Iron in certain foods bad?

[WantingToKnow]

Hi! I have a question regarding foods like cheez-its and crackers and goldfish crackers. The first ingredient is always "enriched wheat flour" or "enriched flour" and then in parenthesis it says "flour, niacin, reduced iron, etc". Is the iron part bad for ms? Should I cut out that food from my diet? Thanks!

[eric593]

If you were going to start cutting out iron-containing foods from your diet, there are a lot greater sources than crackers...

How are your iron levels? If they aren't high, I don't see why you'd want to reduce your iron consumption. CCSVI has to do with blood reflux, not a diet containing excess iron.

You are probably quite safe continuing to eat your goldfish crackers.

[L]

Gainsbourg was talking about a distinction between iron and 'free iron,' such as that found in fortified cereals. If I remember right free iron, unbound as it, lingers in the system if the body doesn't absorb it.

But I know nothing about nutrition, on;y that it's good to not eat meat, for entirely different reasons mind you, so I have no idea as to the validity of this. Searching the internet for 'free iron' came up with nothing for me. Your best bet is to search his old posts.

But I think that the idea is that iron rich foods, pistachio, broccoli and so on, are good whereas fortified foods are not. To try to cut iron out of your diet would be a dangerous thing and simply leave you anaemic, no?

[Gordon]

CHEERLEADER and All the other incredible members of TIMS
I am new here and justifiably ignored.

BUT after thirty years of engineering, with Little time to investigate MS while putting food on our table,

I feel that MS is a result of three things, Possibly stating the obvious.

Stenosis
Time
Iron content of diet especially water soluble iron.

Draw yourself a simple Venn diagram, Assign each circle one of the above.

The intersection is MAY be when MS occours.

Have a look at this please

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Multi ... HO2002.svg

and this.

http://www.who.int/vmnis/anaemia/preval ... naemia.pdf

It is the iron in our diets combined with CCSVI that causes MS.

Of note is this country, it sticks out like a sore thumb.... and is a paradox

http://geography.about.com/library/cia/ ... guiana.htm

Why do they have such a prevalence of MS when the others surrounding countries do not ???

The Geology of this nation tells the story, High in water soluble iron it looks like, and it gets into all the foods, plants etc, ( still researching). Friends of mine are from the area have have extremely high levels of iron in their blood that has alarmed their Canadian Doctors.

If you draw a venn diagram and assign Stenosis to one circle, Time to the other and Diet / iron to the third the intersection of these produces MS

The larger any one of the circles is the greater the chance of having MS. If you do not have CCSVI then you will not get Clinically defined MS. If you have a diet with no iron, you will not get MS. (this is impossible though as Iron is in everything). Time is time and you cannot eliminate that.

I have reduced iron in my diet. I have reduced Vitamin C in all forms completely becuase

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3304065

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1987;498:324-32.

Is there a physiological role of vitamin C in iron absorption?
Hallberg L, Brune M, Rossander-Hulthén L.

Nonheme iron usually constitutes more than 90% of the dietary iron. Its absorbability is a resultant of the balance between factors enhancing and inhibiting the absorption. Ascorbic acid is the most potent enhancer, and is the same for native and synthetic AA. The enhancing effect is strongly dose related (log dose/effect), and is different for different meals probably mainly due to varying content of inhibitors in the meals. AA also increases the iron absorption from simple meals with no known inhibitor, probably because AA impairs the formation of unavailable iron complexes with ligands normally present in the gastrointestinal lumen. The effect of AA is so unequivocal and marked that it must be considered as a physiological factor essential for the absorption of dietary iron.

PMID: 3304065 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I will somehow get the CCSVI operation.

I have to get back to work now.

Gord

[Cece]

I think the iron deposits that are getting into our brains, as per the CCSVI theory, are hemosiderin or iron from the breakdown of the red blood cells that get across the blood brain barrier.

That said, I remember the conversations about free iron and made some effort to reduce the free iron I consumed. This is a difficult and eye opening task: it's in many things, particularly breads and cereal, and in the flour to cook with. Another possibility is to drink green tea or take a supplement when eating these foods. But the major villain seems to be the hemosiderin iron, not the free iron.

Gordon, I don't think you're that new here! I know your name anyways! Thank you for your contribution and bringing your engineering mindset to this problem.

[Bethr]

Gord, I think time will tell that iron (too much in our food/water etc) is a big contributor. One bowl of "enriched" cereal has more than the daily allowance of iron. We are overfed with additives, I mean do we really want iron shavings added to all our cereals and flour (by law!).

When the do-gooders started to supplement supposedly anemic Africans with iron, they got much sicker! Bacteria and virus's thrived in the iron rich body. Iron distribution and storage is mediated by the immune system. Just because a blood test says you are anemic, doesn't mean you haven't got heaps of iron stored in tissue, hidden away by the immune system to protect the body from other entities utilising the iron, such as virus's and cancer.

You NEED iron, but I wonder about these huge doses in our food and supplements.
Once absorbed iron cannot be excreted from the body, only by loss of blood and skin shedding etc.
In my case, I think my high iron levels were the catalyst for my first brain lesion, but like 10% of Europeans I have an iron overloading gene, so I naturally absorb more and it had built up over the years, I have a rich diet anyway. My sister with RRMS for over 20 years also has this gene, but unlike me she cannot donate blood. She was injected with iron as a teenager and developed MS much younger than I did.

We have tried hard to get blood taken from her, she was a donor when much younger, but had to stop when she was diagnosed, her ferritin is above the range, have been to her Dr and then to a hemotologist, but no luck yet.

[Gordon]

I know, it is incredible to me that the do gooders, add iron to our cerials and bread... Now when I make oatmeal porridge I wash the oatmeal first, ltterally.

It is so hard to get rid of all the iron that is why I think Blood letting may be an answer as well.


Thanks CeCe I watch for your posts all the time as they are so enlightening.

[Cece]

Now when I make oatmeal porridge I wash the oatmeal first, ltterally.

That's an idea! Does that work?

My kids already think I'm strange.

[Gordon]

It just makes sense

[Leonard]

I press fresh oranges every morning for me and my family. Have done this for 20 years or more.

Now fresh orange juice seems to consolidate the iron in the blood. Is that adding to the risks of iron depletion?

[Bethr]

Taking vitamin C with other non-heme iron containing food boosts your absorption by just under 3 times. Vit.C taken with heme iron (meat) can boost abosrption by 4 times. So it would boost your iron levels taking your orange juice with your meal.

[WantingToKnow]

Thanks for all the replies! And thanks for the links Gordon!

I think I'm going to be cutting down on all the foods that contain iron, which is everything I snack on. Maybe it will help. Seems like the only thing I can eat is fruit lol