I heard many times friends or clients saying “I’d like to go veg but I can’t because my iron is low”.
Many people assume that iron is found mostly in meat and that eating animal foods is therefore necessary for us to get enough of it. Well, it may be surprising, then, to learn that many plant foods are actually rich in iron, often even more than animal foods!
Don’t you believe me? Let’s compare the average quantity of iron in lentils and beef, a food that is normally considered a good source or iron. 100 gr of dried mung dahl lentils contain 9.2 mg of iron, while the same quantity of beef mince has only 2.3 mg of this mineral.
Lentils have four times more iron than beef!
Which foods should we focus on, then, if we want to maintain a normal level of iron?
Good news, on the list of the top iron-rich foods we find some delicious options such as cocoa, nuts and seeds. 100 gr of cocoa have 14 mg of iron, so eating 30 gr of dark chocolate with at least 70 % cocoa per day may actually be a great natural supplement.
Beans, lentils, whole grains, rocket, watercress and leafy greens are great sources of iron as well.
But one thing is the content of iron in a food and another thing is the quantity that we actually absorb.
We normally absorb between 0 and 25% of the iron that we eat and this percentage depends on many factors.
The most important factor – which luckily is completely under our control – is how we combine iron with other nutrients during our meals. If we want to maximize our chances to absorb close to 25% of our iron, here are the three simple rules that we have to follow:
1. Add vitamin C to your meal
Vitamin C helps the absorption of iron, so it’s better to eat foods high in vitamin C during our meals. Good sources of vitamin C include lemons, oranges, peppers, tomatoes, watercress, kiwifruit, pineapple, pawpaw, broccoli, kumquat and strawberries.
So, if for lunch we have lentils, we should add some vitamin C for example by eating a watercress and tomato salad as a side dish or by simply adding some lemon juice to our water.
2. Avoid tea and coffee
A substance found in coffee and tea prevents the absorption of iron, so we should NOT drink those at least one hour before and one hour after meals.
3. Soak legumes and grains
Lentils, beans, chickpeas and whole grains (such as brown rice) contain a nutrient preventing iron absorption that can be easily removed with soaking.
We should therefore always soak legumes and whole grains for at least 6-8 hours and rinse them well before cooking them.
However, it’s important to know that a very high level of iron can have a pro-oxidant effect on our body. So while it’s important that you get enough iron, it’s not a problem at all to have a medium-low level of this nutrient.