Did you know that approximately 50% of people who are overweight have impaired iron metabolism, detectable on blood tests? For many of these people, they are getting plenty of iron in their diet. Researchers have found that inflammation associated with excess body weight elevates a hormone in your liver called hepcidin, which has the effect of reducing iron absorption into your body from your digestive tract. The result is a metabolic storm of weight gain, fatigue, and poor thyroid function.

A great addition to the raw food diet to consider is Tocotrienols or Rice Bran Solubles. Have you heard of them? Many people on a raw vegan plan add “tocos” to their list of nutritional support foods. A tocotrienol supplement is actually stabilized rice bran that has been pre-digested and separated from the insoluble fiber. There are at least 100 known antioxidants in tocotrienols including selenium, CoQ10, ALA and others.