Feel great Feeling tired? Find out if you need more iron

Here to help you, the easy way

Last week, I paid one of my regular visits to the chiropractor. While one of her bony elbows was digging into my glute (she called it ‘releasing’), I remarked (through quick breaths akin to childbirth) that I’d been feeling very tired lately. ‘Well, stop hiking up those hills and sit and read a book like the rest of us,’ she guffawed. Then she said, ‘Maybe you need more iron.’

I sat bolt upright (elbow still in glute). ‘I’ve been so busy spreading the love for Vitamin D (not to mention good fat, slow carbs and oodles of protein) that I haven’t given iron so much as a second look,’ I thought.

If we don’t have enough iron, the body struggles to transport oxygen around the body effectively, leaving us fatigued physically and mentally. Iron is also vital for upholding the immune system and for building new cells. Aside from tiredness, an alarming list of symptoms for low iron includes shortness of breath, pale skin (especially inside the lips or lower lids), headaches, heart palpitations, a sore tongue, brittle nails, cold hands and feet, and dry hair.

After checking in the mirror that my cheeks were still rosy, I concluded my iron levels are fine and dandy, that I was just plain knackered and should stop surfing Instagram at bedtime.

The Recommended

Daily Allowances (RDAS) are 8.7mg per day for adult men, 14.8mg for menstruating women and 8.7mg for those of us free of all that malarkey. Good sources we can all eat (carnivore or vegan) include lentils, spinach (both providing 3.5mg per 100g cooked), beans, tofu, cashew nuts, dried apricots, cooked quinoa, kidney beans (4.1mg for a 50g portion!) and oats, which have an amazing 4.25mg per 100g.

For meat-eaters, liver is well known for its capacity to fill our iron coffers (with a whopping 23mg per 100g) but you’d have to pay me to eat it.

INTERESTING FACT: Absorption of iron in the body is helped by eating vitamin C-rich foods with your meal. So, for instance, have broccoli with your steak, a kiwi fruit after your tofu-and-spinach curry or sliced peppers with your bean chilli.