Anemia and Iron Foods You Should Eat

Anemia and Iron Foods You Should Eat

By: Rudy Silva, Nutritionist

The deficiency in iron known as anemia is a serious concern for children. It is no wonder that most baby foods and instant baby formula are fortified with iron. Pregnant women and blood donor, because they are supporting human growth and losing blood respectively, it is critical they take sufficient amount of dietary iron.

With doctor’s prescriptions, some people can take iron pills that fill the need for iron intake. To be on the safer side, though, it is much better to eat sufficient amount of iron foods so that you don’t need to take iron tablets.

And who knows, you might be as strong as Iron Man with that.

Iron Foods In lesser amounts, iron is present also in molasses, farina and teff. Some people also take in their iron intake from baked bread and instant cereal that are fortified with iron. Baby foods and formula are usually fortified with dietary iron as well because babies particularly need iron for growth.

Moreover, pregnant women and people undergoing a blood loss need more iron as well.

Excess Iron In special cases, the doctors prescribe their patients to take additional iron to supplement their iron deficiency diet. Those people taking iron supplements, other than eating, are taking health risks because iron in excess is dangerous. Needless to say, it is much better to take iron naturally through iron rich foods than in any other way. The body, after all, has a built-in mechanism to regulate the amount of iron inside our system.

Just as the element iron is abundant on Earth, iron rich foods are abundant as well. But there are still many misconceptions about iron sources and how the body uses the mineral. Like any essential things in our body, getting too little or too much of iron is bad for us.

Iron Delivers Oxygen Iron is a necessary element in the storage and distribution of oxygen all over the body. The red color of the blood, in fact, is due to the iron-containing protein called hemoglobin. It is important to maintain a certain level of iron in order that body processes like oxygen distribution can go on. Too little iron can lead to death.

Type of Iron There are two types of iron that come from our usual food intake. These are the heme iron and the non-heme iron.

Heme iron comes from animals and is so named because it originates from the hemoglobin of those animals.

Heme iron sources – such as poultry products, red meat and sea foods – are iron rich foods. They can be absorbed faster by our body than nonheme sources.

The non-heme iron sources are usually plants and vegetables.

This non-heme includes lentils, beans, leaf vegetables, tofu, chickpeas, and blackstrap molasses. They are very rich in iron but only that they are less easy to absorb than heme iron sources. But accompanied with foods rich in vitamin C, the absorption of non-heme iron can be facilitated easier.

Anemia and Iron Foods You Should Eat

By: Rudy Silva, Nutritionist