Top 50 Iron-Rich Foods: Boost Your Energy & Overcome Low Iron Symptoms

Increasing your intake of iron-rich foods shouldn’t be too difficult. All you need is for you to know which of the foods you eat are rich in iron and start planning your meals accordingly. Unfortunately, most people’s scope of knowledge when it comes to iron and iron-rich foods is too limited.

For a quick read on where to start, you can read our article on Foods with a Touch of Iron, but here we will give you a much more detailed overview of the best iron-rich foods complete with their iron content.

Data was extracted from the USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference Version September 22, 2009, which contains all nutritional data for more than 7,000 foods. Unfortunately, you can’t just download the database and quickly sort through iron content to bring you the best iron-rich foods. Actually, you can, but the problem is that the list you get won’t be very useful in your daily life, since the main items would be things like freeze-dried parsley, dried thyme, beluga meat, cumin seeds, and all sorts of other foods. it would not eat in large enough amounts to help you load up on iron.

We’ve done the hard work for you and have carefully combed through the USDA database and compiled this list of the 50 best iron-rich foods and listed them by category so you know when you eat meat, which meat to choose, when you buy vegetables , what to put in your shopping cart and when you need a quick snack, which can help you increase your iron intake in just a few minutes.

This list is not a complete list of the iron content of all possible foods; if you don’t see it here, it means it’s not particularly high in iron.

Eat these iron-rich foods, combine them with iron absorption enhancers, avoid iron absorption inhibitors, and you’ll be well on your way to boosting your iron levels and getting rid of those low iron symptoms!

breakfast cereals

Fortified breakfast cereal is one of your best bets for increasing your iron intake, and below is a short list of just a few of them. As you can see, eating just one serving of these will give you around 18mg of iron, but keep in mind that the typical absorption rate for a healthy adult is only about 10% to 15% of the iron in the diet. So drink a glass of orange juice with your cereal to increase its absorption. Also, keep in mind that the last two garments of the latter are dry, that is, before having added milk or water!

• Ralston Enriched Bran Flakes: 27 mg/cup
• Kellogg’s Whole Oat Bran Flakes: 25mg/cup
• General Mills Multigrain Cheerios: 24 mg/cup
• Kellogg’s All-Bran Whole Wheat Flakes: 24 mg/cup
• Malt-O-Meal, plain, dry: 92 mg/cup
• Cream of wheat, instant, dry: 51 mg/cup

Meat

Red meat is high in iron and comes in the heme form that is more easily absorbed by your body; typically, the body absorbs 15% to 35% of heme iron. Organ meats are the best sources of iron within the meat category, and of these, liver is probably the most popular, which is why we’ve included it on the list, as we don’t know many people who eat spleen or lungs, we have excluded them. organ classes. If you like liver, go for the overpriced, but very good goose liver! or at least opt ​​for pork liver instead of beef liver. When you opt for red meat in your diet, add some less standard options like emu, ostrich, or duck instead of beef.

• Goose liver, raw: 31mg/100g
• Pig liver, cooked: 18mg/100g
• Chicken liver, cooked: 13mg/100g
• Lamb liver, cooked: 10mg/100g
• Beef liver, cooked: 7mg/100g
• Emu, cooked: 7mg/100g
• Ostrich oyster, cooked: 5mg/100g
• Quail meat, raw: 5mg/100g
• Duck breast, raw: 5mg/100g
• Beef, steak, cooked: 4mg/100g
• Beef, ground, cooked: 3 mg/100g

fish and shellfish

Fish is often not considered a good source of iron and most fish are not, only oily fish like mackerel and sardines provide you with a decent amount of iron. So when you want to eat fish, go for oily fish, which gives you the most iron and is also high in omega-3s. When you add shellfish to the equation, we suddenly find some of the best iron-rich foods you can find, especially clams think clam chowder. A quick comparison with the meat category shows that octopus or cuttlefish outperform all regular meats in terms of iron content, second only to liver. So, it’s time to add some stir-fried calamari to your weekly menu.

• Clams, canned, drained solids: 28 mg/100 g
• Clams, cooked: 28mg/100g
• Fish caviar, black and red: 12mg/100g
• Cooked cuttlefish: 11mg/100g
• Cooked octopus: 10mg/100g
• Oyster, medium size, cooked: 10mg/100g
• Anchovy, canned in oil: 5mg/100g
• Shrimp, cooked: 3mg/100g
• Sardine, canned in oil: 3mg/100g
• Mackerel, cooked: 2mg/100g

vegetables

Vegetables are an essential part of your diet, full of essential nutrients and most people don’t eat enough of it, but when it comes to iron, most vegetables aren’t too spicy. If you choose your vegetables carefully, you can use vegetables to help boost your iron levels, especially if you include some iron absorption enhancers in your diet, since the non-heme iron in vegetables is not easily absorbed by the body. Vegetables in the Top 50 Iron-Rich Foods include various beans, potato skins, tomatoes, and leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard, and parsley. Combining meat, red beans, and tomato sauce, chili con carne is a great iron-rich recipe, but so is a white bean salad with lots of fresh parsley and a light vinaigrette.

• Mushrooms, morel, raw: 12 mg/cup
• Tomatoes, sun-dried: 5 mg/cup
• Potato skins, baked: 4 mg/skin
• Parsley, raw: 4 mg/cup
• Boiled soybeans: 9 mg/cup
• Spinach, boiled, drained: 6 mg/cup
• Ketchup, canned: 9 mg/cup
• Lentils, boiled: 7 mg/cup
• hearts of palm, canned: 5 mg/cup
• Navy beans, canned: 8 mg/cup
• Beans, boiled: 5 mg/cup
• Boiled chickpeas: 5 mg/cup
• Pinto beans, frozen, boiled: 3 mg/cup
• Broad beans, boiled: 4 mg/cup
• Hummus, commercial: 6mg/cup
• Swiss chard, boiled, chopped: 4 mg/cup
• Asparagus, canned: 4 mg/cup
• Chickpeas, canned: 3 mg/cup
• Tomatoes, canned: 3 mg/cup
• Sweet potato, canned, mashed: 3 mg/cup
• Chicory, raw: 4 mg/head

Nuts and seeds

Nuts and seeds are great iron-rich foods because they are fairly high in iron and are so versatile that they can be eaten in many ways. A quick snack with some cashews is filling, healthy and provides plenty of iron – tasty too! Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds can easily be toasted and added to a salad for a nice crunch and iron boost. Sesame seeds are used in a variety of Asian dishes and all of these can be used in baking or as a quick addition to your breakfast cereal. Just make sure you always have some at home and you’ll soon find plenty of ways to add them to your daily food.

• Sesame seeds, whole, dried: 21 mg/cup
• Pumpkin seeds and pumpkin seeds, dried: 11 mg/cup
• Sunflower seeds, roasted: 9 mg/cup
• Cashew nuts, dry roasted, halves and whole: 8 mg/cup
• Pistachios, dry roasted: 5 mg/cup
• Almonds, whole kernels, blanched: 5 mg/cup

Fruit

Fresh fruit is not high in iron, but dried fruits like apricots, peaches, or prunes make great iron-rich snacks to eat between meals or add to various recipes. The one thing to remember about fresh fruit is that most are high in vitamin C, and since the vitamin is an iron absorption enhancer, eating fresh fruit or vegetables high in vitamin C with your meal can increase it by greatly the amount of iron in your body. absorb.

• Apricots, dried with low moisture: 8 mg/cup
• Peaches, low moisture dried: 6 mg/cup
• Low-moisture dried plums: 5 mg/cup
• Canned jumbo olives: 0.3 mg/olive
• Dried gooseberries: 5 mg/cup
• Apricots, dried, sulfured, raw: 4 mg/cup
• Blueberries, canned: 7 mg/cup

Iron-rich snacks

Aside from nuts and dried fruit, there are quick and easy iron-rich snacks you can buy at the grocery store and use as an instant iron booster. Below or some examples, but if you plan to buy some bars or drinks, you should remember to check the Nutrition Facts labels of the actual products you buy, as the actual iron content can vary greatly from brand to brand and even from product to product. to another. product within the same brand.

• Nestlé Supligen, canned supplement drink 9 mg/can
• Snickers Marathon Honey Nut Oat Bar: 8 mg/bar
• Snickers Marathon Double Chocolate Nut Bar 8 mg/bar
• Snickers Marathon Multigrain Crunch Bar: 8 mg/bar
• Pretzels, soft: 6 mg/large
• Trail mix, regular: 3 mg/cup

Eggs:

Dairy products are not high in iron, but they do contain a large amount of calcium, and calcium is known to act as an inhibitor of iron absorption, so you should try to eat calcium-rich foods separate from iron-rich foods. as much as possible. Eggs aren’t too high in iron, but egg yolks aren’t too bad and if you can find fresh goose eggs, they could be used in a great iron-rich breakfast!

• Goose egg, whole: 5 mg/egg
• Egg yolk, raw: 7 mg iron/cup
• Egg, scrambled: 3 mg iron/cup