Improving Your Iron Intake

Here’s how to maximize absorption of iron from food:

* Unless you are vegetarian, include red meat in your diet several times a week. Lake trout, clams and oysters are also rich in iron
* Combine small bits of meat, poultry and fish with iron rich enriched pasta and rice. Meat, poultry and fish contain a substance dubbed the "meat factor", which improves the absorption of iron from other foods in the same meal.
* Enriched pasta can be a significant source of iron
* Include a source of vitamin C at each meal
* Avoid drinking coffee and tea within 2 hours of a meal. Coffee reduces iron absorption by 35 to 39%, wheras tea cuts i t by some 60%.
* Don’t eat natural wheat bran if you suffer from chronically low iron because it significantly reduces iron absorption