I
ron is a mineral found in every living
cell on earth, and in human nutrition,
iron is considered a ‘trace’ mineral
because it’s only needed in very small
amounts. Although we may not need
much of it, and the human body has
clever ways to make the most of those
small amounts, iron deficiency is a
common world-wide occurrence. Interestingly
enough, studies have shown that iron-
deficiency anaemia is no more prevalent
among vegans than non-vegans.
While iron performs uncountable roles
in the human body, about two-thirds of the
iron within us is found smack bang in the
middle of our haemoglobin, a substance
in red blood cells that contains a pigment
called 'haem', linked with a protein called
'globin'. The pigment gives blood its red
colour. Haemoglobin can bind to and then
release oxygen. Like a delivery truck,
haemoglobin picks up oxygen from our lungs
and delivers it to our cells in exchange for
the waste product carbon dioxide, which it
then carries back to the lungs for expelling.
If we don’t have enough haemoglobin
(which cannot be made without iron),
every cell in our body tires easily.
In centuries past, one of the home
remedies for classic iron deficiency signs
such as fainting and weakness was to
push iron nails into an apple and leave
it overnight. The next day, the nails were
removed and the apple was eaten. I’m not
sure how effective a treatment this was,
but it’s certainly been proven that cooking
in cast iron pots can be a helpful method
for improving iron status, especially if the
food being cooked is acidic. For example,
tomato sauce cooked in cast iron has up
to 2.5 times the iron content it might have
were it cooked in any other kind of pot.
The plain elemental iron in cast iron pots
is the least well-absorbed form of iron, and
only forms a very small portion of the iron
we source from our diet.
The primary forms of iron in the diet
of humans are heme iron and non-heme
iron. Heme iron comes from haemoglobin,
so it’s only found in animal flesh. Plants,
on the other hand, only contain non-heme
iron. Without iron, a plant can’t produce
chlorophyll, a green-pigmented chemical
which is remarkably similar in shape to our
human haemoglobin. Both humans and
plants alike, turn pale in the absence of
iron! Chlorophyll pigments in plants are like
mini-solar panels, absorbing light from thesun and using it to create energy by turning
carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates,
with oxygen produced as a waste product.
This clever means for turning sunlight into
food is called photosynthesis, and is largely
responsible for producing and maintaining
the oxygen content of the earth’s atmosphere,
as well as suppling all of the organic
compounds and most of the energy
necessary for life on earth.
Humans absorb heme iron at an average
rate of 23 per cent, while non-heme iron’s
absorption average is only 10 per cent.
This doesn’t necessarily mean flesh is a
better source of iron than plants. To begin
with, heme iron only constitutes 40 per
cent of the iron in animal flesh; the other
60 per cent is non-heme iron. When you
do the math, this means the overall
absorption of iron from animal flesh is
40 per cent x 23 per cent = 9.3 per cent
+ 60 per cent x 10 per cent = 6 per cent
for a total of 15.3 per cent, which isn’t
much more than the absorption efficiency
of iron from plant foods. And then there’s
that rather inconvenient truth that we so
often overlook in life: more isn’t necessarily
better.
In the past, heme iron was considered
superior to non-heme iron because it’s
easier to absorb, but in actual fact, heme
iron is a little too well absorbed, almost as
though the absorption floodgates were
being thrown wide open without any
thought for caution. The non-heme iron
in plants has a much more respectful and
cooperative relationship with our body,
with its absorption being managed in an
extremely efficient and intelligent manner.
If your body already has enough iron, your
body will decrease absorption, and if your
body doesn’t have enough iron, it will
increase absorption. This more discerning
absorption system is vital because once
iron is in your body, it’s very difficult to get
rid of it, and iron excess may well prove a
bigger problem than iron deficiency.
Research published in the Nutrition and
Cancer Journal in 2005 found that ingesting
foods rich in heme iron can increase your
risk of lung cancer, and a study published
in the Journal of the National Cancer
Institute in 2008 showed that people who
decrease their iron stores by regularly
donating blood, cut their risk of dying
from gut cancers by 50 per cent over a
five-year period. The problem is, iron is
a pro-oxidant, which means it promotesoxidation. Oxidation is a wearing down or
‘rusting away’ process that damages cells,
ageing us ahead of time and increasing
the risk of chronic disease. To off-set the
damaging effects of pro-oxidants like iron,
we need plenty of antioxidants and plants
are antioxidant powerhouses providing, on
average, an antioxidant potency 64 times
more effective than that of animal-based
foods.The synergy of whole foods
Nutritional supplements are big business,
a billion-dollar industry that often takes
advantage of our rather gullible notion that
more of a good thing is surely going to be
even better for us. Correcting a deficiency
can certainly result in miraculous results,
but taking a supplement ‘just in case’ or
with the vague idea that all supplements
are good for you, is not a wise move. It’s
intriguing that the list of symptoms
associated with a deficiency for any one
nutrient can be remarkably similar to the
list of overdose signs for the very same
nutrient. Health is about balance, after all,
with the homeostatic balance systems in
our body working hard to keep everything
hovering around a midpoint, rather than
swinging too far on either side.
Quite often, the quantities contained in a
supplement can provide over and above the
daily dose required for balance, and this is
being consumed in addition to iron that is
being naturally sourced from wholefoods
and artificially iron-fortified foods such as
commercial breakfast cereals. Ingestion of
supplemental iron in even slightly elevated
quantities is being associated with
increased risk of cognitive problems, and
there appears to be a link between iron
supplements and Alzheimer’s disease, so
please don’t take iron supplements unless
you are actually deficient. Once the
deficiency has been corrected, maintain
your levels with good sources of plant-
based iron, combined with synergistic
nutrients such as vitamin C rich foods.
From a nutritional perspective, synergy is
the way certain nutrients within a food are
interlinked and work together as a team,
accomplishing far more together than they
ever could on their own. Iron, for example,
is far better absorbed in the presence
of vitamin C. This dynamic relationship
between iron and vitamin C is a small love
story embedded within a massive web of
synergistic relationships involving hundreds5IFCFOFmUTPGQMBOUCBTFEJSPO
By Omanisa Ross ND Holistic Naturopath and Creative Therapist - plant-based Medicine and Nutritionhealth
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