HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1942, Page 4

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

YOUR SYSTEM NEEDS IRON. DANGERS OF ANAEMIA. (By the Health Department) Are you getting enough iron into your system, or are you drifting towards a possible condition of anemia, a complaint which affects far too big a proportion of our womenfolk at present? Anaemia is largely a nutritional disorder which can be prevented by eating the proper foods. Iron is essential to the maintenance of a healthy vigorous bloodstream, and a certain- amount is required by the body each day. The red cells which give the blood its colour are manufactured in the bone marrow, and -heijare certain materials that are specifically needed for blood cell formation. One of these is iron. Of our daily foods the steadiest source of iron are unrefined cereal foods, such as natural oatmeal and wholemeal bread. Green vegetables, particularly the thinleaved variety, and the yolks of eggs are rich in iron. Meat is a good souice, and here there are distinctions. Muscle meat is good, but liver and kidney meat are excellent. Liver contains iron in large quantities, and it also contains what is known as the anti-pernicious-anaemia factor. Of the rest of our ordinary foodstuffs, potatoes, oranges, apples and cocoa contribute their share, but the amounts are very small. Though liver is the finest source, the average person would get tired of having it every day, apart from the fact that supplies are limited. Cereals, however, can be taken every day, and in most family diets usually-are. Therefore wholemeal bread and oatmeal rank first as the most valuable and the most acceptable sources of our natural supply of iron, and the greater use of these two commodities in our daily food ration would be' of untold benefit.