iron

[Maidmarion]

have had no energy for ages, so i went to the doctor, and had blood taken and was told that i'm majorly anaemic.

i am vegetarian, but i do make an effort to eat properly - you know, lentils, chickpeas, , vegetables, brown rice, so why am i anaemic. I was given iron pills but i don't really like taking tablets, as it doesn't seem natural.

how can i boost my iron without the pills. if i go on like this i'll have to drop out of uni, because i sleep all the time. last nmight i went to bed at nine and couldn't bring myself to get up until midday.

it's really serious. i'm willing to eat anything ecept meat, so does anyone have any ideas. i really don't want to take the pills.

[Haunted]

Eggs, spinach.

Supplements arent so unnatural, no more than a vegetarian diet you might say?

Its a (relatively) hard eating habit to maintain. Most of my veggy friends all take supplements of some kind or other.

[Kirstin]

I’ve been vegetarian for years and if I’m feeling run down I take a herbal liquid iron supplement called Floradix for a while, you can get it at the health shop. I think it really helped my mum a few years ago when she was quite anaemic. That said you might just want to take the tablets because you really don’t want to end up having to have iron injections.

[littleblackraincloud]

You really should take the iron tablets as tiredness is only one of the more widespread, but fairly minor side effects. A friend of mine had anaemia so bad that she had headaches all the time. Before they discovered her anaemia the headaches got so bad that they thought she had a brain tumour.
So even if you don't take the tablets in the long run, you should at least take them while you find a better alernative.

[Marie55]

Yeah, when I went to donate blood they discovered I was mildly anaemic. I got some Multivitamin+Iron Tablets from Tesco. It may seem unnatural but once u get used to taking them it's easy. You get these things anyway in food, it's just a handy supplement. I used to get lightheaded sometimes when I stood up very quickly but that's gone now I'm taking them.
On a lighter note, i remember in the leaflet I got, it said that chocolate has iron in it.

[zuza]

Green vegetables are good for iron - especially brocolli and spinach. But the iron is in a different form (or something) than it is in animal products so you need to eat something containing vitamin c at the same time for your body to absorb it. ie. a glass of orange juice.

But I would advise taking the pills for a while as well to at least boost your levels - maybe later the amount in a carefully planned diet will be sufficient.

[Jubilee]

This site lists all the best sources of iron. Unfortunately most of them are not veggie friendly. I used to eat lots of dried apricots because they are apparently high in iron.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency ... 002422.htm

I've also heard that drinking too much tea and coffee can restrict your absorption of iron - something to do with tannins? And making sure you get enough vitamin c can help your absorption rate (I think).

[johness]

I know this will sound pretty random but my mum has really low iron and it was reccomended she eat extra strong mints, you know the kind that make you think you're tongue is melting, as they're pretty high in iron content.