Iron Rich Food List

A healthy low carb diet (or ANY diet for that matter) needs to be rich in vitamins and minerals. One nutrient that should be paid attention to is iron.

Iron is especially important for women of menstruating age, but it is critical for all humans to get enough iron. Iron is used by the blood to carry oxygen around your body. If your blood is low in iron this is called anemia and can be a very serious health problem. The US RDA for iron is about 18mg a day.

Note that while you need to get enough iron, you should also not *overdose* on iron. Taking massive amounts of iron causes its own problems. Stay near the daily RDA amounts.

Sesame seeds (3.5oz) - 10mg
Cashew nuts (3.5oz) - 6.2mg
Almonds (3.5oz) - 3mg
Watercress (3.5oz) - 2.2mg
Lean beef (3.5oz) - 2.5mg
Hard boiled egg (1) - 1.1mg

As you can see, it's rather difficult to get ample amounts of iron into you without taking supplements. I highly recommend taking a daily multivitamin that has your full recommended amounts of iron in it. Most Women's vitamins, for example, loudly proclaim their "plus iron" right on the label.