Iron Deficiency

by : Melly Latifah

Human resources quality is an important thing for development. The quality of human resources are depend on many factors. One of them is nutrition. We need a good nutrition to make a healthy human.

Nutriton is the essensial part of food. There are six elements of nutrition, namely carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamine, mineral, and water. Iron is one kind of mineral that we need for a good health and performance. Iron deficiency can decrease work performance of adults, also influence brain development of children.

The brain seems to be most sensitive to iron deficiency during the first two years of life, which produces long-term consecuencies. There is increasing evidence that children over two years of age with moderate iron deficiency in developing countries improve their mental function and school achievement if their iron deficiency is corrected by iron supplementation (Garrow & James, 1993). The experiments with young children (Pollit, et al, 1989) strongly support the view that iron supplements in early infancy improve mental performance in developing countries. These finding showing the dependence of brain development and function of iron supply.

Now, we have knew the importance of iron. Therefore, we need an adequate iron in our consumption for our good health. We can get iron from red meat, lever, fish, and green vegetables.