Welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast, where Dr. Stephen Gundry shares his groundbreaking research from over 25 years of treating patients with diet and lifestyle changes alone.

Dr. Gundry and other wellness experts offer inspiring stories, the latest scientific advancements, and practical tips to empower you to take control of your health and live a long, happy life.

Iron-rich foods for energy. Beyond just meat. All right, first things first. What is iron and why do we need it?

Well, iron is one of the most common elements on Earth. We need iron to make hemoglobin, the molecule in our red blood cells that carries oxygen.

We actually need iron for many other processes in cellular function. So, without iron, you don't have hemoglobin, and therefore you can't function and carry

oxygen efficiently. Now, the problem is that iron has gotten a notoriety as being far more important

for our health than it actually is. Now this actually started

years ago in the 1950s and 1960s with a company called Geratol and Geratol

and Geratol sponsored a lot of TV programs when I was growing up and

Geratol was trying to convince people that the reason you had low energy is that you had iron poor blood.

And that geritol would help with energy because you had iron poor blood.

Now, this, of course, was without any basis in fact, but it sure sold and it sponsored a lot of TV.

So a huge generation grew up thinking that iron gave us energy and nothing could be further

than the truth.

The problem with iron is that, yes, we need it, but iron russes us.

Iron oxidizing is what causes rust. And iron oxidizing in us, believe it or not, makes us age

faster than we should. Now, I've been writing about it in all my

books, but let me give you some very impressive examples. First of all, there was a study a number

of years ago looking at people who were blood donors versus people who did not donate blood. And lo and behold, people who were

regular blood donors lived on average about seven years longer than non-blood donors. Why? Because they

were getting rid of iron. Now recently, a new study was done because, let's face it,

when you donate blood, you get rid of a lot of iron. And maybe there's a point where it

...