The human body needs iron to help perform a number of important functions. Iron helps carry oxygen to parts of your body in the form of hemoglobin. Not having enough can lead to iron deficiency and symptoms such as weakness and fatigue.

Examples of iron rich foods include red meat, fish, chick peas, tofu, beans and lentils.

Red blood cells are created inside the marrow of your bones, they serve the important role of carrying blood around your body.

Antibiotics can be useful in fighting off bacteria but they are ineffective against viruses, this is because bacteria and virus are completely different, both having unique characteristics that need specialized treatments.

Viruses are usually around 100 times smaller than bacteria.

Around 7 million people die every year from food poisoning out of a total of around 70 million cases. Careful food preparation and storage is vital in order to avoid dangerous toxins, viruses and bacteria.

Food allergies are fairly common amongst adults and even more so among children. Around 2% of adults and 8% of children suffer from some type of food allergy where the immune system makes a mistake and thinks a certain food protein is dangerous and attacks it. Well known food allergies can include unwanted reactions to gluten, seafood and peanuts.

Access to clean drinking water can be taken for granted by people living in developed countries. In poorer parts of the world the quality water and pollution can give rise to dangerous diseases and bacteria such as cryptosporidium and e coli.

Obesity can increase the chances of developing diseases such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

In recent times there has been a drop in the amount of physical activity both adults and children do. Some of the reasons for this include new technologies that require less physical labor and increased time watching TV. It has been suggested that at least 60% of the world’s population doesn’t do enough exercise.

In 2007, heart disease was the leading cause of death in the USA.

In 2007 around 13% of all deaths worldwide were caused by cancer. The branch of medicine related to cancer study and treatment is known as oncology.

Infectious diseases such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis lead to around 26% of worldwide deaths in 2002.