The last time I tried to give blood they wouldn't let me because I was one point too iron-deficient. I have another appointment coming up so I need to be sure to stock up on the iron in my system.
Raisins and fig newtons have iron in them, but what are some other iron-rich foods that I can work into my diet -without resorting to liver. What regular foods would be good for this?

Thanks!

Besides liver, other "organ meats" and red meat in general are rich in iron. Among vegetables, spinach is one of the highest. Also, prune juice. It's not hard to find info on the web -- here are a couple of links: McGill University and San Diego Blood Bank. Since iron pills tend to upset the stomach, it's good that you seek to build up your iron through nutritional choices. Good luck!

This article discusses this exact question.

All types of liver
Beef
Venison
Oysters
Sardines
Turkey
Chicken
Cod
Brewer's yeast
Blackstrap molasses
Iron-fortified breakfast cereals
Wheat germ
Soybeans
Lentils
Turnip greens
Baked-potato skin
Bulgur

Hey, Sherasi, weren't we just talking about our AP posts colliding? Some kind of karma, I guess.

Additionally to the above, vitamin C helps the absorption of iron, especially those types difficult to absorb (such as green veg, breakfast cereal etc). So try having a glass of OJ with your cereal, or half a grapfruit for starter before your dinner.

quote:

Originally posted by Professor:
Hey, Sherasi, weren't we just talking about our AP posts colliding? Some kind of karma, I guess.

LOL... yep... there was no answer when I started my response.

Okay, well, I can eat some of that... Especially meat and potatoes. Are you sure there isn't iron in chocolate?
Thank you both.

quote:

Originally posted by Elexina:
Okay, well, I can eat some of that... Especially meat and potatoes. Are you sure there isn't iron in chocolate?
Thank you both.

of course there is iron in chocolate!!..

chocolate covered oysters, chocolate covered venison, ......

The amount of Iron in food may not be the amount you need to raise your blood iron levels. Even if you switched to high iron foods you may not reach that level needed.

Sounds to me that you are anemic. If so then you might need other vitamins as well as the iron. Vitamins like B-12 which causes the marrow to produce more red blood cells. Iron is the most absorbable in the ferrous form of fumarate or sulfate, less so in the gluconate form.

Women tend to be anemic more than men due to the monthlies. Iron deficiency is relatively common, even in people who eat liver, spinach, raisins, blah to raise that iron level. If you are vegetarian or have reduced your red meat consumption that too can lead to low levels of iron in the diet. Although certain foods have high Iron content, it may not be the right form of iron, or may be in a compound that your body just can not absorb or you may be lacking other essential vitamins and minerals that assist your body in taking up the iron out of your diet.

Taking iron by itself is not going to work to efficiently, what you need to do to complete the cycle and to boost the absorption of iron in your body is to take 50mg of iron (a ferrous form not a ferric), along with 75 mg of Vitamin C. Upside to taking Iron is that you increase the serum level, down side is that iron leads to dark and harder feces - and can lead to constipation, which means you will have to also increase your fiber intake.

If you do it by the food you eat, even if you eat foods high in Iron, you will need to also eat foods high in Vitamin C, B-12 and possibly other vitamins and minerals. Vitamin C breaks down in sunlight and heat rather quickly, Vitamin C is a helper with many other vitamins, helping the body to absorb them.

Elexina, I would seriously take this matter to your doctor and have A blood test for this (there are several things they test like hemoglobin, hematocrit, iron, red blood cells (RBC), ferritin, transferrin) to find out exactly where your Iron level is and what the problem may be. This could be the symptom of some other underlying issue, like a minor bleeding ulcer in the colon/stomach, to heavy of a flow, etc.

I would stop giving blood and plasma for a while. It takes 4 months for your body to fully restock its red-blood cells, red blood cells live for 4 months. Also if you have donated or bled a lot over the past 4 months (even longer) it is possible that the iron in your long bones (where red blood cells are created) and liver has been stripped out.

Unfortunately you did not say how they found low iron, I doubt they tested for iron itself, perhaps they did a hemoglobin test to find you did not have enough and suggested a diet rich in iron (actually rust )? A full test will target the issue better and lead to a solution which fits your specific needs.

I'm sorry, I guess I didn't explain myself clearly enough. I wasn't iron-deficient, but if they had taken blood it would have made me iron-deficient by one point, and they're not allowed to make people anemic. I'm not anemic, but they wouldn't take my blood because then I would have been. Does that make more sense?
So I want to be sure that I'm stocked up on iron.
I have never donated blood before (I was deferred because of my European residence, but they have changed the rules), but I was right at the end of my cycle when I tried to, and the lady at the place said that was probably why my levels were where they were. So she suggested trying two weeks into my cycle. I've started taking a multi-vitamin, too, which has vitamin C, vitamin K, and iron and other stuff. So hopefully that will help out. I'm also not drinking tea this week. She said that tea does something to the iron levels to make them less. Does hot chocolate do the same?
I'm not concerned about my health as a whole, I just want to give blood. And if that means eating a few more cheeseburgers, well, I can handle that.

Well, I tried again and despite my best efforts I am still at 37, whatever that means. You have to be at 38 or higher to donate. So, forget them. I have tried and tried to give my blood, but I am not changing my whole life to do it.

One question, though... The woman there said something along the lines of, you can take in as much iron as you want but if you're not getting enough calcium it's not going to make any difference because it won't absorb, or something. Is there any truth to that?

I'm not sure about an adult, but in a child, an iron overdose can cause death.

Faq about Iron (almost anything you want to know)

I know you need Vitamin D to use Calcium in your body, but I don't know that there is much to do with Iron and Calcium. "Meat proteins and vitamin C will improve the absorption of iron".

Iron is primarily used in oxygen transfer in the blood and cell growth. Whereas 99% of Calcium in the body support structures of bones and teeth. They really have little to do with each other.

Yeah, the blood-taker said she had just heard it somewhere and didn't know if it was right or not. Thanks for the FAQ!
...Don't worry, TH, I don't plan on taking that much iron!