Why Men Don’t Iron: The New Reality of Gender Differences. Anne Moir
conclusion was that ‘zinc and iron utilization was enhanced after consumption of a diet including lean ground beef.’64
‘A quarter-pound hamburger a day …’
‘… keeps the doctor away,’ says Anne.
Except that adding a wholemeal bun to the burger decreases the available iron. So does overcooking the meat. Cook meat to a grey death (an attempt, perhaps, to disguise its blood-origin and now required by law in the USA for hamburger, because of deep fear of bacterial contamination) converts the iron into the equivalent of plant-iron – which is ten times more difficult for the body to ingest. (See above, ‘Why men need iron’.) Medium done is better than well done.65
Men are short of zinc, women of iron, and both are most easily found in red meat, yet that is precisely what is most often removed from the diet. Her need for red meat is much like his, if for different reasons, but her distaste for red meat is much greater than his. Some people, of course, eschew red meat for moral reasons, and fruitarians take this belief to its logical end by not only rejecting meat but even refusing to consume roots or leaves that cannot be eaten without killing the plant. Karen Nobel, a shiatsu practitioner from London, likes to eat up to 20 mangoes a day. ‘The thing about fruitarianism is that you are not murdering anything,’ she says. ‘It is delicious and it happens to be saving the Earth as well.’66 Fruitarians tend to a dearth of iron, Vitamin B12 and essential fatty acids, and to flatulence and diabetes from the strain of producing insulin to break down the overdose of fruit sugars.
Karen Nobel turns orange during the mango season.
Men have a speedier gut transit time and greater stool weights than women
Fibre, we are assured, is good for us. Suppose there is a slight down side caused by phytates, so what? Everyone knows that fibre is good. Do they? It was once thought that cereal fibre protected against colonic cancer, but ‘the large majority of studies in humans have found no protective effect of fibre from cereals.’67 Vegetable or fruit fibre might help or, and this seems more likely, it is another, as yet unidentified, ingredient in the vegetables. At least the fruit and vegetables have a low phytate content and so, unlike wheat bran fibre, they will not block the uptake of essential minerals. Increased fibre is tolerable as long as one increases the intake of fruit, vegetables and, yes, meat.68
Fibre is also often recommended for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, reportedly the most common disorder of the intestine, which affects up to two in every five adults. The main cause is thought to be stress, and twice as many women as men are affected;69 though food sensitivities, hormones and infections including candida may play a role. The syndrome accounts for half the patients seen by gastroenterologists, who frequently advise their patients to increase their intake of bran fibre. It is of no value. Experiments with three months’ bran therapy resulted in a single conclusion. ‘The beneficial effects of bran are due to a placebo response.’70
Men and women appear to respond differently to wheat bran and vegetable fibre, in regard to both excretion and digestibility. With an identical intake of dietary fibre men tend to excrete more of the fibre than women.71 On similar diets women have much lower stool weights and a slower transit time than men,72 and as the common reason for taking more fibre is to assist bowel movements, the current fashion for more fibre in the diet is seldom as appropriate for men as it is for women.
A large increase in male sperm tract abnormalities is linked to the increase in oestrogen-like substances, in both the environment and diet
Soya is the richest source of oestrogen (a feminizing hormone) in today’s diet, and oestrogen and similar substances are known to cause reproductive tract disorders in men. ‘Soya is the richest source of phytoestrogens and its consumption, especially as a substitute for meat protein, has increased enormously in the past two or more decades.’73 Many men eat soya products without even knowing it (unless they read the small print on the package label) because it is used as a supplement in many pre-packaged goods. The can might be labelled ‘stew’, but some of the ‘meat’ will probably be soya. It is difficult, in fact, to escape this ubiquitous product. Soya beans, soya oil and soya derivatives are used in some 30,000 food products, including confectionery and margarine.74 Crushed soya beans are used in 60 per cent of all processed foods75 and are found in six out of ten products on the food shelves of our supermarkets.76
Yet Britain’s leading sperm expert, Richard Sharpe, eschews soya products. ‘I try to avoid buying anything with soya in it for my children,’ he says.77 The sperm decline in the modern male is undoubtedly linked to other factors. For example, at one time cattle were fed growth hormones that resulted in more oestrogen in the food supply. No one will know, says Sharpe, just how much oestrogen was circulating in the women of the 1950s who gave birth to today’s generation of men with low sperm counts.
British bakers plan to manufacture loaves with soya flour, rich with plant oestrogens,78 to be marketed to menopausal women. Four slices are said to provide a natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy. Food scientists are concerned that it might not be safe for men to eat this soya-rich bread. The pure soya flour is meant for menopausal women, but it is already almost impossible in Britain to find a supermarket loaf without soya flour added to it.
At least some people recognize that soya is a food better suited to women than to men. In Australia the ‘Sheila’s Bread’ which is to be introduced into Britain, is claimed to put the waltz back into Matilda.79 The essential ingredients of Sheila’s Bread are soya flour and linseed oil, both rich in oestrogen, but maybe younger Sheilas should be wary: too much oestrogen in young women can inflict undescended testicles on their sons. Whichever way it is absorbed, oestrogen won’t put the waltz back into Sheila’s menfolk.
‘But if soya feminizes the male –’ says Bill.
‘Perhaps that’s why there’s so little protest from some of the women’s groups.’
‘But these soya oestrogens are carcinogens, too.’
‘Indeed,’ says Anne. ‘You know, the Food and Drugs Administration in America has already banned many carcinogens that are a lot less potent than these. If it weren’t natural I’m sure soyas would have been banned as well.’
So far we have listed various factors that affect diet, and have tried to point out where they have a different impact on men than on women. Some readers may feel that, despite the undoubted importance of zinc and iron, our concerns are still peripheral. After all, we have not mentioned the real villains of the piece. We might claim that red meat is a superb source of protein and micro-nutrients, and so it is, but how can one talk about red meat without mentioning the dread subjects of cholesterol and fat? A man might struggle to get enough zinc in his diet, but too much cholesterol and too much fat will just plain kill him. Won’t they?
It is time to deal with the real villains, and they deserve a chapter to themselves.
SUMMARY
Men lose weight when they exercise – women don’t.
Men, taking the weight difference into account, burn 10% more energy than women. They need more calories weight for weight than women do.
Men have more muscle and turn over body protein faster, so need more protein than women do.
Men need 45% more zinc, and meat, especially red meat, is the best source of this crucial mineral.
Men, without knowing it, are being fed a diet high in female hormones. The ubiquitous addition of soya to food may be literally feminizing them.
FUTURE TRENDS
He is missing out on crucial minerals – we are cutting out just what he needs to operate at high energy. The meatless male is the lethargic male.
Future long distant space travel