Too much iron?

kristinegift
kristinegift Posts: 2,406 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Every other morning, I eat a breakfast cereal which has 90% DV iron. On these days, I often end up eating 130-140% DV iron (other days are around 60%). Is this something I should try to limit, or is exceeding "100%" fine? I'm not having any issues, I'm just curious, because I know that there can be too much of a good thing!

Replies

  • ammo7
    ammo7 Posts: 188 Member
    I usually eat 200% of the daily recommended intake of iron; there are only very few days this year that I haven't had that much (even when I only eating 1300 calories a day, I still exceeded my iron intake that much). I didn't even think it could be a problem until I saw someone mention it in another thread. I'd really like to know if this is too much iron too.
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
    Yep, too much unless you bleed a lot. For that reason pre- menopausal woman are usually ok. All others best donate blood regularily.
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  • ammo7
    ammo7 Posts: 188 Member
    Yep, I think OP will be fine with 60% to 140% of the recommended amount of iron. I'm not so sure about if getting up to 432% is okay though...oops. 4tuboyen9pf7.png
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  • mwyvr
    mwyvr Posts: 1,883 Member
    If all your sources were heme (i.e. red meats) iron you might have something to worry about. Non heme iron is not absorbed nearly as easily.

    The iron supplement I take - I'm a regular blood donor - has 800% RDV and if I don't take it fairly regularly my haemoglobin levels and ferretin stores will be down by next donation. I only skip the supplement if my daily iron consumption from foods has been fairly high.

    A subset of the population stores iron unusually easily and supplementation for this group can actually be dangerous. Chances are you'd know if you fit into this group by now.
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