribute that important mineral to our diet. I mean, are there simple things we can do like that?
So I actually haven't dug into the veracity of that. So it's a trend that's come out of Asia and is used in Asian cooking, and I'm really hopeful that there is some veracity to it and that it is effective, that it does translate to that iron actually being able to enter human blood. I don't know if there's been any research done on it yet, but it's certainly something that comes up quite regularly in my chats about iron.
It's it's a random thought. It just intuitively followed that when you were talking about copper pipes. So I would have never have thought of, like, I mean, should I be buying myself a copper kettle to mcap of tea? But I mean these it's part of our environment, doesn't it. And at luck cast iron cook where I don't know is there anything to be I know we're getting into it feels we're getting into wacky territory.
But then maybe not really, No, not really. And it's and I consider all of you know, I look so much sadly, so much nutrition information these days is marketing. It's not robust nutrition science. And it's partly why I look to history for lessons, I guess, and a common sense approach. I try to very much approach things with that common sense had on And certainly I agree with
you very much. You know, we've changed what we cook our food in, we've changed what we obtain our drinking water through in our homes in saying that we've got to be a little bit careful with copper because we don't need very much of it. We only need about one milligram, so about a thousand micrograms per day, whereas other nutrients we need a lot more of.
Can you please over to it. Can you put that in context for us? Because we hear numbers and micrograms millograms, What does that actually look like in terms of where we would so for instance, water's flying through our copper pipes.
I mean, obviously there's some sort of transference that goes on, but I mean, what does that look like If somebody's to do a study on it, would somebody say, well, actually, if you get all the coppy you need, you'd have to drink tin gallons a day through copper piping or is it? I mean, how do we find that context with all the numbers?
Yeah, so it depends as far as water exposure to copper. It depends how long it actually sits on the copper pipe and is in contact with it. So if you know the water's been sitting in that pipe for a long time, it might actually be risky. You might actually
end up with too much. Whereas when someone's using their taps and pipes regularly and it flows across it, you just obtain a fairly small amount, which can be actually quite ideal, but to be Yeah, we do get a small amount of copper through our food, so in things like dark chocolate and avocado. So there's some good news for people because they're delicious food. Yeah, so we do
get some copper through our food. It's something I've been talking about though, because I've just released a book called fix im First and an nine supplement called Iconic Iron, And I feel the copper conversation gets lost in that because when we actually get iron out of our food, it's actually some copper dependent enzymes that allows the iron to travel to the bone marrow to be able to
go into storage so we can use it later. And to blow everyone's mind, your your body is making two and a half million new red blood cells every single second, which is just extraordinary. And all of those red blood cells need iron and for that iron to get back to the bone marrow to make the red blood cells. That's why the copper is one of the reasons why the copper is so important.
So what I mean, what are the simple ways of getting those two I mean, I mean, I know when we've had previous chats, there are different elements about nutrition we focus on, but we're focusing on those issues like copper and iron. I mean, where does that sit in terms of our priorities and how easy it is to make simple decisions to rectify the problem, any problem we might have.
Yeah, So, iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency globally, including in New Zealand. So up to fifty five percent of women across the menstruation years are depleted of iron in some way, and it's now affecting around thirty seven to forty percent of toddlers. So it's a really growing problem in children. And obviously our best food source is all of our awful foods that's not appealing to everyone. Our next best food sources all of our red meat,
so beef and lamb. And obviously there's a trend, and particularly with teenage girls, to more vegan and vegetarian eating, and that is sometimes occurring right at a time where their iron requirement is increasing because they've just started to
menstru eate. As far as little children go, I think it's one of the things I'm on a real mission with is to really increase the awareness of the importance of offering iron rich foods to little humans because the iron they're born with it's conferred at birth, only lasts them for about four to six months, and so when solids are introduced at around that six smump mark, iron rich foods need to be part of that picture. So
it's all very doable with food. We just need to be focused on it and offer it to the little ones and also teenagers as well as adults.
That would explain why my wife was making Would it have been a wouldn't have been a liver pathe but a liver sort of paste, I think, and was when the kids were first on it, there was there was a bit of liver in the house, which actually, to be honest, I quite tasty.
Really good on you. What a superstar she is. That is so brilliant and to offer that to the whole household is outstanding.
Do you like a bit of awful?
Do I? Absolutely?
Yeah?
Good? Well you know not everyone you know not everyone's in misteak and kidney pie. Kidney's are awful, aren't they?
Yeah?
Yep?
What kidney liver brains? I actually sheep's where we're really off on a tangent. Now sheep's brain. I think sheep's brain, I think are actually one of the most underrated foods. They're full of omega three fats. They've got colin, which is great for our brain. And when we think about how we used to eat the whole animal, the brain was obviously hard of that. And I can remember growing up in the seventies, Mum had always sheep's brains frozen in the freezer, and she would crumb them to make
them a bit more palatable for me. But love them still do.
I tend to think that the thing with some of these it's not to actually know what you're eating, isn't it. I mean, I just remember when I was a kid, weird. I guess it was called steak and kidney. Was before I was old enough to realize what a kidney was. It was just a word and we go ahead. We really love steak and kidney. If I'd eaten it after I'd studied the anatomy of humans and sheep, I have been like, that's a harder sell for me.
It's the texture. I think that troops a lot of people up. That's certainly the feedback that you know, young children will say. But yeah, sometimes it is better not to know, isn't it.
Now?
Yes, we have had a few tangents. As I'm chatting with doctor Libby Weaver. She's a nutrition and biochemist, and she's actually got a new book out which is fix On First, I think, which I've heard you talking about
in the media a little bit lately. And if you've got any questions for Libby about your diet, and if there's something you're concerned about or you think you might be a bit deficient in something, and how do you or if you're feeling a little bit burnt out, or anything that you've got in terms of questions for Libby, give us a call I eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty text on nine two nine two. And as you've heard worth my conversation, whether are the few tangents, there's probably not too many things off limits, So give us a call I e one hundred and eighty ten eighty. We'll be back in just a moment. It's twenty four past four. News Talk said b Yes, welcome back. We're with the nutritional bichemist doctor Libby Weaver. Who's with us
taking your calls? I started the conversation, by the way, talking about is there a difference between being busy and burnt out and looking after yourself nutritionally when you feel the stress is getting on top of you. But taking your calls on anything, whether it be actually just quickly, I will go to the calls. But I've had a few texts Libby about copper bracelets. What's the story with them?
Yeah, so you do absorb mental. You can minerals through your skin, so that's again something that a trends that's sort of fallen away that you still see some elderly people wearing. But that is one way, Yes, we can obtain some copper. I think too though it's you know, we're barking on a bit about copper arno, but it's very important to know that we can absorb too much of certain minerals and it can then offset the balance
of our minerals. So zinc and copper compete for absorption, so we have to be mindful that we have the right amount of both of those, rather than when we're real copper focused, we can end up becoming low in zinc and vice versa. When we're very zinc focused, we can end up becoming deficient in copper. So the body has an extraordinary wisdom to regulate those things. But if we are sort of hammering ourselves with too much of one or of those that can offset the other one, right.
We're going to get into a bunch of calls because they're lining up. Let's go lz Hello ah.
Hi, yes, hi, doctor Labe. I've read a few of your books and most recently, but twelve months ago, diagnosed with diverticulate lits have diverarticular I think it is. I then went and went on the diet recommended by a renowned nutritionist, a Lady Goodall, And then twelve months later I tested my cholesterol and it had doubled. So now I'm coping with a gut just order and trying to lower my cholesterol. Do you have any tips please?
Oh? So, what I share obviously is for education purposes. It's not a prescription because I don't know your thorough health history. So but generally speaking, cholesterol, the most of the cholesterol when we have a blood test for cholesterol has been made by our liver, and then our diet contributes about twenty percent. So when someone's collect stroll suddenly elevates or or elevates quite significantly over a twelve month period, the first thing I think about is what's happening with
their liver? So is there some inflammation going on? Or has there been a huge drop in fiber consumption for example, because fiber helps cholesterol leave the body, So it might be that your body's giving you feedback that the dietary changes you made is not quite right for you.
So actually I should we should differentiate that as a doctor. Being a doctor, you're with a PhD in nutrition, I think some people think that that's like going down to your local GP suit, So you're not going to be dishing out specific medical advice, Is that right?
No, I'm very nutritionl I have a PhD in biochemistry and my first degree was in nutrition and dietetics, so I'm very nutrition focused, but I also understand some chemistry. But I'm not a medical doctor.
Actually, just another tangent and we'll get on to more calls. Usual when people do PhDs, they do some really interesting quirky topics. What was your what was your thesis in for your peach to PhD?
So it was back in the nineties, and I looked at I worked with children with autism spectrum disorder when it was very much considered a purely neurological condition. So I looked at the biochemical, nutritional, imminological and microbiological aspects in children with autism spectrum disorder. So I didn't tell my friends this because it would have sounded very strange. But every day turning up to the laboratory where I did my research, I had skis or in New Zealand.
I learned to say chili bin. I would have a chili bin of feces turn up, fece samples turn up. We then that I then plated to look at the microbial what were the microbes that were in the gut. So this was back before we use the word gut microbiome, we simply call it. Back then, we called it a gut bacteria profile. And I was looking at the difference between the children with ASD and coals.
Yeah, another reason the first person he's one of our leading scientists in his field. But I was intrigued when I chatted about what he did as a thesis and and it was in the chemical properties of toad urine, and I just thought, Wow, there's some amazing topics you get to do. Anyway, let's not digress, Joe, Well, let's carry on with the conversation.
Allison, Hello, Hello Stock Olivia. When you go to your doctor and they do a blood test, they automatically check your iron levels at that stage, how do you know what you iron levels are?
So great question. When you have your your GP can organize the blood tests absolutely, and you want to. When you're chatting with your GP, you ask for iron studies, and that then gives you four different parameters in your blood test. So it will give you iron. It will also give you a thing called transferrin. Transferring, if you imagine, is like the bus that picks up the iron and drives it round. So when someone is iron deficient, their
transferrin is high. And that could be confusing because if you were to look at those results and you see the word transferrin and you see the letter H for hire beside it, you might think, oh, I have too much iron, But that's not the case. Transferring is the bus that picks up the passengers, the passengers being the iron, to drive it round.
Well, I should ask for that. I have a budget of scream map because I've got a problem with my thyroids. To stimulate your hormone as what's fourt's out of three Now, I've got to try and get the low as possible. There's nothing in my diet that could have any effect on there. I'm trying to sort of get my try and keep as low as positive gifts to nine. You've got to have your th I don't want to get
it up any higher. You wouldn't know anything that any food or anything that would have an effect on there. There's nothing to do with sold I don't think.
So well done, You've got some great knowledge there, so well. The other iron parameters that you test is transference saturation and then ferretin. Ferretin is the one low. Chronically low ferretin has been linked to hypothyroidism, so that underactive thyroids. So yeah, And the normal range for ferretin in our New Zealand pathology labs is twenty to two hundred and twenty micrograms per liter. In my clinical experience, that bottom
number is too low. I feel that there's you want that you want a minimum of a ferretin of fifty, but ideally pursue eighty or even one hundred, so that there might be some there might be something there to look at as far as better supporting your thyroid function, because the thyroid literally requires iron to be able to make its hormones.
All right, So there the connection. You can live without your thyroid, can't you. I don't know.
Well, Well, thanks to the joys of modern medicine, Yes, they will supplement you with thyroxin, with the hormone that the one of the hormones that the thyroid makes so yes.
Thanks for your call, Alison. I've got a quick question, actually, what's the difference between nutritionally speaking, between commercially baked bread versus people who are at home doing their own sourdough and leavened bread. And in terms of the grains and the high extraction wheats and all that, is there a nutritional advantage to.
Base hugely, tim absolutely, And it's the fermentation, especially the fermentation period that is so beneficial to our gut and our gut microbiome and the digestibility of the grains. Plus with when we're baking it at home, we don't extra gluten. So gluten is typically added to the store board bread to make it lighter and fluffier because that obviously appeals
taste wise to a lot of people. But all that extra gluten is not so favorable given that we research shows that it actually creates the production of a thing called zonulin, which is a big fancy word no one needs to remember, but it can lead to increased gut permeability i e. Leaky gut. So not in everybody, but certainly in some people they seem very susceptible to that.
So if you love cooking, not everybody does. I understand that, But if you love cooking, then baking your own bread is an absolute superstar way to go.
I was asking for a friend there.
Good on you, mister baker.
Yeah, good stuff, right, let's carry on, Calvin.
Hello, doctor Libby. I've cooked and eaten all sorts of awful tripe and kidneys and all this sort of thank tongues. I've been disappointed in the last couple of years not being able to buy tins of tongue, you know, sheeps and lambs tongues can't seem to get them anywhere. But what I wanted to find out is potatoes. Oh yeah, I was going to say too. With mandarins, occasionally eat the manderin whole, you know, the skin and everything, and people look at you. But of course you eat orange
and grapefruit skins when you have marmalade. But what I wanted to find out potatoes the potato skin. More often than not, I just leave the skin on and carry on eating. Is there much goodness in the potatoes skin?
There's a lot of goodness there and just under the skin. So as long as you're giving it a good wash, then that's a terrific way to go.
Actually, there was something I read about potatoes when you've cooked them, when they've cooled and then you heat them again, there's a different property to them. Was that's that about?
Oh, tim so good that you know that it's resistant starch. So when we cook potato and eat it warm, there's been a but then as you say, once we've cooked it, let it cool, the what's called resistant starch level increases, and that's been shown to be incredibly beneficial for the gut microbiome. It acts essentially like what we call a pre biotic, So it's really good food for healthy gut bugs. So it's a good reason to eat something like say a potato salad or Yeah, it's just great.
Careful with the mayonnaise, of course. Actually well, oh yeah, when you reheat it, does it still retain some of the called you know the yep, amaze us. It is right, lots of Now I'm going to take a break and we'll come back with more calls. And yeah, that's eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. It's twenty three minutes to five News talks. He'd be yes, News talks, he be We're with doctor Libby weaver nutritional bio chemist. It's going
to say biomechanist, but that's the completely different expertise. I've got a quick question because before we we head you on the show, I was doing a bit of reading about the iron side of things, Libby, and the stat that actually did alarm me a bit was close to one in three teenage girls and deficiency in iron. And I don't want to get well. I can get into the mechanics if you want, but being a man, I
don't think I should. But with menstruation, I mean, is it all down to that because I actually don't know the volume in terms of percentage that of blood that has passed in menstruation. But can you just dig into that because a lot of you know, constantly kids with who people have got girls who are growing up and hitting puberty and those that's a concern for them. So what should you know? What are some facts that are useful there?
Yeah, thank you, Tim, That's I feel such an important question for everyone to really understand. So, yeah, requirements increase once menstruation starts. So a standard period is considered to be the loss of about sixty meals of blood, which is between sixty ten pads or tampons to put it into context for people, And with the sixty meals of blood, there's thirty milligrams of iron lost, So the increase in
iron requirement is primarily due to that iron loss. And we can do it through food, absolutely, But it is a time where sadly, a lot of teenage girls are being influenced by their peers, or by social media or all sorts of things, and there's this real trend towards vegan or vegetarian ways of eating, and it's right at a time where they need more iron, not less. And yes, you can do it. You can meet your needs in a vegan and vegetarian way, but the requirements are actually
multiplied by one point eight. The RDII is multiplied by one point eight if someone eats in a vegan or vegetarian way, So it means those girls need thirty two point four milligrams of iron per day, and they're not going to do that without a supplement. It's hard enough when you're a hearty eater and you eat for satiety to do that with food. And that's where supplementation, obviously is really important. And this part of what I'm really
wanting to bring to life with my fix iron. First message is to help people of all ages understand the symptoms of iron deficiency. It was something that was really addressed. I feel much better in sort of the seventies and even the eighties. You know, we were all I was dragged off to the not drag, but you know, taken off to the GP for a blood test for iron, and it was really common and we all knew that, and we all had to go on iron supplements at
that time in our life. And anxiety is actually one of the symptoms of iron deficiency. Now, obviously the symptom of anxiety can be attributed to a whole host of problems, and the solution can be wide and varied for different people.
But I'm just wanting to bring iron deficiency into that conversation so that particularly parents are aware if teenage girls sort of suddenly head in that direction with describing more anxious feelings, if it's around the time where there is more blood loss because of menstruation has begun, I just want iron deficiency to be something they consider and investigate and.
Probably at Highlight's just the importance of having conversations with your daughters as well. Just about what they're reading and what they're learning, and because you know, if they've suddenly gone off, you know, having a stake at dinner time, is it because of something you've listened to on the social media?
Yes, exactly right.
Let's go out and take some calls. I will try and and I have diverted a couple of times, but these are I think those are important issues to dig into. But we'll try and get through as many causes as we can from here, so if we can keep it concise, John, Hello.
HOI how are you people tonight?
Good? Thanks John? What would you like to talk about?
Well?
I went to the doctor and I said to the doctor and I said to him, can I get a multi vitamin? And what I want to know is the multi vitamin that i'll get from my doctor because I know it's free. Where I go to get it from?
Oh, you get it prescribed? How are you talking about? How do you choose a multi vitamin? Which are some better than are some more equal than others? Or better?
Yeah?
Well, I just spent to me doctor and I said can I get a multi vitamin? And he said, yes, sure you can, so it can It comes prescribed for free Okay, well, how.
Would you choose one Lebby if you went, I don't know, you could get that from your doctor. That's news to me.
It's news today as well. But that's terrific if that's the case. Essentially, it can be a little bit tricky to choose quality because there are certainly some supplement companies that spend more on marketing than they do on research and development, and some are formulated by marketers rather than
by scientists. So where you can you want a reputable brand where you know that you know someone stands behind it, someone with a scientific background who understands nutrients because when, for example, when on trials with iron, there are some supplements that are so poorly absorbed. I won't name them, but it's very concerning that you know they're essentially presented as a solution to iron deficiency because some of them
are so really lack bioavailability. So I'd be looking for a reputable brand if you are in a position to do that. She's a reputable one where that you actually know they actually spend money on research and trialing it with people.
Yeah, okay, right, let's go to Linda.
Hello, Hi tum Hi.
Doctor Lovy I gave us using ridden meat in the twenties. I'm seventy now there's quite a bit of publicity at the time. You know, New Zealand had a high rate of bowel cancer and they're sort of connecting it at the time with our high meat consumption. Anyway, I've got low ferritin generally around the sixty mark, and I couldn't take iron supplements. They made me nauseous, buged up. One of the nurses at that when I gave blood, used
to give blood, suggested florovital. Anyway, Then with my six monthly blood test because of having to take thyroxine, my liver function was high or adverse, had a high. It was eighty uls when it should be in a range of eighty zero to fifty. And the Practice News four said, look, next time, don't take the florovital before you have your six monthy blood test, And sure enough, the liver function was right back to normal the next time. So have you heard of that before?
Yes, so, high doses of iron with the old fashioned supplements, high doses of iron can actually create inflammation and what's called oxidative stress because the gut cell can get This is a lot of chemistry, a lot of science. The gut cell itself can get exposed to iron, whereas and that's not to It's why I've spent so long in research and development to develop the bioblend's iconic iron is
because it overcomes that problem. The gut cell is not exposed to the iron, so it doesn't drive that inflammation. But yes, I have very much heard of what you're describing, and you get a much more accurate picture when you don't have your iron supplement just the day before.
Hey, thanks for your call, Linda, appreciate it. A quick text here Highlabi. I was interested in the iron conversation. We use cast iron pans and wondering does that help us a source of iron? Yes, thank you from Carl. Even though they're seasoned and you've got the.
You know you'll get a little bit of iron. Okay, well it's not enough to sort of meet your daily needs, but it all contributes.
Yeah, all good. All part of the picture doesn't hurt. Look at it that way, right. Let's go to Allan.
Hello, yere hi, hi doctor Livy.
I have most mornings breakfast time. I have one egg either boiled or poached, and a friend of mine said, who's I'm in my eighties and friend of mine, who's just a little bit younger, he said, no, no, you shouldn't. You shouldn't have You shouldn't have more than two or three eggs a week. It's bad for you. And I don't know why you come out with that, but I enjoy my eggs, and I always.
Yeah, okay, can we can we help Ellen out with his eggs? I thought that was put to bed a while ago, that has.
Eggs are a really nutritious whole food, so you enjoy them. Alan, there's no concern.
Actually, as there such a thing as too many. I mean, if you had a couple of days every day, would that be a bother.
You? Your taste buds would let you know that. Or some people when they've had a sort of overdone it, they might notice they get a skin rash and they need to woo back. That's not very common though, so but usually you get to a point where you think, oh, I don't really feel like that for breaky anymore because you've had too many.
Okay, right, excellent good news for egglovers. It is eleven minutes to five, we'll be back and just to tick with Dr Libby Weaver. This news talk's be This is the health Hub where muntim beverage. My guest is doctor Libby Weaver, a nutritional biochemist. Actually just before we take ANX call. Of course, it's not hard to track you down. I mean that in a holistic sort of sense. But on the web, Libby, if people want to check out more about information about you, is it doctor Libby dot com.
That's it, spot on excellent.
Right, let's go to Grant.
Hello, Hello to hi doctor Libby. I just wonder if you could help me with the question regarding high theretom like eight hundreds nine hundreds, but with normal little functions CRP and ESR. Have we had any ideas?
So have you been tested for the genetic hemochromatosis? Not yet, so that would probably be next steps because obviously that is very high ferreton terrific that there's no inflammation and great that you're aware of it, but it might mean that you need to give blood or but certainly finding out if it is that genetic condition, because if that's the case, then reducing the iron content of your diet would actually be very beneficial. But even just with any
sort of iron accumulation. It's often recommended that people not just watch how much iron they're consuming, but also donate blood.
Okay, I had, because it was probably five hundred maybe five years ago.
Okay, yes, that's I would encourage you very much to get some more information from that with your GP.
Okay, tiers, grump, right, aw, let's do a few I'm not sure if we can do quick fire texts on a new once subject like this, But how about this here we go high term and doctor Libby. Well, don't ask. Maybe Libby is a store bought flour versus I guess organic milled flour that you might get direct from the farm. Any difference when it comes to or this person's asking for homemade sour dough, but just generally.
Yeah, so I am a big fan of getting certified organic flower if you can. Yea, and the grittier, the grittier the better. But you still want it obviously to be palatable and to enjoy it. But see if you can get it certified organic.
You mentioned about added gluten in commercial breads, so for baking your own bread, if you're doing sourdough, the farm, the organic farm will say our protein content is such and such is that protein or gluten or what is it?
So Gluten's just one of the proteins. There are numerous. That's just one of them. But yeah, the difference with that's fine if someone digest gluten without a problem. Soaldo is obviously terrific. It's more micns is more with a storeboard bread, there's a lot of added gluten.
Yeah. Okay. What about muscles as a source of iron from this text.
Fantastic suit They're an excellent dietary source.
Can you get a copper health supplement at the chemist? And how often and how much should you take? Well, that's a loaded question. Should you be taking a copper supplement? I guess would be the question.
Only only if you have insufficient blood copper levels, So your GP. Some gps don't like to test blood copper. They'll test another. It's an enzyme caught with a big funny word called cyrillo plasmin. That's a copper dependent enzyme, and some GPS will prefer to test that to find out if you are copper insufficient or not.
Okay, And this one says on your term. Women's bodies go through so many changes through their lives, that affect their health. US blokes need to step up and stop complaining and get the regular finger check. Okay, well, thank you for that health announcement there. That's not really a nutritional question. Is it mashed potatoes once cooled? Do they have some prebiotic qualities?
Yes? They do?
Any cool does Okay, We've got about forty five seconds left, so any final remarks. Dr Livy. Great to have you on the show again.
More.
We love chatting with you, Tim, love chatting with you. I just I really encourage people to know their iron status. Obviously if you're in families, particularly for teenage girls, for young young children, and also for adult women, and if there is any degree of deficiency, I can't encourage you enough to address it.
Excellent. Hey, thanks so much. Great to talk to you, and we'll look forward to next time with dror Livy Weave again in check out our website Dr Libby dot com. We'll be back with smart money in just a moment. This is News Talk ZB.
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