Six foods to enhance your body’s iron levels naturally

A healthy mind resides in a healthy body and to keep oneself happy with a sense of overall well-being, it is important to maintain a healthy body. Deficiencies are a common occurrence and become inevitable after a certain age. It is, however, not advisable to accept them and not do anything about them. Iron deficiency refers to a lack of healthy red blood cells in the body due to which hemoglobin falls.

This deficiency is extremely common, especially among women when they start menstruating, during pregnancy or when they are near menopause. The most common symptoms of an Iron deficiency is chronic fatigue, delayed or excessively heavy periods, chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, cold hands/feet and paleness. Even though a wide range of supplements are now available in the market, here are some foods that will help you making up for the lack of iron in your diet naturally.

Black-eyed pea is very rich in iron and small servings of it can provide you with 26-29% of the iron that the body requires. Hence including it in your diet on a regular basis can solve your problems of iron deficiency efficiently and completely.

Liver, kidneys, brain and heart, all organ meats are rich sources of Iron. Livers are especially rich sources of iron and a small serving of beef liver can provide one with 36% of the required iron in a day.

Jaggery is an excellent source of plant-based sugar for the body. Including a small portion of jiggery in your daily diet can help deficiencies greatly. Even though single serving of jaggery is enough to meet your daily iron needs, replacing regular white sugar with jaggery can help add more iron to your diet and is a healthy alternative as well.

Amla or the Indian gooseberry is a super food for it is extremely rich in nutrients like vitamin C, Iron and Calcium. Due to the abundance of iron present in it, Amla can help cure anaemia. It can be consumed in various forms including pickles, candies or murabba. Amla can also be boiled and consumed raw. A single amla consumed everyday can work wonders for the blood and body.

Most dry fruits are good sources of iron and raisins especially are rich, copper and vitamins that are integral for blood cell formation. Soaking eight to ten raisins in water overnight and eating them the next day can help the blood health immensely.

Pop-eye the sailor man was never wrong. Spinach actually works wonders for your muscles and your overall health. It contains high amounts of iron and consuming it as a vegetable preparation twice a week or having it in other forms can prove to be a good source of Iron.