Bled Dry

Abstract

Abstract Globally, iron deficiency is a dire problem for women. This is not an evolutionary inevitability: women’s evolved iron biology can walk the tightrope between help and harm, if only there is enough iron available in the environment. The nutrientscape, or the flow of available nutrients between local and global contexts, greatly impacts a woman’s ability to walk that tightrope. This chapter will discuss why, globally, bodies do not have enough iron. It argues that food insecurity, soil depletion, and parasite infection are not accidents, but a feature of structural global inequalities that limit the flow of iron to certain people. The chapter will end with an analysis of the physical, mental, and social costs borne by affected women around the world.