Being low on the mineral iron aka Anemia (although Anemia is not only caused by iron deficiency) is a health condition that’s usually caused by a lack of iron in ones system. Based on recent studies around 60 percent of people suffer from Anemia. Iron deficiency is most common with women mostly becauseof blood loss during menstruation and pregnancy.
A pregnant or breastfeeding women need twice as much iron as a man. Being low on iron can have a devastating impact on your overall health. If nothing about your iron deficiency is done, it will eventually lead to a number of other health-related problems. Eating foods high in iron is the ideal solution to increasing your iron levels back to normal. Although, you don’t want to eat too much of iron rich foods as an excess of anything will be bad for your health. At the bottom of the page is a complete list of foods with iron.
Iron is one of the most critical and important minerals in our body. Important because it creates Hemoglobin for your body. Without hemoglobin, your red blood cells are not going to be able to carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. This oxygen goes to our lungs, the body cells and even the muscles. Once the required amount of iron in the blood is provided through our diet, it gives us:
- lots o f energy to work
- It’ll strengthen you muscles
- A much stronger and healthier immune system
Could You Have Iron Deficiency – Anemia?
Anemia is caused by Iron deficiency 90 percent of the time. Red blood cells become weak and small without iron to make hemoglobin and, therefore, they do not deliver nearly enough oxygen to the different cells through ones body for energy consumption. An iron rich foods list is at the bottom – It explains everything.Symptoms of iron deficiency anemia will include being cold, tired, insomnia, no appetite, pale, difficulty in breathing and feeling faint. The most common cause of Anemia is having a diet that’s low in iron – iron defficiency, and the best treatment possible would be a diet of foods with iron.
Know your Iron Requirement and Purchase the Right Foods
Are you consuming enough foods that contain iron? “8 milligrams per day are the reccomended daily consumption of iron for postmenopausal women and men. During pregnancy women should consume about 27 mg per day. Women between ages 19 and 50 have got to consume 18 mg per day.
The total amount of iron content needed in a human body substantially depends on a number of factors. However, amongst all these factors, age and sex are the two determining factors for the amount of foods with iron needed in an individual’s body. As stated above, it is clear that women aged between 11 and 49 require the most amount of iron foods for their body to function properly, while babies aging 3 months and even younger need least amount of iron.
Our body loses iron through the following:
- Blood loss
- Waste elimination
- Sweating
- And, natural shedding of our body’s skin cells.
There are two forms or iron: heme iron and non-heme Iron
Your body will absorb iron at a success rate that depends on what type it is. “Heme iron, found in meat, chicken, eggs, and other animal products, is well absorbed by the body and supports good health,” says Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, author of “The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food.” Non-heme iron is found in plant-based iron-rich foods and is the type of iron added to cereals, breads, and processed, packaged, and fast food. Non-heme iron isn’t absorbed as efficiently, but combining both types of iron-rich foods or eating them with vitamin C will help.
Plant Sources of Iron-Rich Foods
Plant sources of iron rich food include dark green, leafy vegetables, dried fruit, iron-enriched cereals, beans, lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, and artichokes. Lima beans are especially good, as are spinach and broccoli. Blackstrap molasses is another iron-rich food option. Here are some top iron rich plant foods: Prune juice has about 5.2 mg of iron in one-half cup; walnuts, 3.75 mg per one-half cup; chickpeas, 3 mg per one-half cup; and raisins, 2.55 mg of iron per one-half cup.
High-in-Iron Food Sources
Very good sources of heme iron, with 3.5 milligrams or more per serving, include:
- 3 ounces of clams or mollusks
- 3 ounces of oysters
- 3 ounces of beef or chicken liver
Good sources of heme iron, with 2.1 milligrams or more per serving, include:
- 3 ounces of cooked turkey
- 3 ounces of canned sardines, canned in oil
- 3 ounces of cookedbeef
Other sources of heme iron, with 0.7 milligrams or more per serving, include:
- 3 ounces of ham
- 3 ounces of halibut, haddock, perch, salmon, or tuna
- 3 ounces of veal
- 3 ounces of chicken
Iron in plant foods such as spinach, beans, and lentils is nonheme iron. This is the form of iron added to iron-enriched and iron-fortified foods. Our bodies are less efficient at absorbing non-heme iron and foods with iron, but most dietary iron is nonheme iron.
Great sources of nonheme iron, with 3.5 milligrams or more per serving, include:
- Breakfast cereals enriched with iron
- One cup of cooked beans
- One-half cup of tofu
- 1 ounce of pumpkin, sesame, or squash seeds
Good sources of nonheme iron, with 2.1 milligrams or more per serving, include:
- One-half cup of canned lima beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas, or split peas
- One cup of dried apricots
- One medium baked potato
- One medium stalk of broccoli
- One cup of cooked enriched egg noodles
- One-fourth cup of wheat germ
Other sources of nonheme iron, with 0.7 milligrams or more, include:
- 1 ounce of peanuts, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, roasted almonds, roasted cashews, or sunflower seeds
- One-half cup of dried seedless raisins, peaches, or prunes
- One cup of rice
- One medium green pepper
- One cup of pasta
- One slice of bread, pumpernickel bagel, or bran muffin
- One cup of spinach
In addition to the iron rich foods list, iron supplements may be used as a treatment for anemia. Iron supplements are given over several months, but can have side effects like heartburn and constipation. “Getting too much foods with iron is not a concern for healthy individuals; however, caution should be used when taking dietary supplements that contain iron,” warns Brennan. Iron supplementsshould be taken with food and should not be taken at bedtime to avoid upset stomach.
Checking for Iron Deficiency
Iron deficiency is commonly seen with children during a growth spurts. Young women who are vegetarians or who go on fad diets may be at increased risk. The best way to get iron is through a balanced diet that includes iron-rich foods from meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, fruits, and fortified grains. Include foods from heme and non-heme groups. If you have symptoms of iron deficiency anemia, see your doctor for a blood test to measure the amount of iron in your blood.
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Is it possible that low iron can give you the shakes as well as felling faint? My husband has these spells where he feels faint and he gets the shakes until he eats something, but he has been checked for diabetes and the doctor says that is not it. He is also tired all the time so I am thinking this may be the cause, I am going to ask the doctor again to see what he says, but I think I am going to increase the iron in his diet and see if that helps as well. Thanks for your post this is a lot of helpful information.
This makes so much sense to me now. I have a friend who is often anemic and she has always attributed it her natural make up, but I have always contended that it must be due to her diet. I tell her that she must be deficient in vitamins, but never knew which one. All of the maladies described in this article describe her daily symptoms. And to think that there are harmful chemicals in packaged cereals that we are feeding to our children every day of their lives and thinking they are getting a rich source of vitamins.
This website has such great information. I have crossed paths with people who suffer from anemia on a frequent basis. If I am not mistaken, and according to this article, it is not a permanent condition, but instead, a result of a lack of iron in your system. I think I heard that those people who often get dark circles under their eyes also suffer from a lack of iron in their blood. Is that correct? Anyway, it is good to know this and to be able to also learn what kinds of foods to eat in your daily meal plan.
I was one of those women that ended up being anemic while I was pregnant, so I am extremely glad that you pointed out a natural way for the pregnant women to concur this issue instead of having to take iron supplements. One thing I noticed about taking the iron supplements was that they upset your stomach greatly. I was not aware of the natural foods I could eat to battle this when I was pregnant or I would have tried that first thing. My doctor told be to crush the iron up and put it on my food and that would help the upset stomach issue, WRONG! Do not do this it will make it worse even if you can manage to get one bite down it won’t stay down. I would think that eating these foods listed would not only be good for the mother when she is pregnant but it would also help the baby to not be iron deficient when born, right?
Nice list. This iron rich foods are good to add with my daily meals. Thanks for this.
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