Iron Is the New Cholesterol? | Hacker News Reader

Iron Is the New Cholesterol?

m.nautil.us

53 pointstosh32 comments

A significant percentage of people are living comfortably up to an age of 70 or more even in the poor nations. I think this focus on marginal effects is not going to cut it any longer.

How about focusing on air pollution, which is the likely emerging leading carcinogen in developing countries?

>How about focusing on air pollution, which is the likely emerging leading carcinogen in developing countries?

You are right, air pollution is a huge problem. But there is no reason to think we can't work on both at the same time. And I may be wrong, but my guess is that you are perfectly well aware of that.

It is a good practice to be aware of though - often constructive conversations can be derailed by well-intentioned but unintentional “but-what-about-X” arguments being introduced when no such arguments existed to begin with. It is a hard habit to break when it comes to important topics. Generally, as in this case, the two things are in no way mutually exclusive.

They don't need to be exist "to begin with". A conversation can expand with new X items to put things in perspective.

Besides, even if every course of action is not mutually exclusive, there is a opportunity cost and a need to prioritize them.

Diesel emissions are especially hazardous but aren't regulated as tightly in most jurisdictions as gasoline vehicles (at least in the US) because of corporate influence (corruption).

The opening is pretty misleading.

"Like almost any refined food made with wheat flour, it is fortified with iron"

This makes it sound like everything we eat has this absurd level of iron. Typical refined food made with wheat flour has a much lower level of iron than cheerios (which incidentally are not made with wheat) do. Cheerios are weird that way. Kix are the only other thing I've found that has that level of high iron fortification (I'm personally at risk for low iron and read a lot of labels). Even Luna bars back when they were marketed as having nutrients for women had less.

To complicate matters, not all iron should be considered equal per units mass, some forms of iron are considerably more bio-available, and in general the forms provided as supplement on cereals in are on the low end of bio-availability.

This. I remember my biochemistry professor in college grinding up a bowl of cereal into a fine powder and then using a magnet to yank all the iron out. Fine iron powder like the kind present in cereals is nowhere near as bioavailable as iron complexed with proteins (e.g. from red meat). You basically just poop most of it out. Ask anyone who has had an iron deficiency. It is ferociously difficult to take enough supplements and change your diet enough to correct a severe form of it.

Hereditary Hemochromatosis is a genetic disorder with which some one million people in the US (and more in other, especially northern European countries) are priviledged to suffer. Hereditary Hemochromatosis is a disorder of iron metabolism. The body stores inordinate amounts of iron obtained from fortified and unfortified foods. The iron damages liver, pancreas, brain, joints, causes diabetes, causes impotence, extreme fatigue. Etc etc etc. We don't need extra iron. Give us the choice. Phlebotomy is not fun.

I've heard calcium in milk blocks iron absorption so only a tiny part of iron contained in cereals is actually absorbed in your body if you eat it with milk. Can anybody tell how true or false this is?

If only there was some kind of iron that the body isn’t forced to absorb... oh wait there is. The non-heme iron in plants

Yep. It's unfortunate how little people know about nutrition and think it's all BS. A bunch of quacks hijacked the entire industry and everyone somehow believed them

Up next, "iron-free" becoming the next dietary fad after low-salt, low-cholesterol, low-fat and gluten-free.

They'll process the parts-is-parts even more to remove the Iron from your "iron-free" McNuggets or put Iron-chelating agents into your Szechuan sauce.

So its the new thing we will be told is bad for you for a decade only to be told the next decade that it's actually good for you?

Great! Marketers get two food fads: low iron today, iron rich when its reversed!

A lot of skeptical remarks here. The commenters seem certain, without any evidence, that it is simply impossible that problems with iron are even one tenth as bad as the article says the might be.

I think it is quite possible there are some real problems here, and so there should be a big research push to find out.

You know, it occurs to me that if an article raising danger signs about iron fortification is published, the iron fortification industry would have a strong financial interest in attacking it.

The article starts by giving as example cereals fortified with iron.

A much better idea is to simply stop eating processed crap.

This article made me look at the iron content of various foods that I eat often. Surprisingly, dark chocolate has a lot of iron -- a 100g bar has 100% of DV.

Wait, I had anemia all my life and I thought this was bad. Does this mean I'm actually healthy now?

I hate to be that guy, but... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15703544

There's a reason enrichment of foods is illegal in most of Europe.

Leaving all the content of your comment in links isn't very informative to most people, I'd guess, who don't bother clicking. Especially when you forget to say why they should. I clicked - but you did exactly the same thing on the linked-to page! No thanks. Don't waste my time. If you have something to say, say it.