A lucky little fish solves iron deficiency among women in Cambodia
thestar.com
thestar.com
Disclaimer: I bought an Ello glass bottle from Target less than 48 hours ago for this very purpose--to make myself drink more water. I don't consider shaping iron into the shape of a fish all that different.
This would be from one of the few governments on earth that are less trustworthy than the average american one. Perception-wise or in reality, does it matter? Anyway, this is an angle americans should be able to identify with. :)
Perception can easily outweigh facts for a lot of people. If we could find a way to trick people into vaccinating their kids we would use it.
The attitude of "they're just stupid people who don't know better" is kind of disgusting when we've got college and university educated people exhibiting the exact same behaviour. Who's dumber? The person that doesn't know better or the person who should know better, because I think it's the latter.
So to all the people who think these are just stupid people. If the US government had exterminated 70 million Americans three decades ago, would you be giving your kids a single vaccine? Or would you expect it to be part of another genocide campaign?
I have no trouble saying that college and university educated people who choose to not vaccinate their kids are stupid people.
Maybe we should try using vaccine syringes shaped like funny animals?
Really? If you were to make a list of all governments on the planet, you would place the federal government lower than most governments on the planet? Maybe if you limit your list to western Europe.
Yes, the Cambodian government has problems, some very big problems. But there are some VERY good people in a number of ministries who really do care about helping people, and they are trying the best they can in a difficult place with little infrastructure, high levels of corruption (both in government and in NGOs here), a lack of basic education and literacy and no funding. Despite all of that things are getting better every year.
If life was improving as quickly in the States as it is in Cambodia, I would actually consider moving back to the States. I honestly don't see that ever happening....
This is the kind of project that I wish more researchers and activists would do, as it has the potential to improve the lives of a large number of individuals in a meaningful way, as well as giving other people who are far away the means to help.
A quick search found this, which appears to be cast iron:
>the women won’t switch to iron cooking pots because they find them heavy and costly.
[...], and the women won’t switch to iron cooking pots because they find them heavy and costly.
Cheap, Light, Last a long time.
[1] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011....
I wonder if they consider providing iron pots in regions with a need?
See eg http://m.wfp.org/photos/gallery/nicaragua-providing-cooking-...
I can't tell what the pots are made of but I don't think it's iron.
Edit: here's what WFP do in Cambodia. http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/re...
Next time you come across such things don't ridicule them, or the people that believe in them.
Give it a generation and people might not even remember that the living fish was ever considered lucky (or why).
Here's the google cache version for anyone else:
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SfJuFH...
> They found a local scrap metal worker who could make them for $1.50 each
Paging Bill Gates... A one-off payment (these would last forever, right?) of a few billion would solve this problem... everywhere and forever?
"One Lucky Iron Fish can provide an entire family with up to 75% of their daily iron intake for up to 5 years".
So we'll need to replace them a bit more often than that (not that I'm saying it's not a good cause).
Iron content of Cambodian foods when prepared in cooking pots containing an iron ingot http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2011....
Iron-deficiency anaemia in rural Cambodia: community trial of a novel iron supplementation technique http://eurpub.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/1/43
Women's nutrient intakes and food-related knowledge in rural Kandal province, Cambodia. http://apjcn.nhri.org.tw/server/APJCN/23/2/263.pdf
(I'm not logged in, so it should be public, I hope)
Results: Blood iron levels were higher in women in the iron fish plus follow-up at 3 months compared with controls, but this was not maintained. At 6 months, haemoglobin and serum iron had fallen in all groups and the proportion of anaemic women had increased.
Conclusions: This study shows that the iron ingot was effective in the short but not longer-term against IDA. Though a novel treatment option, further research is warranted to determine bioavailability of leached iron and whether or not the surface area is large enough for sufficient iron leaching.
(The third paper does not seem to mention the iron fish.)
Does this mean that the whole thing is another bogus gimmick which only survives because it’s a cute thing which first-worlders like to throw money at?
We say "the fish has iron in it, you need iron" because we have a basic level of education. They say "the fish is lucky, I'll put that in the pot if the community says to" because community and tradition are good proxies for safety if you do not have that education.
Also, if we miss a pay check or a grocery store trip, we're fine. If they zig when they should zag it can mean death or deprivation. We should not lightly mock choices made when the stakes are so high and the known and understood information so low.
I don't have the answer here but I know that "well, Darwin will get them" isn't it.
And yeah, finding a way of them to accept this knowledge is important (and tricky)
Which might be do-able if they're open to learning and you've contrived an explanation they can wrap their head around. However a lot of particularly older people aren't that open to learning and aren't that easily trusting of foreigners.
It is very easy to sit in our ivory tower and pretend like we, in the west, are above it but the recent measles outbreak at Disneyland would beg to differ...
I agree it's frustrating that people won't simply believe facts about how to fix their health problems when presented to them, and then are happy to embrace superstitious symbols instead of logic. But I'm not surprised, considering how many people I know who complain about the common symptoms of dehydration daily but refuse to believe that what they need to do is just drink some water... But are happy to take an Excederin with Coca Cola to mask their dehydration headache.
> artificial colors, preservatives and sweeteners
I understand that they are a signal that what you are about to consume has been processed, and is likely unhealthy on balance; do you see an inherent problem with these ingredients?
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7521/full/nature1...
My perspective is that additives are nutritionally neutral at best, and many may be mildly harmful. So, given the choice I don't consume them. If I'm shopping I would prefer something like butter vs Blue Bonnet margarine. I don't feel convinced of the safety of chemicals like Yellow #5, and if I need for my food to be fluorescent yellow for some reason, would prefer turmeric. I consider whole foods to be better tested over time for human health than a semi-synthetic concoction.
As you say, generally the presence of synthetic colors and presevatives tells me the manufacturer has the wrong priorities (cost and surface presentation vs flavor, freshness or nutrition).
An example of food I shun is the typical grocery store tortilla. Most are loaded with presevatives so they can last on the shelves for months, which gives them a bitter taste. When I compare one of those brands, with 10-15 ingredients, most of which aren't technically food, to what I'd call normal tortilla with 4 ingredients, all of which are something someone would have in their own kitchen, and it's clear the simple tortilla wins in every way but shelf life. Since I consume my tortillas within a couple of days and am willing to keep them in the refrigerator, presevatives enhancing shelf life benefits the manufacturer and distributors, but fails to benefit me in terms of flavor and possible negative nutritional effects.
Given this is all crap lucky you haven't convinced many people. This is really really bad advice at most points, nothing advice with the rest.
Even eat vegetables is meaningless. Chips are vegetables and so are potatoes which I also don't think are very healthy.
Potatoes would fall under the starch food group, rather than vegetables. Vegetables, in the food pyramid/food group sense, are fairly well defined based on nutritional value.
Drinking game water... Generally preferable to dehydration.
Eating vegetables, well, some are nutritionally useless and can all be prepared in unhealthy ways. However, generally eating a varied diet wih fiber and fresh vegetables is healthy for people and hats my suggestion.
Artificial colors, preservatives etc... There's no good reason to eat these ingredients and many of them ate questioned for health effects.
Exercise proper precautions on workshops means actually wear eye protection, hearing protection, and follow fire codes in a trade I am involved in.
All seem like good ideas to me, and as noted, your attitude is about what I have come to expect - pointless rejection of obviously wise courses of action.
Sure there is. Artificial colors make food more attractive, which is an important part of the esthetic experience of eating. Don't believe me? Try blending all your meals up into a gray goo and see what that does for your eating enjoyment. Nutritionally it would be the same, but esthetically you'd be eating something that looked like vomit.
Preservatives keep it from going bad, which is a major health issue in most of the world. The "no preservatives" lifestyle is a luxury that is, in general, only available to those with high-tech western lifestyles. Other than very locally and very recently, people have been eating food with loaded with preservatives (including, most prominently, salt, but also sugar, nitrates, nitrites, lactic acid, benzoates, smoke...) for a long, long time.
Manufacturers can choose less harmful presevatives such as vitamin E vs bha/bht, but choose not to for their own economic reasons.
I'm able to avoid presevatives because I cook a lot of good myself, from scratch. This involves cooking vs say, watching tv and is actually cheaper than processed or fast foods. Cooking rice and beans from scratch is not first world privelege - eating synthetic compounded beans from Taco Bell is, actually.
Living on dried food like beans and rice is a recipe for malnutrition.
You've heard of scurvy, right? Among other things.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/widespread-childhood-malnutri...
"I'm able to avoid presevatives because I cook a lot of good myself, from scratch."
Yeah, well, not everyone has a Whole Foods down the block, or could afford to shop there even if there was.
I don't think the food scarcity in Guatemala is relevant. Kale and carrots and dairy products can be obtained for pennies a day, and meat is subsidized and readily available in raw form.
If you want to see the other side of that, which is abundance of low quality, toxic food, check out the various odd Heath problems that are on the rise in the US such as childhood obesity, diabetes, unexplained hyperactivity and so on.
This sort of ignorant attitude is why we have a obesity epidemic.
What do people use instead of harmless 'Artificial' colors, preservatives and sweetners because of 'superstition', they add sugar and fat. Because it's a real world, with real people not theoretical.
Even drinking water is a dangerous topic, people start to believe coke is better than nothing. Dehydration is not a scary thing, like being hungry it's normal and ok as long as it doesn't go on to long.
No problem with safety equipment.
Adequate substitutes for colors include carrots, beets, and turmeric, which don't involve fat or sugar. I don't even believe fat and sugar are harmful... They're food.
The way to avoid presevatives is to eat food that's actually fresh. This isn't difficult to do.
Coke is certainly not better than nothing - that's the sort of thing I recommend water instead of. And, the topic is chronic dehydration that leads people to complain to me of headaches, muscle aches, etc and then, as noted, be frustrated when they refuse to drink somethin hydrating. Not sure why you think dehydration is not a problem.
Educated men can ignore evidence. These women likely hadn't seen real evidence, and might not even know about the periodic system. It doesn't take much intelligence to detect things that kill fast, but detecting things that kill you slowly is hard.
Also, the health benefits probably weren't obvious to these women; they just heard strangers claim there were health benefits.
So (unless this fish can float?) I understand that you are also scratching the bottom of the pan with the iron chunk and this should release a lot of more AL than before because this metal is soft.
I wonder what are the efects of using the fish in the aluminium intake of these people. They did some research about it?.
Maybe a better solution could be to make pans with some iron embedded (ring?, bottom?, cover?) but not mobile pieces.
It says that the device can provide up to 75% of iron requirements, but under what conditions could it start to give >100%?
Non-genetic related iron overload is rarely heard of outside of dietary supplement overuse, predominantly children eating iron fortified supplements.
For an ordinary person to eat too much iron, you would have to have an exceptionally bizarre diet, especially if you're overdosing on iron via elemental iron.
The upper tolerable limit for a daily intake of iron is 45mg. To get this via sirloin steak, you would have to eat three and a half pounds a day! Or 3700 calories of steak per day.
Given that heme-iron is the most readily absorbed by the body, and that guidelines suggest vegetarians consume 1.8 times the RDI, which would suggest an 80mg upper tolerable limit for non-heme iron.
So lets take Broccoli, everyone knows that's iron rich. 2.1mg per medium stalk (1/3lb), which would amount to 7 lbs of Broccoli a day.
Please, don't state bullshit like it's a fact.
My concern is over how cooking conditions (or other factors) may affect how much iron leaches out into the food, which would cause iron overload if high enough, just like those iron fortified supplements.
I never stated that the body can't adjust the amount of iron absorbed.
I stated that iron overload, which is when one's body already has too much iron accumulated, is not well handled by the body. This is true, because the body is very poor at excreting iron in response to excessive iron levels, because iron is conserved very well (unlike, say, Vitamin C).
It's not a problem.