{"id":41978,"date":"2010-10-06T12:06:44","date_gmt":"2010-10-06T17:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/?p=41978"},"modified":"2016-06-29T10:00:53","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T15:00:53","slug":"what-im-doing-to-increase-the-iron-in-my-body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/horizonsmagazine.com\/blog\/what-im-doing-to-increase-the-iron-in-my-body\/","title":{"rendered":"What I\u2019m doing to increase the iron in my body"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been a little low energy lately and wanted to find out why.\u00a0 I go to Wuesthoff Reference Labs<\/a> every few months to get blood work done. I love Wuesthoff, it\u2019s cheap, they\u2019re fast and there\u2019s a lab just down the street. Best of all, no doctors needed! I do it several few times a year to make sure my cholesterol is nice and low. When I eat in restaurants, I can\u2019t be sure how much fats I\u2019m getting.\u00a0 When I ate egg drop soup every day for a month earlier this year, my triglycerides doubled to 138. No more egg drop soup for me!\u00a0 I learned from the lab tech that the easier arm to draw blood from is usually your non-dominant one. Being right handed, my right arm may have more musculature covering the veins, so they like to draw from the left. That\u2019s good to know \u2013 I knew one was better than the other but always forget which. Now I\u2019ll remember.\u00a0 My test results showed that my iron is not its usual 77-ish but only 47.\u00a0 I began drinking hot water with blackstrap molasses and ordered some ferrous sulfate liquid to pick up at Palm Bay Pharmacy tomorrow. That should perk me right up. My iron was abnormally (for me) highest (127) on July 30th when I was eating eggplant and hummus every day for a month before \u2014 wow, the body knows what it needs.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I bought kale at the market and added it to a roasted veggie soup, and threw garbanzos in it too. I\u2019m excited to find my iron was low, since I\u2019ve been real low energy lately.\u00a0 I like knowing what it is.\u00a0 I have some ferrous sulfate coming later today, and I ordered some Ferro Sequels which will be here next week. Yesterday I began taking big spoonfuls of blackstrap molasses, too. I don\u2019t want to overdo taking supplements, if I can get the iron from my food and absorb it that way, all the better.<\/p>\n

When I got the blood test back showing low iron, I called a galpal who knows about that kind of stuff, having grown up very anemic.\u00a0 When I got her voice mail, I remembered she never has her phone on.\u00a0 I left word anyway. I was surprised when she called right back saying she was at work and felt compelled to turn her phone on and check voice mail. I was glad she was tuned in to the Universal Mind and got my message<\/p>\n

Yesterday I began reading through a fave book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, an A-Z reference to drug-free remedies using vitamins, minerals, herbs<\/a>. It\u2019s packed with great info. BIG NEWS FLASH \u2014 I learned that the frozen yogurt I\u2019ve been eating all month is likely zapping my iron. That\u2019s real good to know. I\u2019ve never been a frozen dairy\/ice cream kinda person and now I have a reason not to be.<\/p>\n

I also realized I\u2019d stopped eating pasta and rice the 60 days before the blood test.\u00a0 Both pasta and rice are enriched with iron, so when I stopped eating them, that could conceivably drop my iron count.<\/p>\n

I wondered how my iron could plummet in just three months, so I\u2019m glad I keep a record of what I eat each day.\u00a0 I saw that my iron on July 30th was at a high of 127 because of eating garbanzos and parsley every single day for the month prior.\u00a0 I saw that every single day for 30 days prior to me taking the blood test, I ate some frozen yogurt at night.\u00a0 I figure that\u2019s good evidence of what boosts the iron naturally, and what inadvertently depletes it.<\/p>\n

I love it that I can regulate my body chemistry without drugs, by eating the right foods and getting the right vitamins and minerals.\u00a0 Some high iron foods are:<\/p>\n

Apricots
\nFigs
\nEggs
\nKale
\nMolasses
\nRaisins
\nBrown rice
\nWhole wheat bread
\nEnglish Muffin
\nOatmeal
\nTotal cereal
\nCream of Wheat
\nRaisin bran cereal
\nSunflower seeds
\nSoy milk
\nKidney beans
\nBroccoli
\nGreen beans
\nLima beans
\nBeets
\nPeas
\nPotato with skin on
\nVegetables, green leafy
\nWatermelon
\nLiver<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0 Restless Legs Syndrome Associated with Iron Insufficiency<\/a>
\nI Eat Beef for the First Time in 5 Years and Dream of Anthony Bourdain<\/a><\/p>\n

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