When you offer up your home for a photoshoot and then discover it’s with two of our most well-known nutrition experts – Nadia Lim and Dr Libby Weaver – it comes served with a side dish of anxiety.
The anonymous homeowner, who’s a huge fan of both women, suddenly became nervous that these food gurus might take a peek in her fridge or pantry and discover items resembling, well, not Brussels sprouts. Even her mother insisted she have a clean-out, just in case.
“As if we’re going to look in there!” says Dr Libby, 52, laughing.
“Oh, the poor woman – I’d never do that in someone’s home.”
Catching up with Woman’s Weekly on a whirlwind trip to Auckland, she and Nadia, 40, are exactly as you might imagine them: all shiny hair, glowing skin, and instantly warm and engaging.
Why these food experts just click
Together, they’ve created a series of practical videos designed to empower viewers to reconnect with real food, but more on that later. The pair’s friendship began 15 years ago at the Food Show in Wellington. Sitting in the green room, nutritional biochemist Dr Libby was about to do a cooking demonstration, while newbie Nadia was due to take the stage too. Unsurprisingly, the best-selling authors found they had so much in common.
“I remember her being a bit nervous, but I thought she was absolutely amazing and I was so excited that a dietician had just won MasterChef,” shares Dr Libby, who was living in Auckland at the time, but now resides in the Queensland hinterland.
“What I loved about Libby is she’s quite geeky,” says My Food Bag co-founder Nadia.
“And I’ve always considered myself a food and science geek. So when we get together, we talk about soil health and pesticide use…”
“And chickens!” points out Dr Libby.
“Mine are all dead now though. I didn’t know foxes were out in the daytime. Oh, sorry to bring a downer!” she apologises, after a collective gasp from the team.
“What I love learning from Nadia is about farming. I grow vegetables in my backyard, but in another life, I would have been a farmer too. I so admire what she and Carlos are doing at Royalburn Station. I love hearing about all their wins and the challenges.”
Nadia’s favourite role of all
At the sprawling sheep farm near Queenstown that Nadia shares with husband Carlos Bagrie and their three boys Bodhi, 10, River, eight, and three-year-old Arlo, spring is in full bloom. Despite enjoying a few days on her own, she can’t wait to get back to her sons and the lambs that are arriving.
“When I walk in the door after being away, my boys run in for a big hug. This is quickly followed by ‘Did you get us anything?’ Usually it’s a lollipop I’ve picked up at the airport,” she laughs.
“I think we’re at a golden stage right now with their ages – they’re still so sweet. But I’m going to have a teenager in two and a half years! Hopefully, we’ve built the foundations for a good reciprocal relationship. We talk a lot and joke a lot. I love having three boys.”
Even though Nadia turned 40 last December, she reckons there’s been an even bigger, “more worthy” celebration – her youngest son is finally out of nappies.
“I did pay my middle child $50 to toilet train his younger brother. Well, it was my husband’s idea so I better give him the credit. We said to River, ‘Make sure you take Arlo to the toilet every hour.’ And he did and Arlo trained straight away without even needing a nappy overnight. What a score! It feels like a new stage of life. The boys are pretty independent and suddenly I can do more things for me.”
Nadia’s hardest chapter yet
Nadia has been vocal about what she describes as a long, wintry spell, where her mood and energy dipped, and anxiety nipped at her heels for the first
time. It felt like she was on a treadmill she couldn’t get off.
“Honestly, two years ago, I went through my hardest time,” she recalls.
“Arlo was about 18 months old, I’d just stopped breastfeeding him and my sleep wasn’t good. “My body hadn’t been my own for the past nine years. I was so tired, depleted and sick of doing everything for everyone else. “I never used to think I was a person who got very stressed,” she muses.
“However, I’ve realised maybe I was good at just keeping it under wraps. “It was the first time I experienced real anxiety. It was awful, so I feel for people who suffer from anxiety a lot. I realised that I wasn’t as tough as what I made myself to be for all those years of taking on all that I had. It was a very, very humbling experience.”
Dr Libby’s recipe for romance
Nadia confided that she was unhappy to her mother Julie, who had moved to Queenstown around the same time.
“A lot came out actually,” Nadia shares.
“Mum is usually a listener rather than a talker. But she was like, ‘Oh, yes, I remember I felt like that and almost divorced your dad and wanted to run away from you kids.’ It encouraged me that probably every mum is going to feel like that at some point.”
Since that wake-up call, Nadia now makes a conscious effort to prioritise time for herself.
“I used to think I had to earn it,” explains the Kiwi foodie.
“That only after all my jobs had been completed and ticked off that I could do something for me. But now it’s kind of the other way around! “I no longer think of getting a massage as a once-a-year birthday treat, so now I’ll get one every couple of months to help with sore muscles. And I no longer feel guilty about going for a walk in the middle of the week.”
For the founder of food-based supplement range On Blends (formerly Bio Blends), Dr Libby has also found herself in a new stage of life. Since meeting her partner Karl in 2018 – who has a background in exercise physiology – they also enjoy “geeking out” together at home discussing health topics.
“He’s delicious and my favourite person,” she grins.
“He’s wonderful with researching films and books, and making playlists for me on Spotify [it’s the equivalent of making mixtapes in the ’90s], which I find very romantic.”
Dr Libby’s next chapter
Her parents are aged in their eighties, and also require more of their only child’s care and support right now.
“My mum said to me last week, ‘It’s such a privilege to get old, but gosh, it’s ugly.’ She’s got some vision troubles. I can see how hard it is for them and that makes me so sad,” says Dr Libby.
“But I also think how lucky am I to be the age I am and still have both parents who are relatively well. Their bodies just have a mind of their own right now.”
Dr Libby says her fifties have also brought her most meaningful work: researching and developing Iconic Iron, a supplement containing ferritin iron sourced from organic peas.
“I’m so excited to take that internationally very soon,” she enthuses.
“I’ve found my purpose because iron deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world. “If correcting an iron deficiency could make a difference to a woman’s wellbeing or perception of herself or her energy levels, then I’m so happy.”
The conversation begs the question of what Dr Libby’s own ferritin level is. Curious, Nadia is the one who asks the question.
“Mine is currently at 96,” tells Dr Libby.
“Once upon a time, I could never get it above 40, and then I took Iconic Iron and it went to 104. I’m not on it now but it’s held at 96. Normal levels are between 50 and 150.”
When wellness trends go too far
Dr Libby says the one question she gets asked almost daily is not about iron, but ‘should I be taking creatine?’
“There’s a real culture online of ‘hacking health’. Strategies that elite athletes use but everyday people now think they’re supposed to be doing too, like ice-bathing or smashing creatine. “My godson is 14 and he told me he thinks he needs creatine. He’s not even at a gym – he’s just been exposed to the marketing messaging. My advice for him was, ‘You don’t need it. Just enjoy being 14.’ “He actually had some blood tests and was iron deficient! Well, Aunty Libby had a solution for that!”
Food “advice” is in our faces every day on social media. Nutrition messages that go viral aren’t always helpful or accurate.
“A lot of people with no qualifications in nutrition share advice from their own personal experience,” says Dr Libby.
“But it’s concerning when their followers take it as gospel without any consideration for their own genetics or what’s going on emotionally or with their digestion system. My biggest concern is less than 10 percent of New Zealand adults are eating five servings of vegetables a day. And it’s worse for children.”
Making healthy eating easier
That is why she and Nadia have teamed up with My Food Bag on its Fresh Start healthy eating programme. The collaboration cuts out the “mental admin” and meal-planning stress, focusing on whole foods and getting back to basics.
“When I worked as a dietician for the Auckland District Health Board, I soon realised that none of my fancy nutritional knowledge meant a thing to people if they couldn’t make a simple home-cooked meal,” tells Nadia.
“People knew what foods they ‘should’ be eating. But it’s hard to put that knowledge into practice if they don’t have wraparound support and tools to make it easy. So I came up with three overarching guidelines – One: Ignore the fads and diets. Two: Eat real food that comes from the ground, the sea and the sky. And three: Trust your gut – literally! – because you know better than anyone what suits you best.”
Watch Dr Libby and Nadia’s videos on youtube.com@MyFoodBag
