How much iron should I be eating daily?

chloe1873

Does it vary per person, or is the intake set in stone for everyone?

neanderthin

There are differences and women generally need twice as much as men and culturally there are differences as well, so it's difficult to say what the RDA is and that's just a ballpark anyway and the best way is to have your Doctor do a blood panel or have a ferritin test. Generally men are around 9mg's a day and women around 15mg's. Keep in mind that the iron in animal products (heme iron) and plant(non heme iron) are quite different and plant iron sources are not absorbed in the same way....we are animals and not plants after all and plant iron is only absorbed in the single digit numbers like 2% and if you consume lots of vit C it might go up to the low 20's and I believe your going to hear spinach as a good source, which it is but it's not only limited is how much is absorbed it also has a good amount of phytates that will keep that absorption to those low numbers, so keep that in mind.

SafariGalNYC

Great answer above from @neanderthin !
I have a varied diet and also eat liver and meat.. my ferritin was still borderline low..and I was ingesting the standard RDA % of iron (plus food sources!) so I echo getting iron and ferritin tested at your next labs/dr appt.

I say iron and ferritin needs vary per person. (By how much I don’t know.)
Be careful with iron supplements though… too much can be dangerous.

I do a multi with iron and a natural iron supplement.. My practitioner suggested supplementing here and there with nettle tea - it has 1 gram per steeped cup.

AnnPT77

Another vote for needs being individual. Most of my iron sources are non-heme, have been for 50 years, but relevant blood tests have always been normal.

Get tested before starting a supplement, too: Supplements can distort blood test results, as well as the concerns about overdoing.

Note that the iron totals from MFP's food database have a good chance - almost a certainty, I suspect - of understating your total intake.

claireychn074

Hint re spinach - try and eat it cooked not raw. It’s one of the veg where the nutrients is more bio-available. (Tomatoes and lycoprene are the same.)