! High Iron Diet, help me!

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ijd99
ijd99 Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I'm a poor college student so I went to my local plasma center to try and donate and receive compensation, but the nurse said my haemoglobin count was 4% too low to donate. She recommended a high iron diet to raise the count and suggested to eat more red meat. However, I'm poor and don't want to buy expensive meat for myself! Any suggestions for how to raise the amount of iron in my diet? Hoping to try again on Monday. In 5 days. Is this possible? Thanks!

Good news is if I can figure this out I will be making an exta $2000 a year to buy all the steaks I want!

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  • ijd99
    ijd99 Posts: 5 Member
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    Actually it was my hemacrotit level!
  • TheFlyingMouse
    TheFlyingMouse Posts: 24 Member
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    I have known people who have had to raise their Iron levels quickly. You can always take an iron supplement, but your body will only absorb what it needs. So iron absorption using supplements will decrease over time. Check out this WebMD link for iron rich foods. - https://www.webmd.com/diet/iron-rich-foods#1
  • SCRN2019
    SCRN2019 Posts: 26 Member
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    To raise your hemoglobin you could eat things like spinach, quinoa, eggs, beef, broccoli, tofu, and legumes - all of these foods have iron in them. These should also help raise your hematocrit.
    Hope that helps a little!
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
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    It's tricky for a reproductive age woman to get enough iron on a low calorie diet. Try a supplement - bifera, which has both heme and non-heme iron, absorbs more and is easier on the stomach. However, it's not inexpensive either. And I'm doubtful you will see much change in five days.
  • ServusChristi
    ServusChristi Posts: 98 Member
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    The organic edamame fettuccine noodles I'm about to cook have 45% RDA of iron per serving and 200 calories.
  • Greybeard51
    Greybeard51 Posts: 34 Member
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    I found peanut butter, beans, spinach all brought mine up quickly. Just remember your body needs vitamin c to absorb iron so make sure you are getting that as well
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,984 Member
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    ijd99 wrote: »
    Actually it was my hemacrotit level!

    hematocrit?

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