Why don’t we use a synthetic form of iron?

If you've ever taken an iron supplement, there's a good chance you've had one of two experiences. Either you didn't notice much improvement in how you feel or your digestive system noticed immediately. Nausea. Constipation. Stomach discomfort. That heavy uncomfortable feeling in your gut that can make taking your iron supplement feel like a daily chore or something you’d prefer to skip, rather than a step towards better health. And yet despite these experiences being incredibly common, most people are never told there are different forms of iron, nor that the way iron is delivered to the body can matter just as much as the amount.  

At Bio Blends, we spent five years developing Iconic Iron because we wanted to create something truly ground-breaking that not only moved the needle on blood test results and how you feel, but a supplement that delivered this without the gut-related side effects. We didn’t seek to simply create another iron supplement, but the ultimate iron solution that combines food-sourced ferritin-iron from organic peas with other food-sourced nutrient co-factors that iron needs like copper and beta-carotene. 

Here are five reasons we chose ferritin-iron for our iconic formulation. 

1. The body stores iron in ferritin

Nature does nothing by accident. When your body stores iron, it doesn't leave it floating around freely. Instead, it packages iron inside a specialised protein called ferritin. Think of ferritin as the body's iron storage vessel. It safely stores iron until it's needed, helping regulate availability while protecting tissues from the effects of excess free iron and the inflammation that can come from this. These were all things that excited Dr Libby about “the peas” when developing Iconic Iron. 

The ferritin-iron used in Iconic Iron is extracted from organic peas, where plants naturally store iron within ferritin structures, just as the human body does. Rather than delivering iron as an isolated salt, ferritin-iron arrives in a form that mirrors how nature packages and stores it. This means there’s not the inflammation in gut cells from exposure to free iron, the way there is with conventional iron supplements. Plus you don’t need copper to get ferritin-iron out of gut cells into the blood, which can be a limiting step in iron absorption for too many people these days. 

2. Ferritin-iron follows a unique absorption pathway   

Iron absorption is one of the most tightly regulated processes in human physiology. Your body is constantly assessing how much iron it has, how much it needs and how much it should absorb. Research shows us that ferritin-iron is absorbed completely differently to traditional iron supplements. Instead of relying on robust stomach acid as the first step to absorption (a step that’s compromised for to many people today due to stress), and instead of flooding gut cells with exposure to free iron (which can drive inflammation and oxidative stress), the majority of ferritin-iron is absorbed intact (with the iron safely inside the ferritin cage) through specialised pathways in the small intestine.  

This distinction is important because it means ferritin-iron overcomes the usual iron absorption hurdles, which typically means responsive blood test results and you feeling the difference.   

3. Food-sourced nutrients come with nutritional context   

Nutrition rarely works in isolation. In food, nutrients exist as part of an intricate network of compounds that support one another's absorption, transport and utilisation. This is one of the reasons Dr Libby has always been fascinated by whole foods. Despite all our scientific advances, we still cannot fully recreate the complexity of nature in a laboratory.  

When nutrients are delivered through food, they arrive with context. That's why Iconic Iron combines ferritin-iron with food-sourced copper. Copper plays an important role in iron transport and utilisation, making it a valuable companion nutrient rather than an afterthought. It's a small detail, but one that reflects a much larger philosophy: nutrition works best when we respect how nutrients naturally occur.  

4. High bioavailability means more isn’t always better   

For many people, iron supplementation has become synonymous with high doses. It's easy to assume when we are deficient, that if a little iron is good, more must be better. But nutrition doesn't always work that way. What ultimately matters isn't how much iron enters a capsule. It's how much your body can absorb and utilise.  

Ferritin-iron has demonstrated excellent bioavailability (in research settings, clinical practice and in the Iconic Iron reviews), meaning it can be effectively absorbed and used by the body. This allows us to focus on delivering iron efficiently rather than simply increasing the dose. At Bio Blends, we understand that the highest number on a label doesn’t automatically makes for the best supplement. Our focus is always on what the body can actually use.  

5. We chose effectiveness and tolerability over convenience   

This is perhaps the most important reason of all. Developing Iconic Iron wasn't the quickest path. There were options available that meant we could have released an iron offering years earlier. Conventional iron forms could have been formulated and brought to market far more rapidly. Instead, Dr Libby spent years searching for a food-sourced iron that aligned with her philosophy and met her standards.  

• It needed to be food-derived.  
• It needed to be well tolerated (without gut-related side effects).  
• It needed to be supported by research.  
• And most importantly, it needed to make a meaningful difference for the people taking it, in their blood test results as well as how they feel.  

That commitment ultimately led to ferritin-iron. Because when it comes to supporting iron levels, we don't believe the goal is simply to take more iron. The goal is to provide iron in a form that works with the body's remarkable intelligence. And that's exactly why we chose ferritin-iron.