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Your body needs iron for healthy blood and muscles. It plays an essential role in the production of the body's white blood cells and in the activities of the immune system.
- Lack of iron causes anaemia and symptoms such as tiredness and irritablilty. Women lose iron when they menstruate, and one in four British women don't get enough iron.
- There are two types of iron in food:
• haem iron found in meat and offal (essentially the iron from blood and muscle)
• non-haem iron derived from some plants, grains and nuts.
- Vegetable sources of iron also contain salts (oxalates and phytates) that affect how well the body can absorb the iron. This means you need to eat a lot more to get the iron that your body requires.
- Oily fish and egg yolks are quite rich in iron, but also contain substances that affect your body's ability to absorb the iron.
The body can absorb:
• 20 to 40 per cent of the iron found in meat.
• 5 to 20 per cent of the iron found in vegetable sources.
- How much iron the body can absorb also depends upon the presence of vitamin C and folic acid, which improve your body's uptake of this mineral.
Sources of iron include:
• apricots, blackcurrants, figs, prunes, raisins
• beans (including baked beans), lentils
• broccoli, curly kale, peas, savoy cabbage, spinach, watercress
• eggs
• lean red meat, poultry or game, liver, kidney
• liquorice
• mackerel, oysters, sardines, tuna
• nuts
• wholegrain cereals and wholemeal bread.
- The RDA for an adult is 14mg.
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