Fortify Yourself With IRON

If, like many of us, you see the encouraging words ‘fortified with iron‘ or, ‘a great source of iron‘ splashed across a myriad of food labels these days you could be forgiven for thinking you are doing the right (healthy) thing by assuming that if it says that, then surely…it must be good for me – right? In most cases – No. But perhaps more to the point – do we really understand the role that iron plays in our body? FoodEssentials investigates, and discovers there’s more to Iron than science labs and iron gates!

Iron is one of the most vital minerals needed in our diet because of it’s important functions in the body. Among other things, it carries oxygen around the body, helping our bodies to grow and repair themselves, whilst keeping our immune system on top form.

Its most important role though, is to carry oxygen around the body. Iron is like the chaperon, it binds to hemoglobin (this is the red pigment found in blood), and from there it guides oxygen around the body, taking it wherever it needs to go. Without iron, oxygen will not bind to hemoglobin, and we will not have enough supplies of oxygen throughout our body.

Therefore, in order to keep our bodies in tip-top shape, it’s important that we consume enough iron each day. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of iron for men is 10 milligrams and for women, 15 milligrams. Interestingly enough, it is the only nutrient for which women have a higher daily requirement than men.

There are actually two types of iron that can be found in our diet. Heme iron, and non heme iron. Heme iron is found in animal sources, such as liver, red meat, poultry, seafood and fish. This type of iron is absorbed well into the body. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services the best source of Heme iron is in fact from clams, of which 3oz will give you 23.8mg of iron. However, If clams are not quite to your liking, then organ meat will provide from 5.2-9.9 mg in every 3oz, or beef will give you 3.1 mg in every 3oz.

Get a huge hit of iron with this list of tinned clams straight from our FoodEssentials database:

They are sorted by protein content, so I would recommend either the Minced Clams, by Geisha (click here for food label), or the Whole Clams by Chicken of the Sea. Both of them are high in heme iron, and high in protein. Not only that, but both have a low calorie content per serve. Non heme iron is iron that comes from plant sources and it is found in beans, vegetables, leafy greens, sesame seeds, lentils and nuts. A few of the higher sources are soybeans, pumpkin seeds, or even lentils. Also, many cereals, breads and pastas now come fortified with iron, making it easier to meet your daily intake, but look out for added sugars and additives in such products! A table showing various sources of iron for vegetarians can be found at www.vegsoc.org/info/iron.html

However, non heme iron is unique in that it can only effectively be absorbed into the body in the presence of Vitamin C. So when you’re munching into these iron-rich foods, try and add some kind of Vitamin C to it, perhaps a squeeze of lemon over a bean salad, a glass of orange juice with your cereal or green peppers steamed with spinach leaves.

Here are a list of our top 10 lentil products from our FoodEssentials tool. Since they are sorted by fiber content I would try the Curried Red Lentil soup, not only does it sound delicious, but it is high in fiber and contains organic ingredients too – bonus!

Did you know? In some Indian areas, in which their diet is primarily vegetarian, iron sources are met by cooking food in an iron vessel. It can be harder for vegetarians and vegans to obtain enough iron to meet their daily need as they do not consume heme iron which is easily absorbed. Other groups of people at risk of low iron intake are menstruating women, pregnant women, and teenage girls. Therefore it is crucial that an effective diet plan is followed to ensure no deficiency occurs. The World Health Organization considers iron deficiency the number one nutritional disorder in the world so it is a fairly common occurrence.

Iron deficiency can cause all sorts of problems within the body, one of the most common being anemia. Anemia is a result of blood having very low levels of oxygen. It causes tiredness, fatigue, insomnia, paleness, breathlessness and decreased immunity. If you have any of these symptoms it might be an idea to have a chat with your doctor who can investigate and provide treatment and advice.

However, the body has a clever mechanism which it uses if stores of iron are becoming too low. Iron absorption actually significantly increases when your body’s stores are getting low. When iron stores are high, the absorption decreases so the body does not overload on iron. It may sound confusing, trying to get the right amount into your diet and body, but generally illness will only occur if you are significantly deficient in iron, or significantly overloading on iron.

Hopefully this post has helped to broaden or reinforce your knowledge on iron, and I hope it has armed you with the capability and drive to get the most out of your food naturally.

Further reading

• For vegans, this website gives great advice about having enough iron in your daily diet. It includes tables showing how many mg’s of iron different foods contain, and even a sample meal planing showing how to obtain enough iron in a vegan diet.

• If you think you may be iron deficient, this website may be worth taking a look at. It gives comprehensive information about iron deficiency in the body and advice on how to deal with it.

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