How to increases Iron absorption naturally?
Iron is an important mineral that helps maintain healthy blood.
Why is it such an important mineral?
About 70% of the iron in your body can be found in a protein in red blood cells called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin carries oxygen from your lungs to all parts of the body. Without enough iron, there aren’t enough red blood cells to transport oxygen, which leads to fatigue.
Iron is also part of myoglobin, a protein that carries and stores oxygen specifically in muscle tissues. Iron is important for healthy brain development and function of various cells and hormones.
Ferritin is a protein in the body that stores iron and releases it when needed.
Iron is not made in the body and must be absorbed from what you eat, so try eating foods that are rich in iron if your iron levels are low.
The foods you eat influence not only how much iron you consume but also how well it’s absorbed into your body.
Types of iron in our diets
- Heme Iron (animal source): Heme is found only in animal flesh like meat, poultry, and seafood. Heme iron is better absorbed by the body than non-heme iron.
- Non-heme Iron(plant source): Non-heme iron is found in plant foods like whole grains, nuts, seeds, legumes, and leafy greens. Non-heme iron is also found in animal flesh (as animals consume plant foods with non-heme iron) and fortified foods.
How to increase absorption?
Certain factors can improve or inhibit the absorption of non-heme iron.
- Consume vitamin C rich fruits(citrus fruits [orange, lemons], bell peppers, tomatoes)with your meals to increase absorption.
- Consume green vegetables as they contain folic acid. This helps to form red blood cells.
- Avoid large amounts of calcium.
- Avoid bran fiber and plant substances like phytates* which can inhibit the absorption of iron.
- Avoid drinking tannins (such as tea) with your meal as it may reduce iron absorption. No more than 2 daily cups such as very tannic teas(black tea)
- Avoid drinking polyphenols (such as coffee — tea) with your meal as it may reduce iron absorption. Penn State nutritional scientists found that eating certain polyphenols decreased the amount of iron the body absorbs. Tannins are water-soluble polyphenols that are present in many plant foods.
*Phytate (phytic acid): Mainly found in seeds, grains and legumes, phytate reduces the absorption of minerals from a meal. Phytic acid primarily reduces your mineral absorption during the meal but doesn’t have major effects on subsequent meals.
Without enough iron, your body can’t produce enough of a substance in red blood cells that enables them to carry oxygen (hemoglobin). As a result, iron deficiency anemia may leave you tired and short of breath.
Our bodies are also extremely thrifty with iron. We recycle and reuse the iron from old red blood cells and have mechanisms in place that convert any excess iron in our blood to ferritin, the storage form of iron we can use if our levels ever drop too low.
Iron Deficiency & Thyroid Function
Normal thyroid function is dependent on several nutrients to regulate the synthesis of thyroid hormones. Iodine, tyrosine, selenium, zinc and iron are needed to facilitate the conversion of T4 to T3. Nutrition deficiencies is the root cause of thyroid disfunction.
A deficiency of any one of these nutrients would result in reduced T3 production, causing you to experience hypothyroid symptoms.
Iron is also an important component of thyroid peroxidase, an enzyme essential for thyroid hormone biosynthesis.
Conclusions: The iron metabolism is disturbed in hypothyroidism reflected by low serum ferritin and iron.
Below you can see some iron rich, non heme sources which increase iron levels.
Referrals
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/increase-iron-absorption#iron-deficiency
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/phytic-acid-101
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.2c01833?cookieSet=1#
https://athletesanctuary.com.au/thyroid-function-and-iron-deficiency/
https://www.msjonline.org/index.php/ijrms/article/view/9269
https://athletesanctuary.com.au/thyroid-function-and-iron-deficiency/
