Get Some Iron

www.flickr.com, photo by JD Hancock

We need iron. It helps us fight against disease, helps carry oxygen throughout our bodies, improves our liver function, protects against the actions of free radicals, and more.

Many of us, however, especially if we're women, can run low on iron, which is called anemia. According to www.healthy-vitamin-choice.com, the following are some symptoms of insufficient iron:

Iron deficiency can lead to anaemia when the iron stores in the body become depleted and hemoglobin synthesis is inhibited.
Symptoms and signs of anaemia include:

• feeling tired and weak,
• lacking stamina and decreased work and school performance,
• slow cognitive and social development during childhood,
• difficulty in maintaining body temperature,
• decreased immune function, which increases susceptibility to infection,
• breathlessness,
• headaches,
• insomnia,
• loss of appetite, and
• pallor.

All the above are associated with decreased oxygen supply to tissues and organs. Iron also plays an important role in the immune system, people with low iron levels having lowered resistance to infection.

I don't know about you, but I want to get enough iron so my body can function better! Here are some tips to help you get enough iron, and to help your body absorb and use the iron it gets.

Eat Iron-Rich Foods: red meat, egg yolks, dark, leafy greens like spinach, prunes, raisins, artichokes, beans, and lentils are all excellent sources of iron.

Take a vitamin: Make sure the vitamin you take actually gives you iron. Many do not. I wouldn't feed my kids those "gummy" vitamins anyway, because of all the junk they typically contain, but gummy vitamins almost always do not provide iron. Read the label.

Cook in a cast iron skillet: The iron from your skillet leaches into your food, upping the iron content of anything you cook in it.

Watch what you pair with your iron intake: Ok, it's story time. When my kids were really little, they struggled with low iron. I gave them a multi vitamin with extra iron, but it still didn't help. Finally, our nurse asked me what I was giving my kids to drink with their vitamins. I had been giving them milk. Big mistake.  Apparently, what you drink when you take in iron can dramatically affect how well your body absorbs the iron. Orange juice is the best. If you drink orange juice with your vitamin, it will enhance the way your body absorbs the iron. Water is pretty much neutral, but milk can actually prohibit your body's ability to absorb the iron you're taking in. (The same is true of coffee and tea.) I'm certainly not telling you to stop drinking milk, but if you take a multi vitamin with iron, try drinking orange juice or water with it, and leave the milk drinking for another meal.

What tips do you have about increasing iron? I'd love to hear them! Please share in the comments below.