boosting iron levels

[Grog]

I have an iron radar. I have discovered over the years that a lot of the foods I love and crave have lots of iron in them. My iron level has never been low... (I discovered a few years back that the gene of hemochromatosis runs in my family. Those who develop the disease just keep accumulating iron beyond healthy levels and "poison" themselves. Thankfully I don't have the disease, but this probably explains why I love iron-rich foods so much.)

According to the Wikipedia "iron" article, here is a pretty good list of my culinary tastes:

Good sources of dietary iron include red meat, fish, poultry, lentils, beans, leaf vegetables, tofu, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, fortified bread, and fortified breakfast cereals. Iron in low amounts is found in molasses, teff and farina. Iron in meat (haem iron) is more easily absorbed than iron in vegetables,[26] but heme/hemoglobin from red meat has effects which may increase the likelihood of colorectal cancer.[27][28]

(I love molasses. On buckwheat crepes. Two excellent sources of iron.)

I would like to add: oysters, clams, blood sausage (in the red meat category), eggs, whole wheat products (such as Shreddies, mmmm!), other soy products, all the good stuff.

[KnottedYet]

You and I are in the same boat. (or at least, a very similar boat. Can we choose the boat? I'd like a luxury sailboat with a full staff ready to fulfill my every whim...)

Anyway, I've been cooking in cast iron forever. I've eaten all the high iron goodies I can find. Finally I'm faced with taking iron pills. They have brought me up to low-almost-normal-but-not-quite-normal-yet.

At the moment I'm on 325 mg ferrous sulfate and 500 mg vitamin C taken together every night with dinner. I've had no stomach trouble at all. (of course, I'm taking them along with all the other celiacker malabsorbed vits, but they aren't bothering me either so I'm assuming everything is ok with the iron)

If diet and cast iron don't bring you up to speed, I'd try the vit C and iron combination.