Are You Blocking Iron Absorption?

Submitted by georgiana on Fri, 08/06/2010 - 02:33.

An iron deficiency causes all sorts of problems, from fatigue to hair loss etc. Filling up on iron can be a bit of a pain especially as some kinds of iron (like the kind that leaches into food from iron cooking pans) aren’t readily absorbable.

But even worse, what we're drinking could be keeping us from using the iron we do have in our food. Tannin, which is found in tea blocks iron. I was watching a show a while ago and was surprised to learn that toucans eat a diet very high in iron – so high it would kill them except the water they drink from trees is filled with tannin, which blocks the iron and they survive. Amazing!

There are other things that interfere with our ability to uptake iron, including medicines like Prilosec. (More about that in this article http://sickle.bwh.harvard.edu/iron_absorption.html)

I've heard that eating eggs can also stop iron from being absorbed so if you eat eggs with your iron supplement be sure to drink a glass of citrus juice as ascorbic acid can increase your iron uptake.