The Root Cause Protocol (RCP) was developed by Morley Robbins, who transformed a career in the mainstream medical industry into a quest to learn the fundamental components of a healthy metabolism. His many years of research culminates in a revolutionary approach to health from a truly holistic perspective, by looking at the whole organism and how all the elements work together, rather than limiting the focus to isolated nutrients or conditions.
The Root Cause Protocol is composed of 10 ‘Stops’ and 11 ‘Starts’, that can remove toxic elements from our bodies (importantly, iron filings added to processed foods), balance minerals and start to rebuild our metabolism.
The first “Stop” in the RCP is removing iron filings from our diet by eliminating foods made with ‘enriched flour’.
Removing added iron, like the first five stops of the RCP (Stop Iron, Stop Calcium, Stop Vitamin D, Stop Zinc, Stop Multivitamins) sounds counterintuitive to most of the nutritional dogma of the last several decades.
This goes against Popeye’s secret source of vitality, Geritol commercials for ‘increased energy’, most doctors recommendations, and the way we were all raised to think about iron.
Looking back, here are two crucial things to know about iron over the past 80 years:
- In 1941, food producers in America started adding IRON FILINGS to processed foods such as breads, cereals and pasta. They did this at the direction of the FDA, outwardly to address a perceived ‘nutritional deficiency’ in the population.
- In 1969, the FDA proposed a 300% increase in the fortification levels for iron at the White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health held in Washington, DC. A concerned group of 174 scientists voiced their concerns over this unsubstantiated increase, and as a result, the iron fortification in foods was only increased by 50%.
Currently, the FDA recommends 18mg of iron consumption daily.
It’s very important to know the body only excretes about 1-1.5 mg per day through stool, feces and sweat, and importantly, the body RECYCLES 98% of its iron stores through the Reticuloendothelial System (RES).
So how are we possibly iron deficient? The truth is, we’re not.
At least the vast majority of us are not, and in fact, there’s no evidence of actual ‘anemia’ that would defend the amount of iron that’s been added to our processed foods since 1941.
What there is evidence of-and what’s exploding in the scientific literature right now- are the vast array of conditions related to iron overload and ‘ferroptosis’- which is cell death caused by iron.
In the case of what’s referred to as ‘iron deficiency anemia’, what we’re really lacking is the KEY (bioavailable copper) to the cellular machine which allows iron to be deposited properly into the hemoglobin molecule. That’s a crucial step in transporting oxygen to make ENERGY in the body.
Most of us have an excess of iron in the body, and the machines that transport that iron wont work properly because the real deficiency is the key: bioavailable copper. It’s important to note that copper in our naturally grown foods has been steadily declining since the addition of NPK fertilizers in the last century.
This is a diagram of the iron problem: iron from our tissues (where it is overloaded) cannot be transported to where it belongs in the body. The black is iron, the blue is copper, and the crane is the enzyme that moves iron from the tissues into proteins like hemoglobin.
The monstrous impact that iron fortification has had on human metabolism was not immediately clear to me until I found Morley Robbins and his Root Cause Protocol, where he explains the massive problem of iron overload, in conjunction with deficiencies of bioavailable copper and magnesium.
Jym Moon, PhD, wrote a very interesting book called Iron: The Most Toxic Metal. I didn’t read this book or believe it’s premise until I understood the basics of the Root Cause Protocol in restoring human metabolism, energy and health.
Iron may indeed be the most toxic metal. Subtracting it from our diet, and from our supplements is a crucial first step in restoring our own health and preventing disease.
The Root Cause Protocol includes 10 “Stops” and 11 “Starts” that are the foundation of rebuilding our health and reversing disease after the last disastrous century of nutrition recommendations and pharmaceutical interventions.