Anemia??????

[fruit]

My friend called me today on advice...

Her six year old son and her husband are both anemic.Her some has been anemic for years and her husband just recently found out.
Her question to me was what causes this?
She mentioned to me that her son has never eaten a fruit or vegetable in his life,He has tried a couple(taken a bit) but hates them.
And her husband drinks alcohol everyday.
I was not to sure on what advice to give her but to introduce raw fruits and vegetables to her husband and son.
She tells me her son will not touch fruits or vegetables and she dont want to force him.She says he takes vitamins to make up for them.

Do you guys have any advice i could pass on to my friend?
Maybe any suggestions on getting kids to eat fruits and veggies?

[Rawkinlocs]

Taken from: http://www.anemia.com/about_anemia/understanding_anemia.jsp


Understanding Anemia

Blood is composed of three types of cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets) that circulate throughout the body. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin (Hb), a red, iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to all of the body's muscles and organs. Oxygen provides the energy the body needs for all of its normal activities.

Anemia (ah-NEE-mee-ah) is a medical condition that occurs when a person does not have enough red blood cells. Red blood cells are important because they contain hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's muscles and organs. The body requires oxygen for energy. Therefore, when you are anemic, you may feel tired mentally and physically.

When the number of red blood cells decreases, the heart works harder to deliver oxygen where it is needed throughout the body. Anemia may become worse if it is not treated.

According the same site, the causes are generally:

Blood loss

Diseases

Medication side effects

Poor diet

Vitamin or iron deficiencies

Your friend's son and husband are probably anemic due to malabsorption of iron due to their dietary habits and (the husband's) drinking habit. I'm sure if they eat the SAD they are eating red meat, but they probably aren't assimilating much iron. More than likely, if the son refuses to eat fruit and veggies, he's probably going to end up taking iron supplements or in the worst case scenario, getting injections as a last resort.

They both REALLY need to eat fresh fruit and veggies, but if she cannot get her son to eat them fresh, perhaps (if you own a dehydrator) you could help out by having her buy fresh fruit like strawberries, apples, etc. and you could puree and make some fruit leather for the son. He may or may not like that. Or maybe she could "try" to make the banana ice cream, perhaps trying different variations at first. Or, maybe if she made some SUPER SLUSHY smoothies he might like that.

I think it's really, really sad when kids don't like fruit. That seems to mean that they were never introduced to it at all or if they were, it was only because fruit is a "rare treat" in the home that they hardly ever have. I mean, I don't know TOO many kids who don't love some kind of fruit, but I know one personally...my little (13 year old) brother. But I'll tell ya, when he comes to visit me in August, he WILL be eating fruit in one form or another whether he likes it or not!

[fruit]

Thanks Rawkinlocs,I will copy that info from the website you provided and send it to my friend.

I know she did mention that her son eats meat,soymilk,milk,cereal,bread and that is pretty much his diet.I do try to tell her that those foods are not good for him.

I know a while back when i went to visit her,She lives about two hours away so we dont see each other to often but we have been friends for 21 years.
But anyways my kids were trying to feed her son a carrot and he started gagging.So we were all telling him if he tried it we would pay him 10 bucks and he still refused.I thought he was maybe just going through a faze but that was maybe a year ago and he still refuses to try any produce.
Can you beleive this kid won't even eat french fries.

[juliebove]

First I do not believe that the kid has never eaten a fruit or a vegetable in his life. If he has had pizza or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, he has eaten them.

I also do not believe parents when they tell me thier kids won't eat vegetables. What I've seen happen is that the kids protest when given a serving of a vegetable. After a while the parent makes a big deal of this and tries to force them to eat it. Then the parent takes things to extremes going around and making the big announcement to everyone and then goes to far as to make sure not to put any vegetables into their food at all. Soups, sauces, whatever, are devoid of all vegetables. I've seen this happen many times. And yet these same kids will come over to my house, get hungry and eat the platter of raw veggies I put out as a snack.

Now this isn't always the case. My daughter has a friend who I thought was hopeless. She will not touch a raw vegetable. But her little sister eats them all! In fact I have to watch the little sister because she will eat anything.
And I mean anything! Once they were playing up in the "treehouse" which is right next to the pear tree. They started picking the unripe pears and were playing with them. I told them not to pick any more of the pears because they were just wasting them and they were not ready to eat yet. I also warned them not to eat the pears because they were not ripe, nor were they washed. Next thing I know I hear the little sister squealing, "Yum! This apple is goood!" She was three at the time. I was relieved that it was a pear and not an apple (I do have apple trees) because an unripe pear is one food that can be eaten without making you sick. But a little upset because it wasn't washed.

Each time the sister came over to visit, she would take home a bag of onions, radishes, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, whatever I had. She loved them all!

Then one day the family moved. My daughter's friend was very upset about it and didn't want to leave our house. She wound up staying here until dinner time. Neither of the girls had lunch because my husband had taken them out earlier in the day and didn't think to feed them. I was low on food. I had nothing this girl would eat for lunch. I put some food out anyway, hoping she might. My daughter ate some but the other girl didn't. So by dinner time they were both really hungry. I wound up taking them out to eat, knowing there was something she would eat at this restaurant because my husband had taken them there before and she liked it. There she had a bowl of vegetable soup, mashed potatoes, grilled mixed vegetables, as well as some meat. So apparently she does eat vegetables. Just not raw ones. My husband also took them once to a Mexican restaurant where she had fajitas and ate the onions and peppers that came with it. She won't eat refried beans though.

I have nieces and nephews who swear they won't eat a certain vegetable, yet they will eat it in a cooked food if it is chopped up finely enough to where they can't see it. Their mom told me they didn't eat onions so she used onion powder in thier food. Told me kids never eat onions. Yet they always ate what I made with real onions in it. A lot of times I think these food problems stem from something an adult said or did. I once made lasagna that had onions and other vegetables in it. The neighborhood kids were happily eating it when one of the dads spotted a piece of onion. I had used an immersion blender on the sauce but apparently that bit of onion escaped me. "Oh my God! An ONION!", shouted the dad. "Justin doesn't EAT onions!" He began leaping around and then plowing through the food looking for more onions. The kids then dropped their forks and refused to eat another bite. After that I've had problems with my daughter when she thinks an onion might be in her food.

There are other ways to "sneak" vegetables or fruit into food. Zucchini can be put into bread or chocolate cake. Applesauce can be put into cake. Ice cream can have fruit in it. And many types of vegetables can be cut up fine and put into soups and casseroles. Of course these are all cooked foods. And when doing such a thing it's best not to draw attention to the fact that something extra is in there. If you act in any way weird about it when you serve the food, the kid will catch on and refuse to eat it from the start. And some people simply won't eat certain vegetables. I can't stand to eat anything with avocado in it and even a speck of cooked broccoli in something makes me want to hurl.

As for the issue of anemia, it could have many causes. I don't know that a raw diet would help in this situation. I have anemia. I read that dairy allergy can cause anemia. And I do have a dairy allergy. After I found out about it eliminated the dairy, I hoped the anemia would clear up. Apparently it didn't. So I still have to take iron pills. My grandma had pernicious anemia. She had to go in for B12 shots. Sometimes it's a matter of what you eat or don't eat. Sometimes it's genetics. Or there are other causes like diseases or medications.

[juliebove]

Taken from: http://www.anemia.com/about_anemia/understanding_anemia.jsp


Understanding Anemia

Blood is composed of three types of cells (red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets) that circulate throughout the body. Red blood cells contain hemoglobin (Hb), a red, iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to all of the body's muscles and organs. Oxygen provides the energy the body needs for all of its normal activities.

Anemia (ah-NEE-mee-ah) is a medical condition that occurs when a person does not have enough red blood cells. Red blood cells are important because they contain hemoglobin, a protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's muscles and organs. The body requires oxygen for energy. Therefore, when you are anemic, you may feel tired mentally and physically.

When the number of red blood cells decreases, the heart works harder to deliver oxygen where it is needed throughout the body. Anemia may become worse if it is not treated.

According the same site, the causes are generally:

Blood loss

Diseases

Medication side effects

Poor diet

Vitamin or iron deficiencies

Your friend's son and husband are probably anemic due to malabsorption of iron due to their dietary habits and (the husband's) drinking habit. I'm sure if they eat the SAD they are eating red meat, but they probably aren't assimilating much iron. More than likely, if the son refuses to eat fruit and veggies, he's probably going to end up taking iron supplements or in the worst case scenario, getting injections as a last resort.

They both REALLY need to eat fresh fruit and veggies, but if she cannot get her son to eat them fresh, perhaps (if you own a dehydrator) you could help out by having her buy fresh fruit like strawberries, apples, etc. and you could puree and make some fruit leather for the son. He may or may not like that. Or maybe she could "try" to make the banana ice cream, perhaps trying different variations at first. Or, maybe if she made some SUPER SLUSHY smoothies he might like that.

I think it's really, really sad when kids don't like fruit. That seems to mean that they were never introduced to it at all or if they were, it was only because fruit is a "rare treat" in the home that they hardly ever have. I mean, I don't know TOO many kids who don't love some kind of fruit, but I know one personally...my little (13 year old) brother. But I'll tell ya, when he comes to visit me in August, he WILL be eating fruit in one form or another whether he likes it or not!

I've never really liked fruit. As a child, it was a struggle to get me to eat it. I remember reading a book when I was about 8 or so about a girl eating an apple. The book described how she slowly at all the peel off and then it took her about an hour to eat the rest of the apple. So I asked my mom if I could have an apple so I could try this technique. She acted a bit shocked because I never asked for fruit. I sat there chewing the peel off and then threw the apple away, bored with it.

I finally got to the point where I could eat some fruit. Apples and pears mainly. I don't really like them so much, but they don't taste vile to me or gag me like a lot of fruits do. The worst ones for me are the ones most people seem to like. Like blueberries, peaches and watermelon. They are just waaaay too sweet for me and there is something weird about the texture of watermelon and peaches that makes me want to spit it out. At times, I've eaten bits of dried fruits mixed with nuts, but that was more a matter of convenience than my liking the fruits.

We always had tons of fruit in the house. My parents liked it. So did my brother. They couldn't understand my not liking it. They also couldn't understand why I liked vegetables so much.

My daughter doesn't like most fruit either. She will eat apples and pears. She asks for those. Sometimes she will eat melon (all kinds), grapes and raisins. But that's about the extent of her fruit eating. She's equally picky when it comes to vegetables. She will eat more vegetables than fruit though, including some that many kids won't eat. Like cabbage and Swiss chard.

We get an organic produce box each week. The first farm we got the box from sent about 1/2 fruit and 1/2 vegetables. We never knew what we'd be getting from week to week. Sometimes there were things we didn't like. And almost always I through away most of the fruit the day the next box came. This farm did make up different sized boxes and you could also get a box that was all fruit or all vegetables. Eventually I got an all veggie box.

Then the health food store I get the boxes from switched to a different farm. They allow you to make up to three changes of items in the box. You know by friday what will be in the box that arrives the following wednesday. You have until monday to make any changes and add extra items. This is nice! But even at that, there is always some fruit in the box. And I almost always wind up throwing that fruit away because nobody eats it.

My husband actually eats a lot of fruit but only very specific things. And those things are never in the boxes we get. He is anti organic. He wants his fruit to be waxed and perfect looking. He will only eat red delicious apples, bananas (sometimes) and fruit salad that is already cut up and put in a container so he can just pop the lid off and eat it. Of course it has to be pre-packaged. He won't eat it if I cut it up.

[Brianna]

Her husband and son are going to have to be willing to change their diet and lifestyle if they want to be healthy. As much as she would like to do it for them, it's not going to work unless they want it for themselves.

[dreamrawalwz]

There are different types of anemia. I was dxed with B-12 and folic acid (or was it folate) anemia. I havn't tested since I went raw, and I should probably do that lol. If it's iron related anemial they'll have to get A LOT of greens (not a lot to us, but to them).