Prof Sarah Berry

speaker

966 appearances 5 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 5d ago

Prof Sarah Berry’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

Trend

recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 5 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 2.

Appearances

newest first · ▶ plays the moment

ZOE Science & Nutrition · Most replayed moment: What The Science Says About Supplements | Prof Tim Spector & Prof Sarah Berry · 23 Jun 2026 podcast

We also think about insufficiency.

So if we think about iron, for example, some people who aren't getting enough iron or aren't absorbing it well might have iron deficiency anemia.

there is a place then to supplement with iron.

Then there's other people that might have moderately okay iron stores, but might be quite fatigued and may benefit from some additional iron.

So that's in a phase of insufficiency.

But this whole idea of adding extra nutrients or adding extra chemicals, vitamins, minerals in to then boost your health,

I think that's where we start to go into problems so using iron again as an example if you have sufficient iron stores this idea that oh well hold on iron prevents us from feeling fatigued if you have anemia let's add more iron in to feel really you know this great boost of energy if you've got enough you don't need to add more and it's not going to make you feel more energetic and if anything it can actually be harmful.

Yeah, and I think as well, our bodies are so, so clever.

Our bodies know how much we need of these different vitamins and minerals and other nutrients.

So for example, with iron, we control the levels within really tight upper and lower boundaries.

And we have clever mechanisms to make sure we can control our iron stores, our vitamin stores, our minerals, et cetera.

And by adding loads more in, we're making our body work harder.

And sometimes they can therefore even be toxic because if we don't need it,

In many instances, we need to get rid of it to prevent toxicity, and that can put extra strain on our kidneys, other organs, etc.

I think, Jonathan, it's always important to caveat, and I'm always here to add that extra nuance, that I think, yes, in general, adding in these supplements, particularly high doses, is not necessary for the majority of the population who are having a healthy, balanced diet.

There are certain groups in the population that will benefit.

So particularly certain elderly groups who aren't consuming enough energy, who aren't consuming the right diversity of foods, who aren't consuming enough foods, they may benefit from having just a kind of broad spectrum multivitamin and mineral.

Folic acid, absolutely for women of childbearing age who are trying to get pregnant in the

supplementing with folic acid reduces the risk of neural tube defects between 30 to 75% in different populations.

People who have iron deficiency anemia, yes, supplementing with iron in the right way.

Showing 941–960 of 966 · page 48 of 49