How to Increase Iron Intake

Video Transcript

"My name is Christine Marquette and I am a registered dietitian with the Austin Regional Clinic and I'm going to talk to you about how to increase your iron intake. The highest amounts of iron are found in meats, any type of meat, whether it is seafood, poultry, beef, pork. Those are going to be the types of iron that are called heme iron. That's the type of iron that is most easily absorbed by your body. Non-heme sources of iron are plant sources and the highest sources in plant foods are going to be found in beans, in potatoes, in dried fruits and molasses. Other things that include high amounts of iron are fortified items such as fortified cereals. Those can be another good source of iron, however, with the non-heme sources of iron or the plant sources because they are not absorbed quite as well as the heme sources you want to make sure that you include adequate vitamin C. Vitamin C actually helps your body absorb the non-heme iron more effectively so some good choices of vitamin C are going to be citrus fruits, also potatoes, potatoes are going to be kind of a double whammy because you can get some iron in and you can get some vitamin C from them. Other choices will be broccoli, peppers, any type of bell pepper, fruit juices, all of those items have a lot of vitamin C in them so as much as you can when you are eating a meal you want to include both. You want to include your high iron foods and you want to include your high vitamin C foods because that will insure that your body is absorbing as much as it can. So those are just a few basic tips of how to increase iron."