what are they doing, here? they're defining the amount of iron that africans need by looking at the amount that europeans need, and then deciding that africans are anemic because they don't get the amount of iron that europeans do.
but, the reason that europeans need all of this iron is an adaptation to the colder climate! some of these african cultures live exclusively on meat. if they're not absorbing the iron, perhaps it's because they didn't evolve the need for it, because they aren't living in climates that required it.
so, if you follow this line of thinking, what is there to say about the need for "intervention strategies" in african populations to increase their iron levels? it would be racist, if it wasn't clueless.
so, i need to form a position on this. i've sent an email to my sister asking her to contact my stepmother, who is both an expert on bone marrow cancer and the person best positioned to provide information about my father's health. once i get that information, i'm going to need to make a choice:
1) am i actually iron deficient? if so, i guess the only thing i can do is bombard my stomach lining and try to force it to absorb more than it's designed to - to try to break my programming, so to speak.
2) or am i just evolved to thrive in a warmer climate, where all of this excess iron absorption is not just unnecessary but potentially even harmful? i mean, i don't want to give myself alzheimer's...which seems to be correlated with high iron absorption. if so, i should just accept that my ferritin is low due to genetic variation, and try to adjust my environment so it's warmer.