HIGH IRON DIET

Purpose: The high-iron diet is designed to provide foods high in iron in order to prevent iron deficiency anemia. You need iron in your body to carry oxygen in your blood.

Use: Growing children, adolescents, some athletes, and menstruating and pregnant women need more iron. Iron is also needed during illness or after surgery to help for a faster recovery.

About Iron

There are two types of iron in foods—heme and nonheme iron.

Heme iron is found mainly in meat, poultry, and fish. The darker the color, the higher the content of heme iron (dark chicken meat has more heme iron than light chicken meat). Heme iron is much more easily absorbed by the body than nonheme iron.

Nonheme iron is found mainly in plant foods, such as breads and vegetables. Absorption of nonheme iron is enhanced when plant sources of iron are eaten with meats or with foods containing vitamin C.

Some foods hinder iron's absorption such as coffee, tea (decaf and regular), spinach, chocolate, legumes and wheat bran. Eating these foods with a meat source or a food high in Vitamin C at the same time can help overcome these inhibitors.

RDA for Iron
Children: Iron (mg/day)
1-3 years 15
4-10 years 10
Females:  
11-50 years 18
Over 50 years 10
Breast feeding 18
Pregnant 18+
Males:  
11-18 years 18
over 18 years 10

HIGH IRON CHOICES

MEAT & MEAT SUBSTITUTES 2-3 servings or total of 6 oz daily

  • Oysters and salmon canned with bone
  • Beans such as red, kidney, pinto,and lima 
  • Lentils, black-eyed peas
  • Pork, poultry, beef, beef liver, tuna, hot dog
  • Eggs
  • Peanut butter, crunchy
  • Sunflower seeds, cashews, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, soybean nuts
  • Soup, split pea or bean with pork
  • Tofu

MILK & DAIRY 2-3 servings each day

Foods in this group provide very little iron but are an important part of a healthy diet.

BREADS & GRAINS 6-11 servings each day

  • Fortified breakfast cereal
  • Iron-fortified infant cereals
  • Bran
  • Flour tortillas
  • Rice, brown or enriched white
  • Unenriched rice
  • Wheatena ®, Oatmeal
  • Corn tortillas
  • Bread, whole wheat or enriched
  • Noodles, spaghetti, enriched,
  • Pretzels

FRUIT & VEGETABLES 5-9 servings each day

  • Prune juice
  • Watermelon
  • Apricots, dried
  • Prunes, raisins, dates
  • Spinach, cooked
  • Spinach, raw
  • Greens, cooked
  • Peas
  • Apple juice, banana
  • Broccoli, green beans
  • Potato, sweet or white, baked
  • Strawberries
  • Tomato, raw,tomato juice, filberts, apple, cantaloupe, honeydew
  • Orange, orange juice
  • Corn, carrots,  kale, boiled

MISCELLANEOUS

  • Blackstrap molasses