Enough iron?

southheadstef
southheadstef Posts: 50 Member
in Food and Nutrition
When I check my nutrients page at the end of the day, the iron is always less than a quarter of the % recommended. I eat leafy greens and nuts and fish and have even been eating some steak this week to try to bump it up, to little avail. Should I be worried?

Replies

  • AndreaTamira
    AndreaTamira Posts: 272 Member
    Have you checked if the food you are logging has the field for iron filled in (hopefully correctly)? - It is possible you are getting enough iron but not logging it.
  • southheadstef
    southheadstef Posts: 50 Member
    Thanks, Andrea, I will check! :)
  • ladyzherra
    ladyzherra Posts: 438 Member
    Reaching iron daily is next to impossible for me, too. It is always very low. I can raise it up when I eat shellfish, and that is really the only way that it gets anywhere close to range. I tend to eat a lot of beans and greens, as well as meat...but still, iron is low. I have a history of anemia, so sometimes I supplement with an iron supplement from Thorne, which is a brand that I really like. You're not alone in this. Most people just do not get enough iron from whole foods every day
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,422 Member
    In addition to the point that the database is faulty in a lot of the entries - have you had blood work done recently?

    The database is 99% crowd sourced. I don't trust any of the entries unless I've personally vetted them on the USDA nutrition website.
  • socajam
    socajam Posts: 2,530 Member
    I don't trust any of the food on the database.
    I don't also check the USDA nutrition either - King Oscar Wild Caught Sardines - I take the information directly from the tin and make changes in the food database as necessary.
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 600 Member
    I get a lot of my iron from smoked mussels and instant oatmeal.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Perhaps be worried if you have had bloodwork that indicates you are actually deficient?
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    If you happen to be past menopause and have never been told you are iron deficient, there is likely nothing to worry about.

    I'm anemic and can attest to many of the crowd-sourced database entries being wrong for iron counts. Sometime people don't bother adding the iron value, or they add an incorrect value, or they add mg instead of what MFP uses which is %.

    Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

    To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

    The USDA changed the platform for their database in 2019 and it is unfortunately a little more difficult to use. I uncheck everything but “SR Legacy” - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

    Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

    For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)
  • southheadstef
    southheadstef Posts: 50 Member
    Thank you so much for your replies! I checked a few of my common entries, and indeed there was no iron in the information. I have oats in either porridge or muesli every morning. I have been trying to eat whole foods as much as possible, so no iron-enriched cereal or bread. I have had slightly low iron counts in blood tests before, but haven’t had one for a while. Maybe I will take a vitamin pill now and again!
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    southheadstef wrote: »
    Thank you so much for your replies! I checked a few of my common entries, and indeed there was no iron in the information. I have oats in either porridge or muesli every morning. I have been trying to eat whole foods as much as possible, so no iron-enriched cereal or bread. I have had slightly low iron counts in blood tests before, but haven’t had one for a while. Maybe I will take a vitamin pill now and again!

    There are many different forms of iron, some more easily absorbed than others. *Fortified* food would be my last choice as a source of iron.

    Your best best is to get tested and proceed from there.

    "Maybe I will take a vitamin pill now and again!" is rubbing me the wrong way, but that's because to treat my anemia since June I've had one ER visit, one Urgent Care visit, three visits to get blood drawn, and four iron infusions, so it's definitely more about me than it is about you ;)
  • southheadstef
    southheadstef Posts: 50 Member
    Oh, dear, kshama! I hope you are okay! I am just musing on the figures showing up on my ‘nutrition’ page. Be well.

Categories