Iron Deficiency: What to Do?

[Turboshear]

My wife is slowly coming around to becoming more raw. However, her doctor noted an iron deficiency in her blood test, and said she must immediately take iron pills.

She took one iron pill this afternoon, and is now sick to her stomach and constipated.

What foods are high in iron? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Yammy]

Iron is found in dark leafy greens (ex-kale, collards) and is best absorbed in the presence of vitamin C and strong stomach acid. Using lemon as salad dressing will help absorb the iron from the greens.

Iron rich foods:

Jerusalem artichokes, onions, burdock root, cherries, blackberries, collards, young lettuces, nettles, parsley, shallots, spinach, young swiss chard, grasses, most dark leafy greens, most red-coloured berries, sea vegetables (dulse, nori, kelp)

[NaturalBeauty]

imho greens are rich in iron, When I drink green smoothies I notice great energy and where as before I think my iron was low and was tired...

[juliebove]

Iron pills are best taken at night and with food. She also might have bought the wrong kind of iron pills. The ones that won't make you sick are the slow acting like Ferro Sequels. They're expensive. There are less expensive brands. Look for one that says "slow Fe" or something like that.

Tomatoes and foods high in vitamin C help increase the absorption of iron.

[SchoolOfRAWk]

PRUNES.

and SPROUTED PUMPKIN SEEDS. Pumpkin seeds can be made into milk, crackers, pate'... and they are higher in iron than <ew!> beef liver. This is according to the USDA's nutritional charts, too. :-) It's online somewhere. Their official site.

[lafsalot]

In addition to the foods listed in the previous posts: dried apricots, raisins, soaked and sprouted legumes (ie mungbeans, chickpeas, etc), and almonds. ~ Cathy

[sport]

In Ireland there is an old tradition of having nettle soup on the first day of May.
I believe that this is because the iron level in them is at it's highest in May so add a few to a green smoothie for her.

[Lay-Lay]

gotta love them green smoothies. They should do the trick, :)

[Rawmney]

In particular on green smoothies, OJ with spinach is a nice combo, with the OJ helping the iron from the spinach get absorbed. Not that others aren't good, but I've had experience with this one. I'm always borderline whether I have enough iron to donate blood and have done well with OJ-Spinach.

Good luck!

Best,
Rawmey

[Turboshear]

Wow, thanks for all the helpful posts!

OJ-Spinach: do you have a recipe you can pass along for this most unusual combination?

Green smoothies: Any recipes for decent tasting ones? Some of these literally make my wife and I wretch.

Gratefully,
Bill

[Shirleyh]

Blackstrap molasses, lemon, and water.
If you cannot find stinging nettles, I have it. I dont know if it would restore iron.

[Rawmney]

Unfortuntely I just throw together the OJ-spinach, so I don't have a recipe. However, I'm thinking maybe 1 cup of OJ with a smallish palm full of spinach.

I think it varies a lot with how sweet you like your smoothie. I tend to like my smoothies sweet, so often use less greens than other people, which is too bad nutritionally. Of course, you've also got variations in the sweetness of the juice depending on the sweetness of the oranges.

The spinach does change the taste a lot in my opinion, although in a nice way to a point. Might I suggest you just start with even less spinach, taste, and add some more?

Maybe I should start working on this for Alissa's recipe book. Would be a lot easier than the curry slaw I've been playing with.

Best,
Rawmney

[lafsalot]

Just remember not to rely solely on spinach, especially since it contains oxalates. ~ Cathy

[Irisha]

This is an old post, but I just had to wonder why no one mentioned beets. I suffered from very bad anemia and my parents would get up in the morning to make me a glass of beet juice. They had to use a grater as back then we had no juicers around. The only thing is raw beet juice is quite noxious, so dilute it with lemon and a bit of apple or carrot. Also anemias can often be a resulf of bacteria invading the body. Some strains (such as individual species of Streptococcus) have hemlolytic properties - that is - they break down red blood cells. Anemias have in general to be treated much more seriously then they are in the world of official medicine. Simply eating up iron pills is not a good way to approach it. Best to find what caused it in the first place and treat the underlying condition while building up your blood. A good choice for building up blood and delivering more oxygen to the oxygen starved body is to drink fresh squeezed wheatgrass juice and - yes any dark leafy greens juices. Juices are optimal since most people can't really eat that many greens.

[Dimond]

Plenty of fruit is the key to making a tasty smoothie. Coconut oil can help though, if you choose to use less fruit.

Smoothie recipe:
2-4+ Bananas
1 small Orange or 1/2 a large one (juice or can throw in the whole orange unpeeled if have a good blender)
1-2 cups Spinach

Other good combos (along with greens):
Banana+Coconut Oil
Orange+Coconut Oil
Goji Berries+Banana alone or w/Cacao
Goji Berries+Cacao+Maca

For an alternative to smoothies, you can make fruit pudding & add spinach to it & you won't even taste it.

Bananas+ sm. amt water
or
Kiwi+Banana
Optional: Agave

BananaAvo Pudding:
2 Bananas
½-1 Avocado
1 clove Garlic

[SchoolOfRAWk]

I would add soaked pumpkin seeds and or prunes to that smoothie! mmm! Super powerful!