A recent article , written by Dr. Dalton, a physician at  Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is entitled: “Is iron the new cholesterol?”.

In the article, the doctor explains how the added iron in consumer products can do more harm to health than having high cholesterol.

I want to talk about it and summarize this article because for years now there have been numerous studies that associate high iron with a greater risk of serious diseases, such as neoplasms.
Iron is suspected to negatively affect the health of our cells.
But let’s go in order.

Why is there so much concern about dietary iron in the first place?
Because we are flooded with products on the market today that contain added iron.
First the breakfast cereals.
Then many preparations, such as biscuits, snacks, soluble milk products, some types of milk, some types of drinks. As well as for fat-soluble vitamins (pay attention to it, many products that today contain an addition of vitamins A and D, for example), added iron is present in a massive way in the food industry.

But what are the health consequences of this iron in the daily diet?

STUDIES LINKING IRON AND DISEASE

By analyzing the health of people who have more iron than normal, it has been found that these people are much more likely to get cancer. Excess iron in the blood is also positively associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Having high ferritin values ​​leads to a fivefold risk of having a heart attack, practically comparable to the damage of smoking to heart health. High levels of iron in the blood are associated with double the risk for men and five times the risk for women.
Since the 1980s, it has been seen that patients receiving blood transfusions, who consequently had higher iron values, also had an increased risk of diabetes. High ferritin levels have been associated in other studies with metabolic syndrome and senile dementia

At the same time, blood donors have increased insulin sensitivity.

IRON STUDIES: CLINICAL TRIALS ARE MISSING

The amount of studies is so great that even if these studies are limited in most cases to an association, there is something.
Many doctors are loudly calling for clinical trials to be carried out on this matter.
For now the possible explanation could be in that Fenton reaction that causes the release of iron and the production of free radicals such as the hydroxyl radical, which damages the balance of cells.
But without intervention studies it is impossible to establish whether all that has been discovered so far can be explained and analyzed as a causative factor.

When in doubt, explains the doctor, leave the products with added iron on the shelves.