Pump Up Your Blood with Iron

Do you love giving blood?  The American Red Cross staff are so nice; you get to lie on a bed for 20 minutes while you donate (longer if you donate double red), and they give you a sticker and a cookie at the end (or Cheez-its like I pick).  Then I can take it easy the rest of the day, and no one will argue with a blood donor!  No? Just me?  I really like doing it, but I ran into a problem the other day. I went, and they sent me away without donating!  I didn’t pass the hemoglobin test!  What?!  I need to fix this, so I can get back to my donating.  Let’s investigate.

Iron is part of hemoglobin (which I’m lacking) and myoglobin in muscles.  Both of the molecules (hemoglobin and myoglobin) transport oxygen.  Plenty of iron means plenty of molecules to transport oxygen to all the cells in your body.  But not enough iron….well, that can make things a little more difficult.

Iron deficiency anemia is often seen in children, adolescent girls, and women of child bearing years (Bingo, that’s me), people with certain chronic illnesses, blood loss, vegetarians, or frequent blood donors (me again!).   Mild or moderate cases may not display any symptoms, but severe cases may lead to

• impaired work performance and productivity
• paleness
• fatigue
• dizziness
• racing heart rate
• chest pain
• cold hands/feet
• craving for non-food items like dirt or ice
• brittle nails
• sores on your mouth or tongue.

The best way to find out if you have iron deficiency anemia is to have your doctor run a CBC (complete blood count) to check your hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume.  Mild to moderate cases can be helped by increasing iron intake with food and/or the addition of iron supplements.  Severe cases may need a red blood cell transfusion.

Let’s start with iron in our diet.  

The Recommended Daily Allowance or RDA (which is the average level of intake sufficient to meet the nutrient requirements of nearly all (97-98%) healthy individuals) is broken down by age and gender:

Men 19+ years	8mg daily
Women 19-50 years        Pregnant woman	18mg daily     27mg daily
Women 50+ years	9mg daily

To meet those goals, we can add high iron foods to our diet.

Food/serving	Mg per serving
Oysters (3oz)	8
Tofu (1/2 c)	6.6
Fortified* cereals (1oz)	1.8-19.2
Canned white beans (1/2 c)	3.9
Lentils (1/2 c)	3.3
Cooked spinach (1/2 c)	3.2
Beef (3oz)	3.0
Pumpkin seeds (1oz)	2.3
Prune juice (3/4 c)	2.3
Chia seeds (1oz)	2.2

*Fortified means something is added to the product (in this case iron), it’s not naturally occurring.  Examples of fortified cereal are Total with 18mg per cup, Post Raisin Bran with 10/8mg per 1.25 cups

Note to self:  Iron exists in two forms:

• heme iron, found in animal foods
• non-heme, found in plant foods. 

Heme iron is absorbed more efficiently than non-heme iron.  So, see if you can choose it more often, or up your intake of non-heme sources (like 1 cup of cooked spinach instead of just ½ a cup).

Don’t forget to give your body a little help with….. vitamin C!  Adding a source of vitamin C at your meals can help your body absorb iron.  So have a glass of orange juice with your iron fortified cereal in the morning, slice up some strawberries and kiwi to go with your yogurt that’s sprinkled with pumpkin and chia seeds, and make sure to have sautéed peppers with your steak.

On the flip side, save chocolate, raw spinach, tea and coffee for between meals.  They hinder the absorption of iron.

So here goes nothing.  I’m going to try and up my intake of iron over the next few days in preparation for my next blood donation.  Let’s see if it works.

4 days later….

It worked!!!!  I was able to donate blood and got my Cheez-its!  So feel free to give me a call if you need a little help too☺ 

This blog was written by Chris Henigan MSl, RD, LDN, co-founder of Simple Start Nutrition.  For more blog posts and nutrition information follow @simplestartnutrition on Instagram and Facebook.  Also feel free to contact us, by visiting our website (simplestartnutrition.com) to schedule an appointment to discuss your nutrition related needs.  We’d love to help. 

Sources:

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/iron-deficiency-anemiahttps://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficiency-anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355034#:~:text=As%20the%20name%20implies%2C%20iron,tired%20and%20short%20of%20breath.