Anemic - help please!

AllTheNoms

I'm anemic with big time B12 and iron deficiencies (read: tired ALL the time). Taking supplements per doctors orders, but would love some input on things I can do in my diet to help as well. Thanks in advance for any knowledge y'all can drop!

kommodevaran

Your diary is not open. What do you eat now? The advice can be as simple as "follow the official guidelines", or maybe you have a condition that hinders absorption of nutrients.

AllTheNoms

Just made my diary public (I think) - try and go easy on me.....some of the board threads seem to get out of hand

kommodevaran

Thank you, I'll try to be gentle
First of all, I think your calories are a bit on the low side. How did you decide on 1200? It's usually appropriate only for the tinyest and most sedate old womens. Your variety is good, you just have to eat more and make some small adjustments.
My suggestions:
I'd go easy(er) on the booze :blushing:
Green-aid is vegetable juice? I'd replace it with whole vegetables, at least three servings a day of different varieties, focus on the dark green ones; raw or cooked, you decide, but have some sour cream, butter or olive oil with them when not a side dish of fatty fish or meat. (Fat helps your body absorb vitamins.)
Get some more variety in the fruit department; 2 different, or more if you like it, every day.
Porridge of oatmeal or millet every day - made with half and half of water and whole milk. You can add a pat of butter, but preferably no sugar.
Go nuts, have a tablespoon of all natural peanut butter or the equivalent in nuts (walnuts, pecans, pistachios, anything goes) every day.
Eat liver, I don't know if liver paté is common where you live, but liver paté on whole grain bread is an easy way to get more iron.
Generally, drop the bars and juices and eat whole foods as much as you can.

earlnabby

Having recently recovered from a bout with severe anemia, here is what I learned and worked for me:

-eat a balanced diet and get fortified foods where possible

-eat more protein, especially red meat

-DO NOT eat any dairy within 3 hours before or after taking your iron supplement (dairy reduces absorption)

-If you take an acid blocker like prilosec or nexium, DO NOT take it within that same time frame along with the supplements (acid blockers slow down and can even prevent absorption)

-Drink more fluids and try to make at least half of it water

-limit alcohol

abadvat

Anemia - red meat - loads of it - preferably horse meat (if you can find it and stomach the idea obviously).

Became anemic when I was a kid due to a massive surgery + subsequent aboundant blood loss.
Transfusions not being enought to pick my red cells back up I was fed with border line raw horse meat for sometime.
It wokred.

Pirate_chick

I too am anemic I take a multivitamin as well as Vitron-C. (as directed by my doctor) Lots of dark leafy greens and meat.

Lottiotta

Hello!

I was anaemic, and iron tablets upset my stomach, but I just took B-complex supplements and drank a lot of orange juice - both increase iron uptake, and those are literally the only two things I did and I was back to normal within a month or two.

However, if you are super-duper-B12 deficient it's going to be difficult to resolve that with diet. I'd say ask your doc about getting regular shots, whether that's appropriate, etc. I don't know what your levels are like but I had a friend who was really low in some vitamins and her recovery was much faster than it would've been if she hadn't had shots. As far as I know she doesn't need regular shots any more.

This is all UK-perspective, BTW.

VeryKatie

My doctor recommended eating meat with a very high iron content at least 2 - 3 times a week... and she meant things like liver... so I try to eat it 4 times a week so that I don't have to have liver... and for a frame of reference my iron count was minorly low - about 40 I think. And you need a minimum of 50 to be considered not anemic? So depending what your numbers are you might want to adjust that weekly amount. I hope you like meat! Good news, at least red meats have a bit of fat and quite a bit of protein so you should feel fuller than if you were eating less protein and fat.

Remember to take your iron supplements with a citrus juice or fruit. It helps your body absorb the iron. Taking it with food helped my stomach not hurt when I took the vitamins.

Pork, beef, bison, deer, goat, lamb are all decently available and high iron meats. You can have a lot of variety with those. Go for burgers, steaks, stir fries, stews, kabobs, sandwiches with these things in them

Veggies have iron too but your body absorbs meat iron better (plus B12 is only from animal protein - though it is available is all animals and fish pretty much including chicken). Spinach, kale, broccoli... I'm not too sure. I honestly focused on meat when my doctor told me to get more iron since it's more effective.

Since you're taking supplements, you'll probably want a decent amount of fibre too... 25 - 35 grams a day to help move things along since iron supplements do the opposite so you might be uncomfortable. Oh and I saw a previous poster mention not to have dairy around your supplement. It's true - calcium acts to block your absorption. You can also talk to the pharmacist about that, just give them a call! If you're on other medications like the pill or anything, don't take your vitamin within I think 6 hours of that since iron supplements can block your body from absorbing hormones. Ugh so many rules.

Try adjusting your macros to allow for more protein and fat and maybe fewer carbs (not necessary to go low carb, but it might be good to get your carbs from those dark green leafy veggies that have iron too - of course you may want to see what you can find with high fibre as well). Many red meats can be bought in lean cuts and there are cooking methods that will help you drain fat from them as well if you're concerned about that.

melimomTARDIS

I have vitamin mal-absorbtion issues, so my doc has me taking a multivitamin with iron (centrum adult), and a high dose B complex vitamin (spring valley).

Also a big help has been fortified foods, especially total brand cereal. Its good dry as a snack, or with milk. If you have your cereal with a glass of orange juice it helps you to absorb the iron in the cereal.

bethanyboomstick

Leafy greens are also a great source of iron! As well as black beans, chickpeas, oatmeal, quinoa, almonds, walnuts, raisins and kelp.

Veggies are awesome.

mank32

Leafy greens are also a great source of iron! As well as black beans, chickpeas, oatmeal, quinoa, almonds, walnuts, raisins and kelp.

Veggies are awesome.

this vegetarian thanks you :flowerforyou:

clairebeej

This! I haven't eaten meat in 25 years and struggled with anaemia in my teens and recently when pregnant. Green veggies and oats and raisins are awesome and so easy to get in your diet (granola, trail mix, salads, etc.). For B vitamins I used to get Brewers yeast pills fro. a health food store- they smell a bit funky (like vegemite) and I used to take 2, 3 times per day but they really helped combat the tiredness. Beans, chickpeas, quinoa take a bit more getting used to if you don't cook much but I love to throw extra beans into chili and Mexican recipes, as well as soups. And I can eat hummus all day long WITH veggies! Try to get the iron from your food as much as possible rather than supplements though, as they can be constipation whereas the veggies provide lots of fibre and water too

earlnabby

Leafy greens are also a great source of iron! As well as black beans, chickpeas, oatmeal, quinoa, almonds, walnuts, raisins and kelp.

Veggies are awesome.

this vegetarian thanks you :flowerforyou:

Unless you choose to not eat meat for other reasons, the best way to get iron is to eat a combination of both heme and non-heme iron. Heme iron comes from hemoglobin and is the type of iron in red meat. Non-heme iron is what is available from plants. The non-heme iron is not nearly as bio available as heme iron and you don't absorb as much, so you need to eat more in order to get the iron you need.

AllTheNoms

Thank you for the suggestions everyone! There are a number of ideas on here that I haven't thought about before....I can do chicken liver, but no horse meat for this chica

bozo2008123

I am Anemic too, I actually found out from a nutritionist is that shell fish is the best for you to get the iron. You shouldn't need to take pills and lots of meat on top of it. The iron supplements always upset my stomach. So I found if i just have a shrimp salad or a burger once a week it usually cuts most of the symptoms. As said before there are two types of ways to get iron, most of the time if you have it you need to eat meat or take supplements.

Joannah700

Bump for iron ideas