Dear MD,

Good fruit sources of iron include watermelon, raisins, and grapefruit (Whitney, Cataldo, & Rolfes, 1996). You can also find iron in tomatoes, apples, bananas, oranges, strawberries, and avocados.

Iron is an essential nutrient because it assists enzymes in the production of amino acids, hormones, and neurotransmitters, and is a major component of hemoglobin, which helps carry oxygen in red blood cells.

The recommended daily intake of iron for women between the ages of nineteen to fifty years is 15 milligrams, and for women over fifty-one years, it is 10 milligrams. For males, it is 10 milligrams per day. If you are having difficulty incorporating iron-rich foods into your daily diet, you might want to try adding raisins to your cereal in the morning. A half of a cup of raisins will provide 2.5 milligrams. If you like to drink some juice in the morning, a cup of grapefruit juice will provide 1 milligram of iron. These are obviously not practical sources for obtaining the daily recommendation of iron, but they are a good start. Other iron-rich foods that can help you achieve the recommended daily amounts would be meats (which are rich in iron), oysters, tofu, kidney beans, prune juice, and spinach (Somer, 1995). To make the most of the iron available in foods, eat them along with some vitamin C-rich foods, such as citrus fruits.

Be aware that some foods interfere with iron absorption. These include phytates and fibers in whole grain cereals and nuts, calcium and phosphorus in milk, the chemical EDTA in food additives, and tannic acid that appears in tea, coffee, nuts, and some fruits and vegetables (Whitney, Cataldo, & Rolfes, 1996). Don't eat these foods and foods containing iron at the same time.

Alice

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