Neetha Lobo came to ION to help her daughter. She left with a BSc (Hons) in Nutritional Therapy, a study on nutrient shortfalls in people taking GLP-1 medications that is attracting attention at national conferences, and a practice spanning Lanserhof at The Arts Club and the NHS.
When Neetha’s youngest daughter was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, the family suddenly found themselves navigating a world of hospitals and specialists. The care was excellent. But the focus was on medication and remission, never on what had triggered the illness or the role diet and lifestyle could play.
“Just medication did not seem like the right answer,” she says.
Her search for answers led her to functional medicine and nutritional therapy. When she asked friends and doctors where to study, the answer was unanimous. “Literally every one of them told me ION is the place.”
Neetha had spent her early career in the City of London as a private clients manager at a bank, but stepped back to focus on her family after her second child was born. Her science background meant she could bypass the Science Access course and go straight onto the four-and-a-half-year degree. Returning to study at 52 was “a big slog”, she admits. “But the motivation was there to help my daughter, and that kept me going.”
Inside the degree
The first year came as a shock. The gastrointestinal module went deep into biochemistry, but Neetha loved seeing how theory translated into practice: what happens to food once it is eaten, and how to help when things go wrong.
Her favourite module was immunology. “Our immune system is almost like the army, navy and air force put together,” she says. Understanding how much has to change before the body turns against itself gave her practical ways to support her daughter’s long-term health.
The module that surprised her most was behaviour change and coaching. She started out sceptical and finished convinced it was the most important of all. “Information is easy. What is not easy is that personal touch. If you don’t change your behaviour, all this information is not useful.”
Then there was Heather Rosa, ION’s late Dean. Her cardiovascular health lectures, packed with case histories, pushed students to question whether conventional approaches to cardiovascular risk were the right ones. Heather became a close guide and, at conferences, Neetha’s biggest cheerleader. When Neetha’s poster was selected at the BANT AGM, Heather came running to tell her: “Your poster is selected. You’re published, Neetha!”
“That is something I’ll always keep close to my heart.”
Filling a gap in the evidence
With metabolic health issues running in her family, Neetha wanted to understand what happens to people’s diets when GLP-1 medications suppress their appetite. When she searched PubMed for studies comparing nutrient intake among people taking these medications with UK dietary reference values, she found none. Her research project coordinator assumed she had searched incorrectly. She hadn’t.
“When your appetite is suppressed, whatever little you’re eating, you need to eat a good quality meal,” she explains.
Neetha recruited 50 participants through online communities of people taking GLP-1s, collecting data on demographics, medications, side effects and supplements. Thirty-eight then completed a three-day food diary using Intake24, the validated tool behind UK population surveys such as the National Diet and Nutrition Survey. Their intakes were compared with dietary reference values and national data. A similar US study published around the same time allowed a transatlantic comparison too.
The results shocked her:
- Fibre: every participant fell short, and around two-thirds reported constipation.
- Protein: only half met 0.75g per kg of body weight a day, and just 10.5% reached the 1.2g recommended during weight loss.
- Energy: participants ate around 1,300 calories a day, so every calorie had to count.
- Micronutrients: shortfalls were widespread, including vitamin D, selenium, magnesium, potassium and iron.
Low protein combined with low vitamin D puts muscle and bone at risk. “You’re basically losing fat and you’re becoming frail,” Neetha warns.
The UK and US findings also differed. Most UK participants were taking tirzepatide (Mounjaro), a dual agonist that suppresses appetite more strongly, and ate around 400 fewer calories a day than the US group, where semaglutide was more common. Selenium stood out most: 92% of the UK cohort fell below the reference nutrient intake, while the US group did not. Neetha links this to the UK’s selenium-poor soils, a concern given selenium’s role as an antioxidant and in thyroid health.
Research that speaks for itself
After seeing Neetha’s poster at the BANT AGM, a fellow nutritional therapist suggested she submit it to the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine (BSLM). Hundreds of abstracts were submitted. Only four were chosen for oral presentation, and Neetha’s undergraduate study sat alongside PhD and MSc projects.
“The research is standing out for itself,” she says. “ION inspired me to do this study, and it is reaching so many people.”
Two worlds, one approach
Neetha began seeing clients long before graduating, working as a nutrition and lifestyle advisor after her third year. On Heather’s recommendation, she also became an ambassador for the Public Health Collaboration, bringing her into contact with doctors and raising her profile.
Today, Neetha works across very different settings. At Lanserhof at The Arts Club, she is a consultant within a functional medicine team alongside two doctors, seeing clients ranging from complex cases to athletes and celebrities. She also supports NHS patients with food-based solutions at a clinic on Primrose Hill High Street, and runs her own practice, Hampstead Nutrition Practice.
She has chosen not to specialise. “It doesn’t matter what your condition is, nutrition can help you,” she says. “I am helping a lot more people than I expected to, and I’m delighted with this journey.”
