Potassium, Iron, Calcium, Fiber

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beerdestroyer
beerdestroyer Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I've been using MFP since the beginning of January, and one thing I've noticed in my reports is that I'm not meeting my daily minimum for potassium, iron, calcium, fiber. Googling around, I'm getting some rough ideas for foods that are good for each of these things, but I was wondering if anyone knew of foods that contained two or more, so that I can maximize the nutritional benefit and stay under my calorie limit. Superfoods that have these things in them, I guess is what I'm asking for. Thanks in advance for any tips you may have.

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  • _John_
    _John_ Posts: 8,641 Member
    edited February 2015
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    1. Kale
    2. Spinach (oxalates kill much of the bioavailability of iron/ca here though), still better than lettuce and a good source cal/nutrient
    3. other greens other than lettuce
    4. pumpkin
    5. beans and other legumes for iron/fiber while not killing a protein macro

    Iron can be very deceiving, as a food may have a lot, but it be in a form that your body doesn't utilize very well. Lean red meats and clams are some of your best sources of the most easily absorbable iron.

    Unless it's highly processed with just the bran, many grain containing foods will have relatively little nutrients for the calories consumed, so watch the % of cals you eat as grains when watching these nutrients.

    Greens will always be the most nutrient dense foods per calorie.
  • wizzybeth
    wizzybeth Posts: 3,578 Member
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    I get a good amount of potassium and other nutritents but end up short on iron - so I eat a serving of fortified cereal to boost my iron intake.
  • beerdestroyer
    beerdestroyer Posts: 5 Member
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    Awesome, thank you for the advice! Looks like I need to incorporate more dark leafy greens into my diet. I keep seeing pumpkin coming up and I'm very curious how people are incorporating it into their meals.
  • coueswhitetail
    coueswhitetail Posts: 309 Member
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    I have been using pumpkin more and more. I have made a venison stew that had cubes of pumpkin in it that was very good. I make a pumpkin smoothie that is very good for breakfast or desert (1 can unsweetened pumpkin, 1 cup berries (or less if you don't want to overpower the pumpkin flavor), some ground flax seed, a sweetener if you like (maple syrup is good), water to make it the consistency you like, and some pumpkin pie spices (optional)).

    Another pumpkin idea is to bake, roast or boil some pumpkin, then mash it up and mix with salmon to make pumpkin/salmon patties. Those were quite good. You can change the ratio of each ingredient to change the flavor. You might want to add egg and/or some bread crumbs to get it to hold together better.
  • coueswhitetail
    coueswhitetail Posts: 309 Member
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    I eat a ton of leafy greens, beans, eggplant and other veggies but I still don't reach my calcium and iron daily values. However, I feel great and am wondering if the Daily Values are set too high. I feel like I have more energy than ever but if I truly wasn't getting enough iron this would not be the case.
  • coueswhitetail
    coueswhitetail Posts: 309 Member
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    oh, and here is another pumpkin smoothie recipe that I had posted awhile back. I also posted the nutritional profile with it.
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10033866/pumpkin-smoothie-yum#latest
  • spoonyspork
    spoonyspork Posts: 238 Member
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    coueswhitetail wrote: »
    Another pumpkin idea is to bake, roast or boil some pumpkin, then mash it up and mix with salmon to make pumpkin/salmon patties. Those were quite good. You can change the ratio of each ingredient to change the flavor. You might want to add egg and/or some bread crumbs to get it to hold together better.

    This sounds *amazing*. Love pumpkin and salmon and never thought to combine the two. Do you mix it with raw salmon, or cooked, or...?

    (just bought a huge can of pumpkin to make a smoothie with as that's all they had at the store and was like, 5 minutes ago trying to figure out what to do with the rest without burning out on smoothies... again)
  • nickatine
    nickatine Posts: 451 Member
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    as for iron, pumpkin seed butter, canned smoked oysters, cashews, shreddies,
  • jim180155
    jim180155 Posts: 769 Member
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    toborisking wrote: »
    I've been using MFP since the beginning of January, and one thing I've noticed in my reports is that I'm not meeting my daily minimum for potassium, iron, calcium, fiber.

    I'm always under on iron, but I'm not sure if MFP's iron requirement is accurate. (I should probably look into that.) I know that women need more iron because they lose iron every month when they menstruate, but men tend to hold on to their iron. And too much iron is not good for you.

    One thing that's helped get my potassium levels up is to use potassium chloride as a salt substitute. It tastes a lot like salt although not quite as good. Most days I'll get an extra 1,000 to 1,500 mg potassium because of the salt substitute.

    I'm almost always over on calcium due to dairy milk and yogurt. If I have almond milk I go even higher since Silk fortifies theirs with 50% more calcium than dairy milk.

    Fiber is easy if you eat a lot of fruits and veggies. I usually have a salad for lunch, a couple bananas and an apple. That still leaves me a little short on fiber, but not enough to be worried about.

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