Science Facts Sundays: Maximizing Iron Absorbency, Part 2: Meat (and some grains)

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Welcome to Science Facts Sundays.

These are some notes I took when reading Iron Rich Foods: Unlock the Iron in Your Food and Fight Iron Deficiency by Amanda Rose, Ph.D.

My daughter knows why we don’t drink milk with an iron-rich meal. She can tell you, “calcium inhibits iron absorption!”

I don’t see the point of eating foods and not being able to absorb them and utilize all their benefits. What a shame to waste the iron in our foods when we eat them with dairy products. Simply knowing to separate the foods for ultimate utilization can be helpful for combating low iron levels.

You may find this geeky - so be forewarned! If this topic doesn’t appeal to you, check back in a few weeks and I’ll have moved on to something else that you may be interested in.

Here are some morsels for you to chew on (written in my own words):

Meat is a good source of iron. Raw goose, duck, and pork livers each provide 100% recommended daily intake for iron.

Clams, chicken and turkey livers, as well as oysters and caviar are also good sources of iron.

3.5 ounces of ground beef can provide nearly half the daily allowance of iron for toddlers. [There is a handy chart in this book showing various meats and their iron contents].

If you want to include more iron, you’ll want to know to grab the chicken thigh, which contains four times the iron as a chicken breast.

There is “heme” iron, and “non-heme” iron. Meat provides the more readily absorbed heme iron; plants provide non-heme iron.

Calcium is the only inhibitor of heme iron, so it’s best to eat (or drink!) your calcium separately from your iron-contatining meat [more on this later]. My kids know we don’t drink milk when we have a beef-based meal.

Non-heme iron can have several inhibitors, including compounds in milk, coffee, wine, tea, grain, and even spinach itself.

Meat enhances iron absorption. Combining meatloaf with quinoa will help your body absorb the iron in the quinoa.

[The section on grains is huge, so I am going to begin to touch on that this week, and continue for the next 2-3.]

The iron in your grains must be unlocked. The two best ways to do this is to soak your grains, or use the sourdough method.

The grains that contain the most iron are: amaranth (12% of your recommended daily value), teff, whole wheat, and oats. Sorghum, kamut, spelt, quinoa, barley and rye (6%) follow.

White flour is so heavily processed that very little iron remains.

Cooking your grains makes the iron in them more readily available for your body to absorb.

Although sprouting is helpful, the key to unlocking the iron is Moisture + Warmth + Time.

Soaking grains (the “Moisture” in this equation) not only helps unlock the iron, but reduces cooking time as well. You will want to place the grain together with about 50% more water. You can do this in a bowl, or like I do, use a mason jar.

You will want warm water (“Warmth”) that is just above your body temperature (115 degrees-ish).

And that leaves Time…let it sit at least two hours, and as long as twelve. I like to prepare mine in the morning, and it’s ready in time for dinner.

You may add a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar if you wish, but it’s not necessary. Adding whey is not recommended, as whey contains calcium and can inhibit phytic acid reduction.

That’s it for today! I hope you learned something. If you did, feel free to leave me a note in the comments If you didn’t learn anything, then you are definitely a geek!

Next week we continue the discussion on grains and iron and phytic acid…

Amanda Rose, Ph.D. authored Iron Rich Foods: Unlock the Iron in Your Food and Fight Iron Deficiency, where I have based these science facts. She is also the author of Rebuild From Depression: A Nutrient Guide, Including Depression in Pregnancy and Postpartum, and the Phytic Acid White Paper: Reducing Phytic Acid in Your Food. She is also the blogger behind Traditional-Foods.com.

Similar Posts:

Science Facts Sundays: Maximizing Iron Absorbency, Part 1

Science Facts Sundays: Maximizing Iron Absorbency, Part 3: Soaking Cereal Grains

Science Facts Sundays: Iron Rich Foods book + digital class - and the winner is…

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Lea Harris founded Nourishing Treasures in 2006. A mom passionate about her family's health and well-being, Lea believes education is power. Encouraging others to take baby steps in the right direction of health for their families, Lea's goal is to raise awareness of what goes into our mouths and on our bodies, providing natural alternative information that promotes health and prevents disease by using traditional foods and nature's medicine.

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