{"id":1577,"date":"2018-04-19T00:52:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattlemakeupschool.com\/Blog\/?p=1577"},"modified":"2018-04-19T00:52:31","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T00:52:31","slug":"do-you-have-enough-iron-in-your-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/seattlemakeupschool.com\/Blog\/do-you-have-enough-iron-in-your-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you have enough Iron in your diet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"You ever know that one person who apparently knows all the answers even when you don\u2019t want them to be right?\u00a0 Yeah, that person for me is my little sister.\u00a0 She\u2019s always freaking right!!!\u00a0 Ok, don\u2019t get me wrong, I love and adore her, and she\u2019s right about the best things, but damn it, she\u2019s my baby sister!\u00a0 She\u2019s not supposed to tell me what to do!\u00a0 I\u2019m supposed to tell her what to do!\u00a0 But, once again she is right!<\/p>\n

Ok, so I have always been borderline anemic, but it got a lot worse when I went vegetarian eleven years ago.\u00a0 Then in 2012 I started donating platelets every two weeks with the occasional whole blood donation throughout.\u00a0 Because of this my iron levels were always in jeopardy.\u00a0 Seems like whenever I ate, it was a quest to find enough protein and iron.\u00a0 I was doing pretty good to, or so I thought, with supplements.<\/p>\n

When you don\u2019t have enough iron in your blood you\u2019ll find you have some really annoying side effects, not the least of which is lethargy and exhaustion.\u00a0 You can also experience shortness of breath, dizziness, irritability and unexpected weigh loss (though I highly doubt we\u2019d complain about the weight loss!).\u00a0 Iron is not made in your body; you have to get it through what you eat.\u00a0 So if you aren\u2019t eating iron rich foods your in big trouble!\u00a0 You need iron for Proper immune function and it\u2019s and essential element for blood production, especially hemoglobin which gets the oxygen from your lungs through your body.<\/p>\n

I had this whole routine to keep my iron high enough so I could donate and still be healthy.\u00a0 I took 1-2 iron supplements a day, plus calcium, vitamin C, a multi and a bunch of other vitamins.\u00a0 This combined with my quest for protein seemed to do pretty good.\u00a0 Well, that was until I had a talk with lil’ sis.\u00a0 She said that I should switch over to a cast iron skillet.\u00a0 She said with that alone I would get all the iron I need and not have to struggle so much trying to keep my iron up.<\/p>\n

I poo, poo\u2019d her suggestion, not believing something that simple would actually do anything.\u00a0 Besides, cast iron skillets are hard to use, everything sticks, they get really hot so you burn yourself and they are EXPENSIVE!!!\u00a0 But she just shook her head and said, you really should.\u00a0 So I decided what they hell and decided to keep an eye open for a cast iron skillet next time I went to Goodwill.\u00a0 Hopefully I would find one there without spending too much.\u00a0 I love thrifting so it would be a win-win.<\/p>\n

Well, I found one.\u00a0 Rather I found a set of 4 really awesome cast iron skillets.\u00a0 Right about the time I went in for a round of Platelet donations.\u00a0 At that appointment I barely squeezed by at a 13.2 iron level when the minimum is 12.6 and this is with taking iron supplements every day.\u00a0 I started cooking with the skillets.\u00a0 Yes, it was a little bit of a chore getting used to how they worked, but all in all I began to really like them.\u00a0 Two weeks passed, I ran out of iron supplement pills somewhere right at the beginning so I didn’t have iron pills for quite some time before my bi-monthly platelet appointment arrived.\u00a0 I was very worried that I wouldn\u2019t have high enough iron since I was in the middle of my monthly \u2018visit\u2019 which does drop your iron reserves.<\/p>\n

You could have knocked me over with a feather when my count came back as 14.2!!\u00a0 14.2 when I hadn\u2019t been taking anything?\u00a0 Could Abi be right?\u00a0 I verified by checking out a few sites and I\u2019ll be damned but she was right.\u00a0 According to UC Davis medical, using Cast Iron Skillets to cook with can add 80 percent MORE iron to your diet.\u00a0 80 percent!!!\u00a0 I know, I was blown away.\u00a0 But I had to give my sis her props.\u00a0 She was right and yes she smiled a very \u2018I told you so\u2019 smile.\u00a0 But she had a right to.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re struggling to keep your iron levels high, do what I did (without being told by your little sister!) buy a cast iron skillet at Goodwill.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be surprised.<\/p>\n

Some foods rich in iron include:<\/p>\n

Meat and Poultry<\/h4>\n