Iron and Calcium

For calcium, almonds are great! You have to watch out not to eat tooo many though.. but they are fantastic and have many healthy attributes!!
Sorry im also looking into iron... I know spinach.. Theres supplements you can take but its not nearly as tasty as good food.. But it will help bump up you levels... If you go to a natural food store and ask, thats how vegetarians get alot of thier iron.
Hope that helped a bit Goodluck!!!
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I believe tofu and the like have a fair amount of calcium in them. I wouldn't totally write off dairy though, if you are able to consume it. I've read that some vegetables in the cabbage family are decent sources of calcium.

Unless I am mistaken, your body needs vitamin D to help absorb the calcium. That's very important too.

I take a multivitamin.. I mean, I think it's important to get the main vitamins from fresh food, but there are some elements and minerals that can be difficult for me to get, so the multivitamin is a bit of insurance for me. Everyone has a different opinion about whether or not one should take a multivitamin.

My boyfriend has had a pretty severe iron deficiency in the past, and so we're very careful about making sure he gets enough iron. His favourite way is through lean meat.. which means 'lean' steak to him, haha.

Iron is really important for women, and my doctor told me that women are more likely to have a deficiency.

My mother always told me to eat brussel sprouts, hah.


(Also.. if anything I've said is very incorrect.... please, no one eat me alive. I swear I'm not tasty.)

Cooked greens. Kale, collards, Swiss chard, etc. Spinach is not so great, since it contains both calcium and iron, but also has oxolates which blocks the absorption of both. If you consume it with some vitamin C it helps.

^ This too. My boyfriend drinks a glass of orange juice with his meal.

A neat tool for this is nutritiondata.com. Here you can sort for foods with the highest amount of a certain element.

I agree that is hard to do what you are doing. I try my best, and take a multivitamin. It helps to take it with dinner.

Ruth

I have been on a mission to get all or most of my nutrients from the foods that I eat. Getting a vita-mix and making green smoothies has gone a long ways towards me hitting my vitamin goals, but minerals not so much.

Last week both my iron and calcium were below 50%. For iron in my diet I had plenty of spinach, and 30 ounces of red meat. The red meat was a bit of a bump, I don't typically consume that level as it is. If I don't hit my iron on high levels of red meat, where do I get it?

Also, really no clue on the calcium. And don't tell me milk. Dairy has calcium, but your body doesn't really absorb much of it.

Ideas?

calcium... sardines, soybeans

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/10-calcium-rich-foods

I don't know about greens... heat harms some nutrients, boiling takes away some, but some are made more available by heat or in combinations. I suggest a few Web searches.