Primary Care

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.

Uses

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

About Iron

There are two types of iron in food—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 meat chicken meat). Heme iron is much more easily absorbed by the body than nonheme iron.

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

Excellent Source of Iron
(3.5 mg or more)

Good Sources of Iron
(2.1 mg or more)

Sources of Iron
(0.7 or more)

Heme Iron

Clams, oysters

Liver, beef or chicken

Beef, ground or steak, cooked

Blood pudding

Turkey, dark meat

Chicken, ham, lamb, pork, veal

Halibut, haddock, perch, salmon, canned or fresh shrimp, canned salmon, sardines, tuna

Egg

Nonheme Iron

Cooked beans such as white beans, soybeans, lentils, chickpeas

Breakfast cereals (enriched
with iron)

Tofu

Canned lima beans, red kidney beans, chickpeas, and split peas

Cooked enriched egg noodles

Dried apricots

Peanuts, pecans, walnuts, pistachios, roasted almonds, roasted cashews, sunflower seeds

Cooked pasta, egg noodles

Bread, Pumpernickel bagel, bran muffin

Cooked oatmeal

Wheat germ

Canned beets, drained

Canned pumpkin

Dried seedless raisins, peaches,
prunes, apricots

Children

1-3

15 mg/day

4-10

10 mg/day

Females

11-50

18 mg/day

Over 50

10 mg/day

Breast feeding

18 mg/day

Pregnant

18+ mg/day

Males

11-18

18 mg/day

Over 19

10 mg/day