Eliminate Anemia With Natural Means

Iron deficiency anemia can be prevented and treated with a balanced diet. Even without meat!

That anemia, so-called anemia due to iron deficiency, can only be treated and prevented with meat and other animal products is a very persistent rumor. Critics of the meatless diet in particular should read on.

What causes anemia?

Also called iron deficiency or anemia , anemia often affects pre-menopausal women, but can also affect men and children.

Unfortunately, anemia is rarely found in routine blood tests, so you should be careful yourself to prevent anemia. Especially if you are about to enter menopause and regularly lose blood due to your menstrual period.

Anemia often affects younger women in the pre-menopausal age in particular. Women should therefore consume more iron per day with their food than men. The recommended daily requirement for women is 15 mg, but only 10 mg per day for men.

Diseases such as Crohn’s disease, chronic inflammation, cancer, kidney dysfunction or celiac disease can also trigger anemia, which is why a good doctor should always clarify the cause of iron deficiency.

In the case of anemia, the blood oxygen can no longer be transported optimally and you become tired and limp. Other symptoms of iron deficiency are immune deficiency and poor concentration.

Why does iron deficiency occur?

With a constant desire to lose a little weight, many women often have an insufficiently balanced diet and therefore often do not achieve the recommended daily amount. In addition, they lose iron with the blood during menstruation and childbirth.

Iron is an important component of the red blood cells in our blood and is responsible, among other things, for oxygen transport and metabolism.

But iron should not be taken artificially for an unlimited amount of time, as iron in high doses can also have a toxic effect. Iron poisoning is rare in Germany, but you should know that it is possible – before you take iron supplements!

Eating a healthy diet and still anemia?

Typical female favorite ingredients are an example of how nutrition advertised as healthy is not always really “all-round” healthy . Foods that are very popular with women and that they consider “particularly healthy” contain little or ridiculously little iron.

Some examples: chicken (0.7 mg), salmon (0.2 mg), dairy products (0-0.2 mg), white rice (0.6 mg), tomatoes (0.4 mg), cucumbers (0, 2 mg), oranges (0.1 mg) and more. Suddenly it seems logical that in combination with menstruation, women in particular and not men suffer from anemia, right?

How does iron absorption work?

It is not enough to simply eat iron-rich foods to actually absorb iron. For example, iron can only be consumed in combination with vitamin C, which is why good iron supplements are a combination of these two substances.

Without vitamin C, iron is simply excreted from your body unprocessed. To make it even more complicated, there are substances that interfere with the absorption of iron or prevent it entirely. These include:

• Coffee,
• black tea,
• Dairy products and
• Foods that contain oxalic acid.

Oxalic acid is actually only known from rhubarb, but it is also contained in the much-vaunted spinach. It forms a bond with iron that is difficult to remove from the body. Therefore, make sure that you do not eat foods rich in iron with such foods.

Make sure that there is always a source of vitamin C available – if necessary, a glass of orange juice is enough to allow the body to absorb the iron. If you’ve eaten foods rich in iron, wait about two hours before returning to dairy, coffee, or tea. Otherwise you cannot rule out anemia despite an iron-rich diet!

The typical female milk coffee or espresso after a meal is therefore counterproductive if you want to prevent or treat anemia.

Which foods are particularly high in iron?

It is rumored that vegetarians are particularly likely to suffer from anemia. But there is a lot of iron in many plant-based foods! Soy products, legumes, nuts, seeds, kernels and dried fruit in particular contain a lot of iron. In addition, the following are very rich in iron:

Cinnamon (38.1mg / 100g), thyme (20mg), wheat bran (16mg), soy flour (15mg), pumpkin seeds (12.1), soybeans, dried (9.7mg), millet flakes (9.0mg), lentils, dried (8.0mg), chanterelles (6.5mg), millet (5.9mg), tofu (5.4mg), apricots, dried (5.2mg), oat flakes (4.2mg), almonds (4.2mg), Hazelnuts (3.7mg), desiccated coconut (3.5mg), buckwheat (3.5mg), salsify (3.3mg), parsley (3.3mg), dates (3.0mg), whole grain rice (2.6mg), walnuts (2.5mg), lamb’s lettuce (2.1mg), peas (1.9mg), black currants (1.3mg).

So you can see that it is possible to take in enough iron even without meat so that anemia does not occur. Just keep the following basic rules in mind:

• Iron always includes vitamin C so that it can be easily absorbed.
• Calcium inhibits the absorption of iron (e.g. dairy products).
• No oxalic acid in iron-rich foods (so no rhubarb or green leafy vegetables).
• Coffee, black and green tea inhibit iron absorption.

If you follow these basic tips, you can eat some foods to prevent iron deficiency, but you will not be able to cure it once diagnosed. To relieve acute anemia, get a doctor to prescribe you pills.