Iron Deficiency...not quite

The first time I was "diagnosed" with anemia was when I had my first foot surgery my freshman year in college due to a sports injury (although looking back now this was probably the first sign that my nutrition wasn't right).  My foot would not heal from the incision.  It was supposed to close up after the first week, three weeks later it still hadn't.  The doctor assessed that I was anemic and put me on an iron supplement.  Instantly my energy levels soared and my foot slowly healed.  I asked the doctor if I was doing something wrong...should I improve something in my diet?  Oh no, he replied, this was just a fluke thing that should go away with time.   Well, the next time my problem popped up was when I was pregnant.  Again, I was put on a supplement and again, I asked if I should change something.  Oh no, this will go away after your pregnancy.  It definitely did not, so I took matters into my own hands and started eating foods rich in iron like broccoli and spinach.  I hate spinach so I started putting it into my pasta sauces, eggs, etc. so that I couldn't taste it, but I was definitely eating it.  This helped some, but if I went a week without having something rich in these regularly I felt my energy levels plummet (not exactly an ideal thing for chasing around a baby).  So I started researching, surely there was a way for me to keep my iron up without eating it everyday.  

My discoveries:

Vitamin B12 is needed to prevent anemia--only source is animal products--raw red meat (not trying this one anytime soon--and raw milk and raw milk products.  Pasteurization kills a ton of good stuff in milk.  Read about the safety of raw milk and what pasteurization does to milk here.  What convinced me to switch though, is that this is the way our ancestors have had milk for years and years and it did them a great deal of good.  Whole milk from the cow was considered a health food.  Take for example this quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder in Little House on the Prairie after the family received their first cow after settling in the prairie and they got enough milk to fill a small cup.  "Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura all agreed to give the milk to Baby Carrie" (171).  She would need the milk above all of them, but they drank the milk from that day forward.  It is a new concept to drink skim milk for health, but that will have to wait for a different post for full explanation.  My son would not drink pasteurized milk after I weaned him from nursing, however, a few months later when I gave him raw milk, he loved it!  He drinks it all the time now.  I've often wonder if it tastes better to him because it is more like what he is used to from nursing.

Phytates in grains.  The USDA promotes a diet rich in whole grains (ie. not white flour), this is wonderful, except that most of our grains today aren't properly prepared and are full of phytates.  Unless grains are properly prepared (ie. sourdough, soaked grains, sprouted grains--all ways our ancestors made grains by the way, before brewer's yeast was introduced) then the body may be unable to assimilate minerals such as zinc, iron, calcium and others.  Phytates (aka phytic acid) combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal track blocking their absorption.  

Iron needs things like fat-soluble vitamins that are found in butter and cod liver oil.  I took neither of these before these findings.  

For iron absorption:  the trace mineral molybdenum is needed in small amounts which can be found in lentils, liver, grains, legumes, and dark green leafy veggies.  I only ate dark green veggies and ill-prepared grains prior.  

So, I added a few new things to my diet--lentils, cod liver oil and raw milk, and I started making sourdough bread and soaked grains and viola!  My energy is much improved.  I'll be anxious to see what my blood tests reveal about my iron the next time my blood is taken; I think my levels will be right where they need to be.  

I'd love to hear any questions or discussion points you have on this topic.