Pumping Iron

To be blunt, I know there is a lack of iron in my diet, and that leads me to believe that I am deprived of the nutritional value that comes from iron-rich meals. With no intention to sound like a hypochondriac, after reading Nevin S. Scrimshaw’s article on iron deficiency it dawned on me that a good majority of female and male college students –myself included –have some moderate form of anemia. Iron has the function of transporting oxygen in blood by pairing with hemoglobin to “pick up oxygen in the lungs and shuttle and release it throughout the body”. About 73% of your body’s iron supply is found in hemoglobin during the creation of red blood cells (Scrimshaw). Common symptoms of iron depletion are weakness, headaches, extreme fatigue, chest pains, shortness of breath and paleness. I am not trying to compare the deficiency of iron in students’ diets to that of Scrimshaw’s field of study in developing nations such as Kenya and Indonesia, but his studies did pose the question in my mind –how can I improve my consumption of iron in the foods offered by Wheaton dining?

A woman between the ages of 19 and 50 need 18mg of iron daily, and a man needs 8mg of iron, but vegetarians may need even more milligrams because plant products have a lower iron turnover percentage when it reaches your blood. So, let’s start with the most important meal of the day: breakfast. For me, this seemed to be the easiest meal to find good sources of iron. Breakfast cereals are surprisingly iron-rich because of the whole grains in them. A bowl of Cheerios has 45% of your daily serving of iron in ¾ of a cup. Other cereals high in iron are Frosted Mini Wheat’s, Life cereal and Oat Bran Flakes. Lunch proved to be trickier to find iron for my diet, as I am a pretty picky eater when it comes to meat (a food extremely high in iron). I decided to pair a bowl of clam chowder and a salad to compensate for a plant source and seafood source of iron. A serving of clams (3 oz) is 14 mg of iron. Dinner was very similar to lunch, and I ended up stumbling upon broccoli soup, a type of roasted chicken and brown rice as potential iron rich items. I must say that from reading the nutritional facts of each of these foods, they by themselves are not very iron rich but together they are sufficient enough to supply a meal with enough iron. Broccoli is one of the most iron-rich green vegetables, and poultry along with any other meat will be a reliable supply of iron.

Throughout this day, I realized finding foods to eat with enough iron in them forced me out of my comfort zone of my normal five or six meal choices here at Wheaton. What I need to realize is the importance of iron for my health, and making small adjustments in what I choose for breakfast, lunch or dinner could make all the difference!

Want more information about creating an iron-rich diet? The University Health Center’s website provides tips on which foods to eat and proposed menus to achieve the highest amount of iron in your daily diet. Just click here! https://www.uhs.uga.edu/nutrition/iron.html