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Comment by ibejoeb | Hacker News Reader

>We show how iron-(Fe3+) in collusion with genetic factors reactivates telomerase, providing a molecular mechanism for the association between iron overload and increased incidence of colorectal cancers

So I guess the link between kale and cancer has been identified.

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The (heme-rich) iron you get from eating red meat is actually quite different from the (non-heme) iron you get from veggies.

Edit* also- I’m pretty sure fe3 iron sources - particularly dairy cause your body to hoard more iron which will result in more heme iron

fe3+ definitely exists in non-animal matter too. We can talk about quantity, whatever, but my commentary is intended to criticize the baiting and conclusion-drawing.

It exists at MUCH SMALLER amounts. Their conclusion drawing should be based on an amount should it not? Lead from shooting my gun is not going to damage me the same as eating a bunch of handfulls of pure lead because of the AMOUNT that my body will end up processing. Quantity is so key its absurd to overlook it.

Fe(III) ions exist in all the cells of all aerobic living beings, for instance in the molecules of the so-called cytochromes, which are used in the cellular respiration.

Nevertheless, the amount of Fe(III) that exists in almost all cells is extremely small in comparison with the amount of Fe(III) that exists in the blood of any vertebrate, where it is used to transport dioxygen in the entire body. The "red" muscles also contain a similar protein to that of the red blood cells, which is used to store dioxygen.

Therefore any kind of food that contains either blood or muscles rich in myoglobin will contain much more Fe(III) than anything else.

Worth noting, beef red meat has more than 7 times the amount of iron as kale does.

It should be also noted that the iron supplements contain reduced Fe(II) ions, and not the oxidized Fe(III) ions that have been identified as cancer causes by this study.

The Fe(II) ions are soluble in water and they may also be found in natural water, but the Fe(III) ions normally form insoluble precipitates that would not have any effect even if they would pass through the intestine.

The Fe(III) ions that have been identified as harmful are those that are bound to organic molecules, e.g. proteins like hemoglobin, so that they are prevented from forming insoluble minerals.

Worth noting, eating 200g of beef is easy. Eating 200g of kale (or lentils) is challenging.

200g of lentils is not that hard. 200g of kale requires cooking it

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