Posted by kathryn in The Micronutrients, A Balanced Diet and Q & A Thursday

Next on Q & A Thursday a classic vegetarian dilemma from Lucy – how do you know you’re having enough iron?

The only way to 100 percent, guaranteed, know you’re getting enough iron, is to have a blood test. This will tell you if you’re anaemic and if low iron intake is the problem. It’s easy to get done and you’ll have the test results back within days.

Which foods contain iron

Iron can be an issue for vegetarians. The number one iron-containing food is red meat and there’s nothing else quite like it.

Chicken and fish contain virtually no iron – something a lot of meat-eaters don’t realise.

However, there are a number of vegetarian foods that do contain a reasonable dose or iron:

• green leafies:spinach, parsley, watercress and other green leafy vegetables
• legumes: such as chick peas, red kidney beans, lima beans, lentils
• soy products: including tofu, tempeh and soy milk
• nuts: especially hazelnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, almonds and cashews
• seeds: including sesame seeds (and tahini) and sunflower seeds
• dried fruit: like sultanas, raisins, figs and apricots
• eggs: it’s all in the yolk
• most breakfast cereals
• read: both wholemeal and pumpernickel contain iron

Having these foods with vitamin C containing foods also helps with the absorption – eg tomatoes, citrus, other fruit.

How much do you need?

Here in Australia, the recommended daily intake of iron for pre-menopausal women is 18mg per day (for men it’s 8mg per day). Most of us get our daily iron intake from a few different sources. Red meat contains an average of 3mg of iron per 100g of meat, so you’d need to eat a 600g piece to get your iron from red meat alone.

Of the vegetarian sources, 18mg of iron can be found in:

• 600g spinach
• 900g cooked beans
• 360g cashews
• 350g tahini
• 400g sunflower seeds
• 430g raisins
• 15 eggs
• 18 slices of wholemeal bread
• 13 slices of pumpernickel

To sum up

If you are concerned about your iron levels, then see your doctor and get a blood test – it’s the only sure-fire way of knowing you’re getting enough. Anaemia is not much fun – you feel exhausted, dizzy and can have palpitations, so it’s worthwhile checking.

It is possible to get enough iron as a vegetarian, but you need to have a good diet . It needs to be varied and include regular (ie daily or every other day) amounts of legumes, nuts, dried fruit, eggs and green vegies.

What is Q & A Thursday?

This post is part of Q & A Thursday – a fortnightly burst of blogging, where you get to dictate the subject matter. Q & A Thursday is all about simple, practical answers to food and diet dilemmas sent in by readers.

If you have a question you’d like answered, leave a comment below or send me an email. For more information you can take a look at the Q & A Thursday archives.

31 May, 2007