30 million TikTok posts devoted to wellness traits show that we’re more and more health-conscious. However unsexy habits, comparable to ensuring you are not affected by an iron deficiency, should not fall by the wayside.
Iron is a key mineral to maintain your physique operating. “It impacts physical and mental performance,” confirms Rhian Stephenson, nutritional therapist and founder of Artah. “Iron is needed to produce haemoglobin, the protein in our red blood cells that carries oxygen to our tissues, and myoglobin – the protein in our muscles that stores oxygen.”
That said, a lack of iron, which can lead to iron deficiency anaemia, is fairly common, especially for women. “Iron deficiency can be particularly tricky to identify because its symptoms often overlap with those of other common conditions,” says nutritionist Riya Lakhani-Kanji. “Fatigue or shortness of breath can be easily brushed off as stress or a busy schedule, while mood changes and headaches could easily be mistaken for signs of dehydration or other nutritional deficiencies,” she notes.
It’s only when the iron deficiency becomes more severe that those telltale symptoms, like a paler complexion and thinning hair, kick in. “This is why it’s so crucial to be proactive, especially if you’re in a high-risk group like women of childbearing age, vegetarians, vegans or athletes,” Riya provides.
How a lot iron do you want?
Whereas the really helpful day by day allowance (RDA) of iron for males is 8mg for males, it’s greater than double for ladies at 18mg. This quantity will increase much more throughout being pregnant “because our blood volume increases by 45%,” says Rhian. “Your iron requirements will shoot up in the second trimester to 27mg daily. Once women stop menstruation, their iron requirements match those of men.”
When you think of iron, you probably visualise a rib-eye steak, the rarer the better. But, says Rhian, there are actually two types of dietary iron: “Heme iron is present in animal-based meals like meat, poultry and fish, and non-heme iron is present in plant-based meals.”
Riya, a vegan herself, admits that the problem to get sufficient iron can typically be larger for vegetarians and vegans “because non-heme iron is less efficiently absorbed by the body than heme iron in meat.” However, she also notes that this doesn’t mean maintaining adequate iron levels on a plant-based diet is impossible.
Rhian agrees and points out that “vegetarians and vegans who eat a varied diet rich in legumes, nuts, seeds, green leafy veg and whole grains are generally not at any greater risk of iron deficiency than non-vegetarians.”
What causes an iron deficiency?
Blood loss from your period is one of the main causes of iron deficiency anaemia in women. “Unlike other vitamins and minerals, we aren’t able to excrete excess iron, so the only way we can lower iron is through blood loss,” Rhian explains, including that as much as 25% of UK ladies additionally develop into anaemic throughout being pregnant.
Our trendy diets play an element, too. “They’ve shifted in the direction of leaner proteins, which inevitably impacts our iron consumption,” explains Riya. “Lean proteins like chicken contain less heme iron compared to red meats such as beef or lamb.”
Modern farming practices may have something to do with it, too. “Intensive farming, including the use of chemical fertilisers and monocropping [growing a single crop year after year in the same field] often depletes the soil of essential nutrients,” Riya explains. “In consequence, crops can have a decrease iron content material, which, in flip, impacts the dietary iron consumption of individuals consuming these meals.”
