What are the best sources of iron (yes I am a meat eater, but my wife is pregnant and needs it)?!
We are going for a second kid. While my wife was pregant with the first, she had an iron deficiency. Through a tremendous amount of research, I figured out that there were two items on the planet that had EXCELLENT iron in them.
One of them was liver, the other oddly enough was GRITS. I thought that was odd. It appears that grits have the highest iron content I could find. To be honest. I am a hunter and a non-changeable meat eater. The funny part is, wifey would be a vegetarian if she could. (She is definitely an animal rights activist!) How we got married I will never know.....mystified how life works out like that....That, however, is a story for another day.
What I need to know is, WHAT ELSE is really high in iron. I am coming to learn that NO OTHER board has the knowledge of foodstuffs that this one does. Not even the pregnancy board.
They pretend to have it, but most of their information comes from google. I detest google, as stated in my profile. HELP!
Answers: Howdy folks!
We are going for a second kid. While my wife was pregant with the first, she had an iron deficiency. Through a tremendous amount of research, I figured out that there were two items on the planet that had EXCELLENT iron in them.
One of them was liver, the other oddly enough was GRITS. I thought that was odd. It appears that grits have the highest iron content I could find. To be honest. I am a hunter and a non-changeable meat eater. The funny part is, wifey would be a vegetarian if she could. (She is definitely an animal rights activist!) How we got married I will never know.....mystified how life works out like that....That, however, is a story for another day.
What I need to know is, WHAT ELSE is really high in iron. I am coming to learn that NO OTHER board has the knowledge of foodstuffs that this one does. Not even the pregnancy board.
They pretend to have it, but most of their information comes from google. I detest google, as stated in my profile. HELP!
Well first, congratulations on the upcoming baby #2, I hope everything goes well and she has a healthy and happy pregnancy!
Some of the best vegan sources of iron include:
Dark green leafy veggies (if you like southern greens that's great, stuff like turnip greens, swiss chard and kale pump up the iron!), blackstrap molasses is very high in iron, soybeans, spinach, quinoa (a delicious grain)... lentils and kidney beans have 5 mg of iron or more per serving.
Even a potato has 3 mg of iron in it, which is pretty decent, since she should get about 15 mg of iron a day if she's an average sized woman.
Interestingly, have your wife increase Vitamin C (which is in lots of fruits and veggies) because Vitamin C helps increase iron absorption.
Make sure your wife doesn't drink a lot of beverages with tannins in them (wine, coffee, tea) because they dramatically decrease iron absorption. Also, calcium can decrease iron absorption so calcium-rich foods shouldn't be eaten in the same meal as iron-rich food (to make sure the most iron is absorbed).
Here is a great site about other iron-rich foods, including amounts and how many mg of iron they have (remember, she should aim for 15 or even more if she has a history of anemia, and especially since she'll be eating for 2!)
This site compares plant AND animal sources of iron:
http://soystache.com/iron.htm
(notice seeds like pumpkin seeds, which are full of healthy fats too, have a TON of iron, and they're an easy snack!)
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
lol. You (she) can't be an animal rights activist, or even support animal rights if you eat meat (or any animal products for that matter.) She may be a welfarist, but that's as good as it gets. Hell, i'm vegan and even I'm not a rightsist.
Anyhoo.... Good sources of iron for vegetarians include wholegrain cereals and flours, leafy green vegetables, blackstrap molasses, pulses such as lentils and kidney beans, and some dried fruits.
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/iron.html
You do know that google is just a search engine, right? It just searches and brings up other websites. Where do you expect the information to come from if not actual sources?
gosh, my husband use to be hunter, I have been vegetarian all my life. yes life is funny!
Eggplant. - high in ron content. there are many ways to cook it.
best and easiest way, is to grill it with olive oil, and eat in a sandwich. put in avocados in theere and it tastes very good.
red cabbage, you can eat that in salad, soups, stir fries, etc...
- so not to be nosy, why is your wife not vegetarian? i live with a meat eater and i am now vegan. and it works for us. I am a strong animal lover.
Check this site out: http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/iron.as...
greens like kale and spinach, nuts and seeds
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nu...
OH and Congrats!!!!
Pine nuts. There are smaller but significant amounts in other nuts as well.
Blackstrap molasses (Majnun said he bumped up his blood iron levels just with this)
Canned black olives. This may sound like a weird suggestion but I noticed that ferrous gluconate is used as an additive. A handful of them can really pile it on.
Any type of beans or legumes are naturally high in iron. Navy beans and kidney beans are great sources.
Fortified grains - this probably explains the grits, since grains - even whole grains - are not as high in iron as legumes and nuts are. But since grains are consumed in much larger amounts, they are responsible for supplying much of the iron in the Western diet.
Probably most important of all is the consumption of Vitamin C with meals and the avoidance of tannins (tea, wine) with meals. The vitamin C explains why vegans don't have anemia any more frequently than meat-eaters. They consume more than enough vitamin C to make up for it. Vegans are actually better off than vegetarians because dairy interferes with iron absorption if consumed together (according to a Jewish friend of mine, this is the real reason for the laws prohibiting mixing meat and dairy).
I agree with you about Google. Clusty is much better - it clusters the results, so you can quickly find what you really wanted to search for in the first place.
I am too late to really add any more to the list of good iron sources and the information about what aids with absorption (vitamin C) and what hinders it (milk, caffeine, fizzy drinks) and the point about using iron pots and pans. Although, if you care to trawl back through the V & V questions, about 1-2 days ago there was another question about iron, and I posted a long list of sources with values.
The only thing not mentioned by previous posters is iron supplement tablets, which quite often cause constipation as a side-effect. (My ex-wife had to take them for a while because of anaemia, and no, she wasn't a vegetarian either. She apparently is one now, but that's none of my concern, as I have no direct contact with her if I can avoid it.)
Dear wujoosay,
Pregnant or Lactating Women -- These women have increased nutrient needs which can be met by a well-planned vegetarian diet that includes an iron and folate supplement. Vitamin D and calcium requirements possible to meet without the inclusion of milk or a supplement.
Fruits and vegetables.
7+ servings.
Supplies vitamins A and C and iron. Include 1? servings of a dark green; 3 of vitamin C rich; and 3 others. Dark greens include romaine lettuce, loose leaf lettuce, broccoli, kale, beet, collard, mustard or dandelion greens. Vitamin C rich foods include citrus, potato, melon, tomato, raw cabbage, strawberries, broccoli, sweet peppers and spinach. Ascorbic acid (Vit C) plays important role in assimilating plant-based iron in out body.
Krister had covered the most.
When I was preggo, my MD told me to take Feosol iron supplements (2 a day) with a glass of OJ (the vitamin C increases the absorbtion) along with the deep leafy greens others mentioned. There are also iron fortified cereals out there. With too much iron, you need to also increase fiber intake (even with metamucil or something) so that things in there, er uh, run smoothly...
Congratulations on your second child! I see you already have many good answers here so I just want to add a bit of info. During both of my pregnancy's I ate a big bowl of cream of wheat ( high in iron) and a large glass of oj (helps absorb the iron) everyday. I also took prenatal vitamins with iron. This was before I became a vegetarian so I don't know if those have any animal products in them, but they probably make some that don't. If you live near a Whole Foods, Trader Joe's or Wild Oats they would probably carry them or her Dr could prescribe them.
A very good source for nutritional information is http://mypyramid.gov/
Oh, lots of stuff man. Grits?? It's just corn, no? Natives that base their diet on corn are famous for their low iron content diet... so... They lived very well with low iron. Have no idea how corn, aka grits, got on your list. Liver? Ha ha, why not just drink blood? Maybe they put blood or liver chunks in their grits. Blood grits, yeah, sounds good.
All that dark green leafy stuff is. That's why Popeye would eat spinach, because back then everyone thought that to grow up big and strong you needed iron in your diet, so "eat your spinach if you want to grow up big and strong," parents would say.
There's a list here:
http://www.bestbread.ca/QUICK_-_REFERENC...
If you need some kind of supplement, Flora makes a good one. Also look at things that compliment the absorption of iron -- don't need to eat them together, such as oranges and spinach, that would be bad for digestion, but separately within one's diet. Also, avoid things that hinder the absorption of iron.
http://www.florahealth.com/flora/home/US...
That said, look into the subject of hemoglobin too. Spirulina is also a good supplement -- it's just freeze-dried [or some low r no heat method] (edible) algae, but packed full of nutrients. It's dark green, so likely full of iron too.