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- 🌾 The Grain Problem: How Everyday Foods Lost Their Iron
🌾 The Grain Problem: How Everyday Foods Lost Their Iron
How industrial milling stripped iron from your food and the simple swaps that bring it back.
Isabelle Feldhaus
April 22, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
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Refined grains like white bread, pasta, and cereal have far less iron than traditional grains. Fortified flour adds synthetic iron, but it’s not easily absorbed.
Swap in whole, sprouted, or fermented grains to restore what was lost—
and help your body absorb more iron naturally.
Grains are everywhere.
Unless you’re consciously avoiding them, you’re probably eating grains—bread, cereal, pasta, crackers—multiple times a day. They’re the backbone of our modern diet, just like they were for our ancestors.
And for most of history, grains were actually an important everyday source of iron.
When I started asking the question—Are women designed to be iron-deficient?—this fact stood out.
Women have always lost iron regularly through menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth. But instead of evolving to adapt to those losses, it seems we simply ate in a way that made up for them.
Our staple foods weren’t just filler. They were functional. Traditional grain preparations preserved iron content and made it easier to absorb.
So what changed?
In this issue, we’ll look at how modern milling stripped the iron from our most basic foods, and why adding it back hasn’t worked the way we hoped.
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The Milling of Grains: How White Flour Lost Its Iron
White flour, white rice, and processed grains (what we call refined grains) are stripped of their iron-rich bran and germ.
The transition to refined grains happened primarily due to longer shelf life, improved texture, and consumer preference, alongside advancements in industrial milling technology that made refined grains cheaper and easier to produce at scale.
For most of human history, whole grains contained natural iron1 . But when white flour became the norm, that changed.
Traditional stone-milled grains (pre-1900s) preserved the iron-rich bran and germ layers.
Industrial roller mills (late 1800s–early 1900s) stripped away these layers to produce softer, whiter flour.
The result? Up to two-thirds of the natural iron content was lost.
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Even though governments later fortified grains with synthetic iron (starting in the 1940s) to fix this problem, the added iron isn't as well absorbed as the iron that was originally there.
đź“Ś A slice of whole grain sourdough bread made using traditional methods (e.g., long, slow fermentation) naturally contains more absorbable iron than fortified white bread, where the iron was stripped away and re-added in a less bioavailable form.
You don’t need to overhaul your entire pantry. Start with a few small swaps that bring you closer to the way grains used to nourish us, when they naturally delivered the iron our bodies need.
🍞 Swap white bread or pasta for sprouted grain or whole grain sourdough—your gut (and energy levels) will thank you.
🔍 Look for “stone ground” or “traditional” on grain labels. These versions retain more of the original nutrients, including iron.
🥣 Batch-cook a pot of steel-cut oats or quinoa this weekend. It makes breakfast a breeze and gives you an iron-friendly base ready to go all week.
No need to ditch white bread, rice, or pasta altogether—try swapping a few servings for options that work with your body, not against it.
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💬 Do you already eat whole grains? What’s your go-to breakfast swap that makes you feel good and full of energy? Reply and let me know!
1 A study in Australia found that iron content ranged from 40 to 50 µg/g in the 1930s and 1970s, which could cover over 25% of the recommended daily allowance of iron per 100g for most women. High-yield grain varieties were introduced in 1975, resulting in more variable iron content, often less iron per gram and the typical range we see today (25–45 µg/g).
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