The Nutrition Couch

One in three young Australian women don’t have enough iron stored. And if you’ve ever been told your ferritin is normal while feeling exhausted, breathless on the stairs and unable to recover from training, a brand new international guideline suggests your result may not be normal at all. This week on The Nutrition Couch, Leanne Ward and Susie Burrell unpack the latest iron data, put t...

Eating more fibre but feeling more blocked, bloated or sluggish than ever? You’re not imagining it, and you’re definitely not alone. This week Leanne and Susie explain why piling on more fibre so often backfires. It’s especially common if you’re in a calorie deficit or taking a GLP-1 medication like Ozempic or Mounjaro. Leanne breaks down the three types of fibre your gut a...

Coffee instead of breakfast. Lunch at 2pm. Something at 5pm because you're starving, then dinner at 7.30 and maybe dessert after that. If that sounds like your day, this episode is for you. This week on The Nutrition Couch, Leanne Ward and Susie Burrell unpack why our meals keep sliding later and later, what that does to hunger and metabolism, and why it's okay to skip a meal when you're genuinely...

A new study found a common sunscreen chemical at surprisingly high levels in Queensland kids, and if you're a parent you've probably already seen the headlines. So what does it actually mean, and should you be changing what goes on your kids' skin this summer? This week on The Nutrition Couch, Leanne and Susie cut through the alarmist sunscreen coverage with a calm, evidence-based look at the rese...

That bottle of tomato sauce in your fridge could be anywhere from 53% tomatoes to 87%. And the brand that comes out on top will probably surprise you. This week on The Nutrition Couch, Leanne Ward and Susie Burrell work through the supermarket sauce aisle so you don't have to, then unpack the creatine sleep study that has been all over your feed. The tomato sauce ranking every family needs Leanne...

Most Australians buy crumbed chicken from the supermarket regularly. Very few have any idea that some of those products contain as little as 28% actual chicken. This week Leanne and Susie go through every major supermarket crumbed chicken product on the Australian market, from Woolworths and Coles to Aldi and the big brands like Ingham's and Steggles, and rank them by actual chicken content. The r...

GLP-1 medications are now so widely used that most people know someone who is on them or have been tempted to try them themselves. But the questions that come with these medications, how long, how much, what happens when you stop, and what about the black market options circulating online, rarely get answered clearly. This week Leanne and Susie work through the most frequently asked questions they...

Inflammation is everywhere right now. On Instagram, in wellness spaces, in your DMs. Everything from weight gain to brain fog to sore joints is being blamed on cortisol and chronic inflammation, and a growing number of people are convinced they cannot exercise, eat in a calorie deficit, or live normally because it will make their inflammation worse. So is any of this true? And is an anti-inflammat...

Fast food chains are now launching burgers with 80 grams of protein and calling it high performance. But is that actually good for you, or has the protein craze officially gone too far? This week Leanne and Susie answer the question the fitness industry does not want to talk about: how much protein is actually too much, what your body does with the excess, and why the race to push protein higher i...

If you have switched to oat milk because you think it is healthier than dairy, this episode has some important information for you. And if you saw Miranda Kerr's diet advice doing the rounds in the media this week, Leanne and Susie have thoughts. This week the team does a full ranking of every milk on the market, from full cream dairy to oat, soy, almond, coconut, and the new high-protein dairy mi...

If you watched the ABC Four Corners food fraud documentary and felt unsettled but were not quite sure what to do with the information, this episode is going to help. Leanne and Susie cut through the noise, share their honest dietitian response to what was actually alarming versus what was sensationalised, and give you the practical takeaways that matter. Then they expose one of the most misleading...

If you have already done the hard work, lost a decent amount of weight, and are now staring at the same two or three kilos that simply will not budge, this episode is going to make a lot of sense of what is happening and exactly what to do about it. Leanne and Susie break down the real physiology behind why losing the last few kilos is significantly harder than losing the first ten, why the strate...

If you or someone you know is on a GLP-1 medication like Ozempic, Wegovy, or Mounjaro and the results have plateaued, or the weight is starting to creep back, this episode has the explanation you have been looking for and it is probably not what your doctor told you. This week Susie breaks down exactly why these medications stop working for so many people, what is actually going wrong metabolicall...

Most people have no idea what actually happens to body fat when they lose it. They assume it is sweated out, burned off somehow, or just disappears. The real answer is both surprising and genuinely fascinating, and it changes how you think about fat loss entirely. This week Leanne and Susie open with the science behind what actually happens to fat cells when you lose weight, why fat cells shrink r...

If you have taken iron supplements for months and your ferritin still is not coming up, there is a physiological reason for that. And it is not your fault. A study published in The Lancet Haematology found that taking iron supplements on consecutive days actually blocks absorption due to a hormone called hepcidin, and that alternate-day dosing improved iron uptake by 40 to 50%. This is one of the...

If you shop at Aldi regularly or have been thinking about adding it to your grocery rotation, this episode is going to save you time and money. Leanne and Susie share their personal Aldi favourites, the specific products they recommend to clients, and the ones that look good but do not stack up. And if you have ever used AI to get nutrition advice, track your intake, or build a meal plan, there is...

Six Australians have developed acute liver failure after purchasing counterfeit weight loss peptides online. The TGA and the Victorian Department of Health have both issued urgent warnings this week. And yet these products are still a Google search away from anyone who wants them. If you have seen retatrutide or any weight loss peptide being promoted on TikTok or Instagram, or you know someone who...

Most women who are trying to eat well are getting carbohydrates wrong. Not because they are eating too many, which is what they usually assume. Often because they are eating too few of the right ones and too many of the wrong ones at the wrong times. This week Leanne and Susie break down one of the most misunderstood topics in women's nutrition, what too little carbohydrate actually looks like in...

Everyone is asking AI about their diet. Recipes, meal plans, protein targets, what to eat for weight loss. And some of what it spits out is genuinely useful. Some of it is wrong. And some of it, as one American celebrity found out the hard way after buying a fake celebrity-endorsed Jell-O diet, can actually make you unwell. This week Leanne and Susie give their honest take on exactly what AI can a...

If you are thinking about having a baby in the next year or two, or you have been trying for a while and wondering if your nutrition could be doing more, this episode is a genuinely useful place to start. And if you are in your 20s or 30s and have not had a blood test recently because you feel fine and assume everything is probably okay, Leanne and Susie have something to say about that too. This...

Most Australians eat chicken schnitzel regularly. Most are unknowingly buying one where barely a third of the product is actually chicken. This week Leanne and Susie went through every pre-crumbed and frozen chicken schnitzel option across Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi, checked the labels, compared the protein and chicken percentages, and came back with a definitive ranking of which ones are genuine...

If you have a family history of dementia or Alzheimer's and you have been wondering what you can actually do about it now, this episode has something important for you. New Australian research from the Australian National University has found that people consuming higher amounts of magnesium daily had measurably better brain health as they aged, with brains appearing roughly a year younger at midl...

You picked the toastie instead of the burger. You got sushi instead of a sandwich. You grabbed rice crackers instead of chips. You are making the healthy choice, right? Not always. And this week Leanne and Susie are talking about exactly that, the foods that feel like the lighter option but are quietly adding a lot more to your day than you realise. No guilt, just the information you actually need...

The pub has quietly become one of Australia's most budget-friendly options for a family dinner out. And with the cost of groceries where they are right now, that is not going to change any time soon. But if you are trying to eat well, the pub menu can feel like a minefield. Do you order the salad you do not actually want? Ignore the chips? Feel guilty for choosing the schnitzel? This week Leanne a...

You have probably seen them all over your Instagram feed. Beef liver supplements, sold as a natural, ancestral, high-iron fix for tired, depleted women. But before you add one to your cart, Leanne and Susie have something important to say. This week on The Nutrition Couch, they dig into the iron conversation that so many women desperately need to have, including why your doctor might have told you...