What foods contain Iron

Iron Features

Iron plays an important role in the human body. One of the major - transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and transport carbon dioxide in the reverse direction. "Work" is carried by red blood cells that contain hemoglobin, a protein, and it is part of the hemoglobin molecule consists of iron atoms.

Iron plays an important role in metabolism. With enough of this trace element content in enzymes and proteins are made by processes such as DNA production, blood formation processes, destruction of toxic substances by the liver, redox reactions, energy metabolism, and others.

Iron is essential for the production of thyroid hormones. Thanks to him, increased disease resistance and immunity, restores skin tone, there is prevention of the diseases such as iron deficiency anemia, which often affects children and women.

Norm

The average daily rate of all people are different. It depends on the age, gender and lifestyle. For men, it is 10 mg for women - 15-20 mg according to the age. The highest daily dose needed for pregnant women - 30 mg. The upper limit of intake of iron - 45 mg.

Iron comes in two forms: heme contained in animal products, and non-heme, which is found in plant foods. While heme iron is almost completely digested with digestion with non-heme iron may have problems. To better assimilated his body, the reducing agent is required, whose role in the redox reactions play vitamin C and folic acid.

It is important to remember that it is better to make up deficiency of iron from animal food. People who adhere to a vegetarian diet, it is necessary to make sure that their diet included foods containing vitamin C. But the tea, coffee and dairy products is better not to be combined with iron-containing products because they contain polyphenols, caffeine and calcium reduce the absorption of iron .

Where to look for iron

So, what foods contain the most iron? Leaders can be safely regarded as red meat, beef and mutton (meat and the redder the higher the level of iron in it), and offal (liver is the first place on the content of this element). Thus, in bovine liver contains 14 mg per 100 g product, pork - 12, chicken - 8.6 Beef - 5.7. The beef - 3.2 mg in mutton - 2.3, turkey - 1.8, pork - 1.5, in chicken meat - 1.5.

Seafood, especially shellfish such as mussels and oysters, are also an excellent source of iron. The mussels its content reaches 6.8 mg, oysters - 5.7, sardines - 2.9, shrimp - 1.7.

In most plant foods high iron content - in legumes. Thus, peas contained 6.8 mg of iron in green beans - 5.9 in soybeans - 5.1 in white beans - 3.7, in lentils - 3.3, red beans and chick-pea - 2 9. The second highest iron content are vegetables with dark green leaves: spinach (3.5 mg per 100 g), chard (3.1), parsley (5.8), artichokes (3.9), celery (1, 3), cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage and broccoli (about 1.3).

In addition, a lot of iron contained in molasses (21.5 mg), rye bread (3.9), buckwheat (7.8), oatmeal (3.6), tofu cheese (5.4), egg yolks ( 2.5), pistachios (4.8), peanuts (4.2), almonds (4.2), cashew nuts (3.8), walnuts (3.6), sesame seeds (14.6), pumpkin seeds (14).

Fruits contain a small amount of iron, but the dried fruit can even compete with the meat. For example, dried apricots contains 4.7 mg, prunes - 3.9, raisins - 3.3, and dry apples - 15. It has long been the myth that the iron contained in apples, enough to make up for the daily requirement of this element in organism. The amount of iron in apples reaches, depending on the variety of apples, a maximum of 2 mg per 100 g That is, to make up for the daily requirement, it is necessary to eat several kilos of apples ...

And you have already prepared a bag of apples to make up the daily dose of iron?