Top 50 Iron-Rich Foods: Increase Your Energy and Overcome Low Iron Symptoms

Increasing your intake of iron-rich foods shouldn’t be too difficult. All you need to know is which foods you eat are high in iron and start planning your meals accordingly. Unfortunately, the scope of knowledge for most people, when it comes to iron and iron-rich foods, is too limited.

For a quick read on where to start, you can read our article on Foods with an Iron Punch, but here we’ll give you a much more detailed description of the best Iron-rich Foods complete with their Iron content.

The data has been extracted from the USDA National Nutrient Database for the standard reference publication September 22, 2009, which contains all the nutritional data for more than 7,000 foods. Unfortunately, you can’t just download the database and do a quick iron content classification to get the best iron-rich foods. You actually can, but the problem is that the list you get won’t be very helpful in your daily life as the main elements would be things like freeze dried parsley, dried thyme, beluga meat, cumin seeds and all kinds of other foods that I wouldn’t eat in large enough amounts to help you load iron.

We’ve done the hard work for you and carefully reviewed the USDA database and we’ve compiled this list of the top 50 iron-rich foods and listed them by category so you know when you eat meat which meat to choose, when you buy vegetables what to put in your shopping cart, and when you need a quick snack, what can help you increase your iron intake in just a few minutes.

This list is not a complete list of the iron content of all possible foods; if you don’t see it here, it means it’s not high in iron.

Eat these iron rich foods, combine them with iron absorption enhancers, avoid iron absorption inhibitors and you are on your way to increase your iron levels and get rid of those low iron symptoms!

Breakfast cereals

Fortified breakfast cereal is one of your best bets for increasing your iron intake, and here is a short list of some of them. As you can see, eating just a serving of these will give you around 18 mg of iron, but be aware that the typical absorption rate for a healthy adult is only about 10% to 15% iron in the diet. So drink a glass of orange juice with your cereal to increase your absorption. Also, keep in mind that the last two elements of the latter are dry, that is, before adding milk or water!

• Ralston Enriched Bran Flakes: 27 mg / cup
• Kellog’s Complete Oat Bran Flakes: 25 mg / cup
• General Mills Multi-Grain Cheerios: 24 mg / cup
• Kellog’s Bran Whole Wheat Flakes: 24 mg / cup
• Malt-O-Meal, simple, dry: 92 mg / cup
• Wheat cream, instant, dry: 51 mg / cup

Meat

Red meat is rich in iron and comes in the form of heme that your body absorbs more easily; typically, between 15% and 35% of heme iron is absorbed by your body. Organ meats are the best sources of iron within the meat category and of these liver is probably the most popular so we have included it in the list as we don’t know too many people who will eat spleen or lungs. organ types If you like liver, then go for expensive goose liver, but very good! or at least opt ​​for pork liver instead of beef liver. When you opt for red meat in your diet, add some less standard options like Emu, Ostrich, or Duck instead of beef.

• Goose liver, raw: 31 mg / 100 g
• Pork liver, cooked: 18 mg / 100 g
• Chicken liver, cooked: 13 mg / 100 g
• Lamb liver, cooked: 10 mg / 100 g
• Beef liver, cooked: 7 mg / 100 g
• Emu, cooked: 7 mg / 100 g
• Ostrich oyster, cooked: 5 mg / 100 g
• Raw quail meat: 5 mg / 100 g
• Duck breast, raw: 5 mg / 100 g
• Beef, fillet, cooked: 4 mg / 100 g
• Beef, ground, cooked: 3 mg / 100 g

Fish and shellfish

Fish is often not considered a good source of iron, and most finfish are not, only blue fish like mackerel and sardines provide you with a decent amount of iron. So when you want to eat fish, go for fatty fish that gives you more iron and is also high in omega-3s. When you add seafood to the equation, we suddenly find some of the best iron-rich foods you can find, especially clams, such as clam chowder. A quick comparison with the meat category shows that octopus or cuttlefish outperform all regular meats in terms of iron content and are second only to liver. So, it’s time to add some stir-fried squid to your weekly menu.

• Clams, canned, drained solids: 28 mg / 100 g
• Clams, cooked: 28 mg / 100 g
• Fish caviar, black and red: 12 mg / 100 g
• Cuttlefish, cooked: 11 mg / 100 g
• Cooked octopus: 10 mg / 100 g
• Oyster, medium, cooked: 10 mg / 100 g
• Anchovy, canned in oil: 5 mg / 100g
• Cooked shrimp: 3 mg / 100 g
• Sardine, canned in oil: 3 mg / 100g
• Mackerel, cooked: 2 mg / 100 g

Vegetables

Vegetables are an essential part of your diet, they are packed with essential nutrients, and most people don’t eat enough, but when it comes to iron, most vegetables aren’t too hot. If you choose your vegetables carefully, you can use vegetables to help you increase your iron levels, especially if you include some iron absorption enhancers in your diet as the non-heme iron in vegetables is not easily absorbed by the body. The vegetables in the 50 iron-rich foods include various beans, potato peels, tomatoes, and leafy green vegetables like spinach, chard, and parsley. Chili con carne, which combines meat, beans, and tomato sauce, is an excellent iron-rich recipe, but so does a white bean salad with plenty of fresh parsley and light vinaigrette.

• Mushrooms, morel, raw: 12 mg / cup
• Sun-dried tomatoes: 5 mg / cup
• Baked potato skins: 4 mg / skin
• Raw parsley: 4 mg / cup
• Soy, boiled: 9 mg / cup
• Spinach, boiled, drained: 6 mg / cup
• Tomato sauce, canned: 9 mg / cup
• Lentils, boiled: 7 mg / cup
• Canned palm kernels: 5 mg / cup
• Canned white beans: 8 mg / cup
• Beans, boiled: 5 mg / cup
• Boiled chickpeas: 5 mg / cup
• Pinto Beans, frozen, boiled: 3 mg / cup
• Lima beans, boiled: 4 mg / cup
• Hummus, commercial: 6 mg / cup
• Swiss chard, boiled, chopped: 4 mg / cup
• Asparagus, canned: 4 mg / cup
• Canned chickpeas: 3 mg / cup
• Canned tomatoes: 3 mg / cup
• Sweet potato, canned, pureed: 3 mg / cup
• Endive, raw: 4 mg / head

Nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds are great iron-rich foods, as they have a fairly high iron content and are so versatile that you can eat them in many ways. A quick snack on some cashews is hearty, healthy, and high in iron – also tasty! Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds can be easily roasted and added to a salad for a good crunch and iron boost. Sesame seeds are used in a variety of Asian dishes and all of these can be used in baking or as a quick addition to your breakfast cereal. Just make sure you always have some around the house, and you’ll soon find plenty of ways to add them to your daily meal.

• Sesame seeds, whole, dry: 21 mg / cup
• Pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seeds, dry: 11 mg / cup
• Sunflower seeds, roasted: 9 mg / cup
• Cashew nuts, dry roasted, halved and whole: 8 mg / cup
• Pistachios, dry roasted: 5 mg / cup
• Almonds, whole grains, blanched: 5 mg / cup

fruit

Fresh fruit is not rich in iron, but dried fruits like apricots, peaches, or prunes are great iron-rich snacks to eat between meals or to add to various recipes. The only thing to remember about fresh fruit is that most of it contains a lot of vitamin C and since the vitamin is an iron absorption enhancer, eating fresh fruits or vegetables high in vitamin C with your food can increase largely how much iron your body actually has. absorbs

• Low moisture dried apricots: 8mg / cup
• Peaches, dehydrated, low humidity: 6 mg / cup
• Dried prunes, dehydrated, low humidity: 5 mg / cup
• Olives, giant preserves: 0.3 mg / olive
• Dried currants: 5 mg / cup
• Dried, sulphured, uncooked apricots: 4 mg / cup
• Blueberries, canned: 7 mg / cup

Snacks rich in iron

In addition to nuts and dried fruits, there are quick and easy iron-rich snacks that you can simply buy at the grocery store and use as an instant iron booster. Below or some examples, but if you plan to buy some bars or drinks then you should remember to check the nutritional labels of the actual products you buy as the actual iron content may vary greatly from brand to brand and even from product to product. other. Product within the same brand.

• Nestlé Supligen, canned supplement drink 9 mg / can
• Snickers Marathon Honey Nut Oat Bar: 8 mg / bar
• Snickers Marathon Double Chocolate Nut Bar 8 mg / bar
• Snickers Marathon Multigrain Crunch Bar: 8 mg / bar
• Pretzels, soft: 6 mg / large
• Trail mix, regular: 3 mg / cup

Eggs:

Dairy products are not rich in iron, but they do contain a lot of calcium and calcium is known to act as an iron absorption inhibitor, so you should try and eat calcium rich foods separately from your iron rich foods as much as may be possible. Eggs aren’t too iron-rich, but egg yolks aren’t that bad, and if you can find fresh goose eggs, they could be used in a great iron-rich breakfast!

• Goose egg, whole: 5 mg / egg
• Raw egg yolk: 7 mg iron / cup
• Scrambled Egg: 3 mg iron / cup

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