# Is iron in food as dangerous as this article suggests?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-iron-in-food-as-dangerous-as-this-article-suggests/612414>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 10, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-iron-in-food-as-dangerous-as-this-article-suggests/612414 "2012-02-10T15:15:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-iron-in-food-as-dangerous-as-this-article-suggests/612414/21 "2012-02-13T00:39:11Z")

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I agree that you’d have to really work at it to get some sort of toxicity from iron in food (as opposed to supplements) if you’re otherwise a healthy, normal person. There are a number of conditions that can result in iron accumulation over time (besides hereditary hemochromatosis, there are conditions like thalassemia where the overload is a result of treatment), at which point it has to be gotten rid of in some way (generally chelation therapy.)

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-iron-in-food-as-dangerous-as-this-article-suggests/612414/22 "2012-02-13T02:12:10Z")

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> [@Smeghead](#):
>
> If anyone’s interested in iron metabolism, I’ll just throw in that the body has no way of selectively excreting excess iron. That is, there’s no system that can detect “Hey! I’ve got too much iron kicking around. Best get the ol’ kidneys on the job.” We all naturally lose iron over time in our poop and/or by bleeding (especially menstruating women). Instead, iron levels are regulated entirely on the uptake end of things. You have a protein that senses iron levels in the blood and sends a signal to other proteins on the gut side of the cell that tells them if we’re low on iron or if we have enough.

So… if you’ve got enough, you don’t have a taste for red meat? Or your gut flora doesn’t absorb it?

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-iron-in-food-as-dangerous-as-this-article-suggests/612414/23 "2012-02-13T02:51:00Z")

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> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> So… if you’ve got enough, you don’t have a taste for red meat? Or your gut flora doesn’t absorb it?

Your gut lining cells don’t absorb as much.

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