Can you help me with iron ideas for healthier diet please?

aimeelouwhite

So I am pretty happy with my MFP progress . Maintained a 10% ish weight loss from Sept 2011 to Sept 2012 and now am back on wanting/needing to lose some more weight and get healthier. Health being my primary concern. I already feel so much better! I'm chugging along well except that I am really busy and need to make more time for exercise... since I am finding that tricky due to present work and family committments I'm making myself at the very least walk everywhere or park further away and power walk lol! I swear I whiz around and around my classroom like a tornado!

Anyway... my diary is open. I have weight loss set at 1lb per week which gives me 1200cals. I know that my body needs 1400-1600 fuel at least so that is kind of my aim... so you will note my intake is usually over the 1200 allowance for this reason and that is what works for me and my body ..... that said, I have lost 5-6lb in the last 2 weeks (but I think much of it is due to increasing protein, decreasing fat, increasing water, TOM going and working hard to reduce sodium)

I am currently tracking carbs, protein, fat, iron and sodium. I am wanting to reduce my sodium which is no problem as I can clearly see where the sodium is coming from in my diary and adjust accordingly but my biggy is I am wanting to increase my IRON intake and need ideas. (should mention I recently had a full blood count and my iron levels are fine.... I am also hypothyroid (hereditary condition) but that is perfectly controlled using prescribed whole thyroid.) I do eat a lot of chicken and am going to try to eat more red meat... but what else would be good? Or should I not worry if my levels are fine even though my diary seems to be telling me I am way under what is recommended?

So in short... IRON ideas please! This will also help with my almost 12 year old daughter who dislikes meat so I feel maybe needs to be getting more iron from elsewhere

fittocycle

Hi! I couldn't view your food diary but have a few iron rich ideas to share. Green, leafy lettuces, especially spinach are rich in iron. If you pair an iron rich food with one high in vitamin C, your body absorbs the iron more efficiently. You could have a salad of baby spinach and toss in some strawberries or mandarin oranges. Lean beef is great as is buffalo or bison meat too.
Try not to eat a food high in iron with one high in calcium. The two tend to fight each other for absorption.
Good luck to you!:flowerforyou:

jlobraun

I'm no RD but I do know that spinach is a good source of iron, and also that our bodies best absorb iron when we eat it with foods high in vitamin C. So maybe try a spinach salad with feta cheese and sliced strawberries? It's a good thing I love spinach, I add it to all sorts of dishes. Try it out and good luck!

**EDIT: Sorry for the repeat info, the other person and I must have been typing our responses at the same time. Good to know about not combining iron rich foods with calcium, I didn't know that. Bummer!

aimeelouwhite

Great thanks! I do love spinach salad and here in NZ it is coming into strawberry season. Meanwhile I'll add in some kiwifruit with my salads :-) PS have fixed the diary thing! Interesting about the calcuium. Of course that would be why antacids shouldn't be taken within 2 hours of iron pills as absorbtion is affected (from pregnant memories!)

melaniecheeks

Are you using the values in the database to track your iron? I wouldn't recommend that- many of the foods in the database do jot abe all the nutrients recorded, so there could well be plenty of iron in foods you are recording that say no iron. If your blood results are fine, I wouldn't try anything more.

DesireeLovesOrganic

Black eyed peas....I made this last night, chuck a pound (package) of dried black eyed peas in a crockpot, 3 cups veggie broth, 3 cups water, cayenne pepper, green bell pepper, onion, tomato, little bit of black strap molasses (kind of makes it taste a little smoky....cajun-y with the cayenne.) 48 iron, 22 protein, 11 fiber for a cup.

Nutiva organic hemp powder has 40 iron too, I throw 3 tablespoons of it in a blender with 2.5 tablespoons raw cacao powder, a banana, 10 almonds, and a cup of almond milk and some ice cubes and that has 52 iron (and 23 protein and 17 fiber.)

A tablespoon of blackstrap molasses has 20 iron (and calcium too) but it has 11 sugar....