There are many foods containing iron that are good for you and taste good. If for whatever reason you wish to increase your iron intake, you really don’t have to suffer too much. Most will recommend that you eat things like beef liver, which has a ton of iron, but that really isn’t necessary as you can find the iron your body needs in a wide variety of foods and supplements. For me, I choose only fresh food that contain iron and stay away from the supplements altogether.
On average, your body requires about 10mg of iron each day to maintain a healthy balance. Considering the wide variety of foods containing iron, you probably won’t have to go too far out of your way to meet this requirement. However, pregnant women generally require additional iron. In fact, some recommend over 5 times the regular amount. If this is the case for your, you may have to make some choices and switch your snacks around a bit to meet the requirement.
Meat
Beef Liver – Very High
Chicken Liver – Very High
Beef – Moderate
Chicken – Low
Sardines – Moderate
Tuna – Low
Turkey – Moderate
Vegetables
Spinach – High
Lima Beans – High
Green Peas – Moderate
Potato – Moderate
Navy Beans – Moderate
Lentils – High
Fruits and Nuts
Almonds – High
Dates – Moderate
Figs – High
For me, I don’t give a lot of thought to the foods containing iron. Simply, I am a big fan of spinach and eat a pretty large serving usually twice per day. Thus, I take in more iron than my body needs. Indeed, some would argue that I consume too much iron just from my spinach intake alone.
For most people, having a hand full of almonds once per day and using spinach instead of lettuce will be more than enough to ensure you have enough iron in your diet. This seems like a small price to pay to get one of your daily requirements completely out of the way. Of course, lettuce does absolutely nothing for you and contains little or no nutrients that your body needs. The simple change to spinach will eliminate the need for a wide variety of supplements. Throw in a piece of fruit and vary your meat and fish intake, and you should be good.
Of course, there are many out there that want you to regulate everything you put in your mouth to make sure that you are constantly 100% within the guidelines that get put forward. However, I think that is probably overkill and by just doing a few common sense changes most of us will get everything our bodies need.
There are some more exhaustive lists of foods containing iron that may make more sense for you. This is true if you have a certain condition or you must intake more iron than is normally required. However, the list I provided above is a guide that most people can use to get the proper amount of iron without having to purchase anything special. There are a million different supplements and strange foods you can choke down, but everything listed above is great tasting and contains iron.