Iron deficiency anemia is a nutritional deficiency that affects as much as 27.4% of the world’s entire population! That’s 2 billion people out of the current 7.3 billion!
Although it is not really quite as deadly as other nutritional deficiencies, it still is the most common across the world; thus, it is still alarming at this rate.
Of course, this condition can be treated using nutritional supplements readily available in pharmacies and certain iron-rich food can be incorporated in the diet to help solve the problem yet many people in poor countries around the world have no access to these solutions.
Thankfully, Canadian Dr. Christopher Charles and his team have come up with a simple yet very effective solution to this: the lucky iron fish.
Made of iron, this reusable iron fish is cooked along with any dish the family is preparing. Iron is transferred into the dish and is ingested by the diners. According to Dr. Charles, the taste of the dish does not change even if it is cooked with the iron fish yet the nutritional content is greatly increased.
Dr. Charles and the non-profit organizations that support his advocacy have distributed plenty of these fishes to the homes of people in Cambodia whose alarming statistics show that as much as 50% of the entire population suffers from iron deficiency. After distributing at least 2,500 fishes, the group found out that as many as half of the families given these iron fishes were no longer anemic after a year of using the fish!
With continued use, it is expected that the fish will continue to eradicate iron-deficiency anemia in the rest of the families in Cambodia.
The lucky iron fish is also going global and is now available for sale in many countries across the world, including those in Europe as well as the US, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The team is also working on finding ways to share this fish with the rest of the countries in the world.
This reusable and very effective iron fish only comes at a small price tag of $25 – and each purchase runs on a buy 1, give 1 scheme. That means that you get one fish for that price and another will be donated to a family in Cambodia through the group’s advocacy.
For their “efforts in reducing iron deficiency rates around the world”, the Lucky Iron Fish group has received a silver Edison Award.
Watch more about the lucky iron fish in this video:
