NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Iron Man may be the one thrilling audiences with his cinematic heroics this summer, but when it comes to saving lives out here in the real world, Tony Stark’s got nothing on these iron fish.

Iron deficiency is a nutritional condition which affects huge swaths of the global population. Lack of iron in one’s diet can make a person tired, unable to focus, and in extreme cases can lead to life-threatening complications for pregnant women and their unborn child. Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) can be treated with supplemental pills, but those can cause unwanted side-effects, and are costly as well as difficult to obtain in certain parts of the world. Due to those factors, the BBC reports, IDA is estimated to affect up to half the population of women and children in developing countries like Cambodia.

It was there in 2009 that researcher Christopher Charles came up with a surprisingly simple and astonishingly effective tool to increase dietary iron intake without resorting to pills: A small metal fish – a symbol of luck in Cambodian culture – that can infuse food with the proper amount of necessary iron to ensure better overall nutrition. Drop the fish in a boiling stew or soup, wait ten minutes, remove, and you’re good to go. Then wash the fish thoroughly, and it’s ready for the next meal.