Consistently low on vitamin A, Calcium and Iron

mapitar

I'm on day 6. Every day has been the same. I have been feeling wonderful and my mood improved overnight on day 3 or 4. But today I am sleepy and hungrier. Can anybody make recommendations?

eatingforspawn

I probably get too much vitamin A, but I get it from mostly plant sources, so my body just dumps what it does not use. Too much from animal sources is not healthy, but plants based VitA is actually incomplete and you body manufactures what it needs. Anyway carrots and sweet potatoes! I eat lots of one or the other or both a day! I often have mashed or home fry style sweet potatoes with eggs in the morning. Eggs are also good source of VitA.

Calcium is easy if you can have dairy. Milk and yogurt are easy choices. You can also get a lot from lots of green veggies. Arugula and spinach being two great options. You can also get canned salmon with bones in it and do not pick out the bones! Make salmon salad (just like tuna salad) or salmon cakes or anything out of the canned salmon and mash up the bones along with the rest. Great calcium in there.

Iron is also easy, if you eat meat. Practically all meat has good iron. Green leafy veggies also typically have good iron. Spinach once again comes to mind. Also nuts and beans.

yhealthy2000

Eat your Goal calories for sure which should be 1200 calories, even if you are having an inactive day. Include lean meats, fruit & green leafy vegetables, nuts and diary. Divide your plate into sections: quarter for lean meat, quarter for fruit & nut, and half for green vegetables. And, drink at least aone glass of milk and lots of water. I can assure you that you will see a good change in your energy level. Plus, consult your doctor to see if they suggest something. All the best!!!

mapitar

WOW! Thank you both! These is great info. A lot less worried now.

intangiblemango

If you are not getting enough vitamin A, the chances are that you are not eating very many vegetables. I would really make an effort to try to eat 5 servings of fruit and veggies per day and that will probably take care of that one on its own. Orange foods like sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, cantaloupe, and mango are very very high in vitamin A, but leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, and kale are going to give you more bang for your buck in terms of nutrient density.

For calcium, dairy is the easiest and most obvious... but when I am low, fortified unsweetened almond milk is my go-to. 1 cup has 45% of your RDA of calcium and around 30 calories. You could make a smoothie with some mango, kale, and a cup of almond milk and knock out two birds with one stone...

Iron is a lot harder and I wish I had a really good answer for you. I feel that getting the RDA for iron exclusively from whole foods is really a struggle. (For any men who say it is easy-- remember that pre-menopausal women have much higher iron requirements than you do and we typically have lower calorie goals... it's not always possible to just go eat a steak!) I would talk to your doctor and see if you are actually anemic. If you are not, I would just try to incorporate as many iron-rich foods as you can (dark leafy greens are one good source-- they are basically good for everything!). The only way I actually hit my iron goals, though, is to eat an iron fortified cereal (e.g. Grape Nuts has 90% of your RDA of iron per serving... but you probably don't want to eat Grape Nuts every day.) If your doctor says you are anemic, they can tell you the best course of action from there.

mapitar

Thank you very much, mango! You even looked up my age, hehe

sympha01

I used to struggle with iron but the following help a ton:

1. lentils
2. spinach
3. tofu (depending on how it is made: some are higher in iron -- and calcium -- than others based just on the manufacturing method)
4. perhaps oddly, dutch processed cocoa. I swapped this in for my old cocoa mix and now I get >25% of my RDA in iron from it LOL. (Recipe: 12 oz milk, 12 g dutch processed cocoa, sweetener of choice. Delicious and low calorie too since I use stevia to sweeten it!). Natural cocoa (not dutch processed) doesn't have nearly the same amount of iron.

isulo_kura

If you're using MFP to gauge if your getting enough of these things I'm afraid it wont be accurate. A large proportion of database entries don't include these things partly because it's not a legal requirement to put all these things on food labelling and even if they are listed a lot of people don't bother when entering new foods

Just to add dairy is not the best source of calcium (despite what the dairy industry would like you to believe) A cup of Broccoli has more calcium than 200ml of milk. Go for green leafy vegetables which will also help your iron as well also beans have high calcium

mapitar

Sympha, iron from cocoa!!!! Who knew?!Thanks!

mapitar

Thanks, isulo.

zamphir66

Is there a reason no one has suggested an iron supplement? I have trouble getting enough IR so my fix was get a quality supp @ drug store. Always take with food unless want epic stomach ache.

Nony_Mouse

Also include some form of vitamin C with your meals to help absorb the iron properly. I'm vegetarian and manage to get pretty close to my RDA of iron most days (I'm not overly worried about being a bit short, my iron levels are rock solid, even when I was practically living off pizza last year, but I also have quite light periods, so...).

Eggs are missing from the list of things with loads of iron. If you like them scrambled, add parsley, which is also iron-packed .

zamphir66 wrote: »

Is there a reason no one has suggested an iron supplement? I have trouble getting enough IR so my fix was get a quality supp @ drug store. Always take with food unless want epic stomach ache.

It's always better to get it as part of your diet if you can. Also, too much iron is not good for you either, so if you think it's an issue you should always get your levels checked with a blood test before starting supplements.