25/07/2025
Iron is a vital nutrient and plays a huge role in our overall health. 🩺👍🏼
Our bodies need iron to make haemoglobin 🩸(a protein in red blood cells) , red blood cells help carry oxygen through out the body…. iron also:
✨Helps the immune system fight infections
✨Is involved in enzymes that release energy for exercise
✨Red blood cell production
Iron can come from haem/heme (animal based) 🐄🐖🦘🐠🐑 and non-haem/heme sources (plant based), 🫘🥬 🥣. It is important to know, the body absorbs haem/heme iron easier and differently to non-haem/heme.
So if you are consuming a plant based diet, you need to be making sure you are hitting your iron needs. (As you can see the volume of food required is much more than that of haem iron sources)
🆙 Iron absorption can increase by up to 4 times by consuming in combination with a high vitamin C source. 🫑🍊
✅A little trick, you can freeze chicken liver, very finely grate it into your spaghetti bolognese mince mixture and increase the iron in this dish without noticing much change to taste 👏🏼👏🏼
Symptoms of low iron can include
👇🏼Feeling fatigued and struggling to get through exercise or daily activities
👇🏼Poor appetite
👇🏼Frequent illness that last longer than ‘usual’
👇🏼Increased resting pulse rate
👇🏼A paler appearance
If you suspect you may be presenting signs of low iron, please speak with your doctor, who can assist with addressing this with supplementation, infusion, and recommend increase in foods to assist with intake and absorption. 👨🏽⚕️👩🏽⚕️🥼🩺
