Add iron to cereals to reduce the risk of anemia in children

Dutch scientists call on poor countries to add iron to cereals to limit anemia in children.

According to a study by Dutch scientists, published in the medical journal " Lancet " (UK) issued on 26.5, cereals if added a new type of iron with scientific name is "sodium iron edetic acid" (NaFeEDTA), which will help fight anemia is now considered quite popular among children in poor countries.

According to statistics, nearly half of children in developing countries are at risk of iron deficiency, mainly due to diets that depend too much on rice, corn and other grains. In cereals containing phytate, it interferes with the absorption of iron in the intestine, causing the body to absorb only 5% of iron from plant food, the rest is excreted. In the study of scientists from Wageningen University - Netherlands, iron Na FeEDTA, consisting of small iron particles wrapped in carbon- coat "coats" , can prevent phytate from entering and thereby expel all the iron in food into the intestine to penetrate.

Scientists conducted experiments with 505 3-8 year olds living in Eastern Kenya's Marafa region and divided into three research groups. Every day, all these children eat U-gi (local porridge made from corn flour and sugar). The first group ate u-gi without iron supplements. The second group eats u-gi with electrolytic iron, the common iron that many countries are using to prevent anemia.

The other group was fed with u-gi that added " iron-EDTA " to the new. The results showed that after 5 months, "iron - EDTA" u-gi supplement has decreased by 89% the rate of children with anemia, compared with the first group. Meanwhile, electrolytic iron used in the second group does not seem to be effective in reversing this disease.

In 1990 only two countries, the United States and Canada, added iron to flour. So far 49 countries have done this, including some developing countries like Nigeria and South Africa.