Low Iron? page

[dlmtv]

Hey Everyone,

I have been primal for awhile and havent been feeling too great the last couple of months. Quite exhausted and bonking during workouts, so decided to up my carbs, but not much help. Looked at my FitDay stats and it shows I am pretty low in Iron, I had blood work last done when I was eating a lot of iron fortified grains and the such and iron levels were normal, but havent been tested since. I don't eat a lot of red meat as I have trouble digesting it, but try to get in about 8 ounces every couple weeks. How is one to get the iron needed without red meat? I also have a nut allergy and I almost when through an entire package of spinach to try to and get the number up.

Here is a typical day

Breakfast- 3ggs+4piece of nitrate free bacon
Lunch-1.5pc chicken sausage+1c cooked brocolli+1c cooked brussel sprouts+1/2c cooked carrots+1tbsp olive oil+1c cooked spinach
Dinner- 4oz salmon+ .5c cooked butternut squash+.5c rutabagga+.25c onions+.5c cooked carrots
Snack- coconut oil, coconut bar
Supps= Magemsium 1-2tbsp+ 1tbsp fish oil+5k vit D3+ Enzymes
Lots of water

Calories ~1800-1900, 5"3 female weight 127

Macro breakdown= 50%fat Carbs 20% Protein 30%...Iron levels of RDA =59%!!! seems awfully low!!

[aktres]

Are your fingernails white or pink? When you pull down you lower eyelid, is the inside nice and red? Pork liver is the highest in iron - look for a nice country pate.

[peril]

Vegetable sources of iron are hard to absorb. Vitamin C helps the uptake. Red meat is good. Liver is best

[Balance]

Vegetable sources of iron are hard to absorb. Vitamin C helps the uptake. Red meat is good. Liver is best

I agree with peril. Red meat will help. But if you are anemic you may benefit from some slow release iron pills. Also, cooking in a good cast iron skillets have shown to increase iron levels.

[Orchid]

Red meat.

I had low iron a couple years ago and that was the prescription. My (primal-ish) doc said for me to consider veggie sources of iron pretty worthless, but she did suggest I take vitamin C when I ate them. Calcium disrupts absorption of iron, so be mindful of that (I took iron supplements at night so no food -- or its calcium -- would be going down at the same time). I also was to choose dark meat parts over white meat parts; pork even better; but red meat was the absolute best. I loaded up on roast beef and pastrami for a while...

[JKC]

I get low iron regularly, so I supplement. Many of us women do, especially if our monthly visitor is a little on the heavy side. I have just started PB 2 weeks ago, and I am still supplementing, but I hope to give them up as I am eating more iron rich protein. The RDA is an average, those of us with heavier flows tend to need more than the average.

[dlmtv]

I understand that eating more red meat will help, but say I eat 10oz of steak a day, it doesn't really add that much iron towards my RDA, about 30%. So how do I get to that 100%? I have 3 eggs a day which helps but not much and don't know if I am completely ready to down some Liver.

I have read some posts about iron supplements, but there is evidence is can feed candida growth, which I have had problems in the past.