I'm beginning to suspect that food producers produce for men.  At least 
nutrition-wise,  contents of food do not seem all that well suited
to my body.  I suffer from an iron deficiency, many of my friends do
too and I was wondering how much of a problem it would be to add iron
to the food.  When nutritional requirements were drawn up, they probably 
took an average between men and women, the result being that women had 
less iron in their diets.  I could eat red meat, but I am not that much of
a meat eater and vegetable sources are for the most part poor.  Iron
supplements (in capsules) don't agree with me either.   It is a shame
that the nutritional requirements of women are often ignored by both
the health care providers and the food industry.
There...that's my tirade against makers of macaroni and cheese.
I feel much better now. :)

28 responses total.

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  I think the feds may mandate iron supplements in most breakfast cereals.
I heard that they impose certain nutritional requirements because kids eat
a lot of it, often to the exclusion of a balanced diet.  I think there are
also requirements for additives to most flours, breads, or pastas (don't
remember which), but I don't know if they include iron.
 
  Is your problem with iron supplements a medical problem, or a
lifestyle/distaste problem?  Lately I've been eating sweet chewable
colorful kids vitamins, as I've always been inept at swallowing pills, and
find I just don't take the swallowable ones regularly. If your prob has
medical origins, I wonder if getting these and breaking them into smaller
doses taken throughout the day might help you get your iron?  The big ones
look like they could be quartered easily enough.

I think iron may not be added to many foods because it affects the taste
and is hard to disguise.  Also, too much might be bad for you.  Or, 
simply because there isno great outcry for it.

Taking iron supplements upsets my stomach, but i tend to be anemic.
Try an overpriced brand called "Slow FE"--time released tiny iron tablet.
I have lived on these when I am pregnant.

Too much iron causes constipation, so if you take supplements, take 
lots of water too.  

Spinach is high in iron, as are other dark leafy greens and some other
veggies.  Fish is also good for you.

 Multivitamins are also a good source of iron.

Re #4:  I recall hearing that while there is a lot of iron in spinach, for
some reason it's in such a form that the body can't use it, and it passes
right through.  Can anyone tell me if that's true?

  According to the urban legends FAQ in item 97, spinach doesn't have
much more iron than other veggies.  The myth was allegedly started by a
misplaced decimal point in an USDA report or something, and propegated
from there.  It does have more iron and minerals than most veggies
though, but it also has a lot of oxalic acid, which binds to the minerals,
and as Mark said, prevents the body from getting much use from them (it
also gives spinach a sharp taste).  Better iron sources in the veggie
kingdom, according to my science almanac, might be peas, tomato juice,
or lima beans.  Woowoo, party down!  :->

Maybe it's just the air in Canada or my body recovering from grad school.
I do choose high iron foods, and my friends who have the same problem do
too, but to no avail.   But then I guess there's always VAMPIRISM.
Iron supplements give me a bad stomach too.

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  Ahso, "pasta" is not enriched, but "enriched pasta" (which seems to be
most mainstream pasta) does have additives, including iron.  Of the 14
labeled types of pasta in our pantry, 8 were labeled "enriched," contained
iron as an ingredient, and had precisely 10% of the USRDA of iron...one
other added iron, but only 8% USRDA, and wasn't labeled "enriched."  The
remaining five were organic, imported, and/or natural, contained no iron
additives, and of those that listed iron as a nutrient, they had 4-6% USRDA.
 
  I've heard that you shouldn't rinse pasta after cooking because you wash
away the nutrient additives...anybody know if that's true?  A cookbook I
read said you don't need to rinse pasta unless it's going in a pasta salad,
but didn't explain why.
 
  By the way, lest you fear that I live in an underpasta'd household, let
me assure you that it harbors several more kinds of pastas in unlabeled bags.

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I do alot of washing of raw vegtables and chicken before I eat and/or cook them
but i never would rinse cooked pasta or cooked veggies.  I wouldn't see any
reason to do so.  I also would guess you could wash away some nutrients but
my thought is that the boiling probably already did most of that.  That's
why I steam most of my vegtables now.  But you can't steam pasta, can you?

Betchya could if you're reeeaaallly patient!

as a quick aside, the reason to rinse pasta if you're going to make a 
cold pasta salad is to remove the "flour silt" that washed off the pasta in the
hot water, and which once cold, will get gummy.

The general rule of thumb is to rinse pasta when you don't want
whatever else you're adding to the dish to cling to the pasta.
Cold pasta salads, where you add veggies and a light dressing,
should include rinsed pasta.  If you're planning to add a red 
sauce to hot pasta and you don't want the sauce to simply slip
to the bottom of the bowl, you don't rinse the pasta.  The
residual starch acts as a binding agent, as needed.

I learn something new every day ;-).

re #0: I'm not a nutritionist, but perhaps you have some kind of problem
with absorbing iron.  That might explain why iron supplements make you
ill.  It might be worth seeing someone about this.

Have you been diagnoised as iron deficient by a Dr.  I was just reading
and article that said that getting too much iron often causes the same
symptoms as too little and that a lot of anemias are not caused by iron
deficiency but by other causes.  The only real way to tell if you need
extra iron or not is by having a blood test that measures iron levels.

"In a small study, heathy women absorbed 30 to 50 percent more iron
from their food when their meals contained no milk or cheese,
suggesting that people at risk for iron deficiency shouldn't eat
iron-rich and calcium-rich foods (or supplements) at the same time.
-BL American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 61:97, 1995."

Oh, that's nice... calcium is important, too, esp. for females.
Why not just consume half again as much iron?

Everyone I know gets sick from iron pills, they are very hard on the stomach.
That's why I need to use the time released ones when I do take them
(Slow FE brand).

re # 19:  An advantage to keeping Kosher!  But, is that because milk &
cheese prevent iron absorption?  What about iron & calcium tablets at the
same time?

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iron pills dont make me 'sick'.. they just cause my stool to be dark and
stickey. would that be due to blood in the stool?

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re 23:  No, it's not blood.  That's a normal side effect of iron.  It
just discolors the waste in your body.  (I'm on lots of iron for
pregnancy, and am still somewhat anemic, so I know the dose will be
increased, too.)

If you need to take iron, there are several time released products that
are easier on your stomach.  One is SlowFE.  Expensive, but it worked 
well for me.  Also, play around with the timing of when you take them.
Don't take them with a multi-vitamin that also has iron or lots of 
vitamin C.  Do take iron after a large meal.  Just a slice of toast or
a glass of milk will not usually be enough.  And washing the iron pill 
down with a glass of orange juice or a cup of coffee might not
be a great idea.

i heard that tea <the regular 'black' kind> somehow causes
the body to not absorb iron,.
does anyone know if it is true or not?

Haven't heard that one, ever.  However, too much calcium & iron
I've heard can neutralize each other...

blackstrap molasses (possibly from being boiled in iron pots) and kelp or
other seaweeds have iron.

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