Gut Feeling

Abstract Medical anthropologists use the term embodiment to discuss how the social world “gets under people’s skin” to create illness. When it comes to iron deficiency, the gut is the primary way that iron becomes part of us. This chapter frames the gut as a nexus for the embodiment of iron status, discussing the links between the gut, microbiome, diet, and craving. It first discusses gendered foods, with women’s foods tending to contain less iron in many societies. Next, it discusses the cultural contexts of craving of non-food items, particularly the consumption of earth, and its curious connection to iron deficiency. Finally, it explores how we are not the only species consuming iron when we eat—a host of iron-metabolizing bacteria in our gut also consume dietary iron, with consequences for human well-being. Above all, the chapter emphasizes the cultural contexts of how we consume, absorb, and discard iron via the gut.