Fitness

The greatest single cause of iron-deficiency anemia is the refining of breads, cereals, and molasses. Although much has been said about the iron in “enriched” flour, only 6 milligrams per pound is added; whole-wheat flour contains approximately 18 milligrams. Brewers’ yeast and wheat germ are both excellent sources supplying per lh cup 18 and 8 milligrams, respectively. Blackstrap molasses is not only one of the richest sources of iron but also of many other minerals and of inositol. It supplies about 9 milligrams of iron per tablespoon; dark unrefined molasses, 1.5 milligrams; sugar, none. As a by-product of sugar refining, thousands upon thousands of gallons of blackstrap molasses are available. The dumping of blacks trap in Cuba became a public health hazard because it attracted so many gnats and bugs. It seems an affront to the human ego that insects, with their minute brains, can appreciate nutrition so much better than people can.

I used to recommend blacks trap stirred into milk or tiger’s milk. Then I saw a formerly anemic child of three whose parents, super interested in nutrition, had given him directly from the tablespoon almost a half cup of blackstrap daily. The child had never been allowed to taste candy even at Christmas, but his teeth were decayed to the gum margin. Since then I have been afraid to recommend blackstrap.

This reason, of course, may be only rationalized, the real one being that I can no longer take the ribbing. The blackstrap gags have become shopworn. The following, however, written before a geologist, Dr. Natland by name, left for Arabia, is no isolated example:

Camel’s milk, boiled goat, dates and cheese,
Poor Nat will starve if he can’t eat these;
Sun-warmed, fly-specked and sprinkled with sand,
Sounds like a diet Adelle Davis had planned.

In a mixed diet-not mixed with sand-only about 50 per cent of the iron is absorbed even by a healthy person; the remainder is lost in the feces. In experiments in which anemia was treated with single foods, liver was found to produce most hemoglobin, kidneys second, apricots third, and eggs forth. Many foods which contained as much or more iron failed to be good blood builders. Part of the iron in leafy vegetables is held in insoluble compounds which cannot be absorbed. The iron from most fruits reaches the blood stream. In general, the softer the texture of any food containing iron, the more complete the absorption. Much iron in meats is in the form of hemoglobin which is incompletely digested.

When iron-containing foods are digested, the freed iron must dissolve in hydrochloric acid from the stomach before it can pass through the intestinal wall into the blood. Since approximately two-thirds of all anemic persons lack this acid, much nutritional anemia cannot be overcome unless acid is supplied with adequate iron. Foods which contain acids, such as buttermilk, yogurt, sour fruits, and citrus juices, aid the absorption of iron. Even the drinking of sweet milk increases iron absorption because milk sugar is converted into lactic acid by intestinal bacteria. Conversely, refined carbohydrates decrease iron absorption both because they stimulate the flow of alkaline digestive juices and because they do not support the growth of valuable intestinal bacteria. Persons with stomach ulcers, anemic from loss of blood, cannot absorb iron while taking alkalinizing preparations.

Most inorganic iron is well absorbed, even iron rust. An old medical treatise entitled Self-help for People in Remote Places suggests for “the disease of pale ears” soaking rusty iron shavings in vinegar-water overnight and drinking the water. An ancient treatment of anemia was to stick rusty nails into a sour apple, allow it to stand overnight, remove the nails, and eat the apple. A rusty horseshoe would be an excellent toy for an anemic toddler who puts everything in his mouth. Ferrous chloride and ferrous sulfate are used medically in treating nutritional anemia. The body, however, needs only a limited amount; if more is absorbed than is needed, these drugs may be mildly toxic. I frequently find persons who are taking both an iron preparation and more than adequate amounts of vitamin C but who show multiple signs of vitamin-C deficiency; I suspect the vitamin is destroyed by the excess iron. I find liver, yeast, wheat germ, and eggs far more effective in correcting anemia than are iron salts.
A small excess of iron is stored in the liver, the bone marrow, and the spleen and is used at times when the diet is inadequate. The person suffering from an iron deficiency is anemic only because he lacks such a store.

The life span of red corpuscles is three to four months.

They are then withdrawn from circulation by the spleen and liver and are broken down by enzymes. The iron is used again and again in building other corpuscles. Most authorities believe that healthy women after menopause and adult men need no dietary iron. The non-iron parts of broken down hemoglobin are excreted by the liver as waste products. They are carried away in the bile and are known as bile pigments. These pigments give the color to the stools and urine.

Iron requirements are especially high during adolescence, when the blood volume increases rapidly, and during pregnancy. The needs of non-pregnant women vary with the losses during menstruation. Many women have excessive’ menstrual flow for years without realizing that it is excessive. Usually an adequate diet particularly high in protein, the B vitamins and especially vitamin E will correct excessive flow in a few weeks. Cumulative menstrual losses, pregnancies, and the long use of deficient diets cause anemia to be prevalent in women at and after the menopause. Besides causing needless fatigue, mental confusion, and depression, anemia can bring about such forgetfulness that these women often become convinced they are losing their minds.

So-called normal blood, arrived at by studying averages, has 4,500,000 red cells and 80 to 100 per cent hemoglobin for children and women and 5,500,000 cells and 100 per cent hemoglobin for men. When an adequate diet is given growing children, adolescent girls, and women of the reproductive age, hemoglobin of 100 per cent can be maintained, and the average blood count of 4,500,000 increases to 5,500,000. Such improvement shows that the standards for women are below normal. There are no age or sex differences in blood color or number of corpuscles in well-fed animals.