Iron woman! Women, exercise, and iron

[Dogmama]

I have started eating more iron rich foods, I only eat spinach now instead of lettuce, I even put it on my sandwiches. I don't eat a lot of meat anymore, mostly veggie burgers and such which have some iron.

You probably already know this, but take your iron rich foods with citrus or some other vitamin C food. It helps your body absorb the iron.

Trigurl, I'm just like you. Multiples make me sick, but singular vitamins are OK.

[caribou]

My doc told me to take ferrous gluconate, but I had trouble w/ constipation and stomach upset with it.

I found one that called itself "Gentle Iron" on the supplement shelf, which claimed to not cause these problems so much. It's Ferrous Bis-glycinate. Does seem to cause less problems. Last time I bought iron the store didn't have the same brand, so I got Radiance "Easy Iron." Same form of iron, also has C, folic acid, and B-12. Also has not caused as much constipation or stomach upset.

Oh, and I learned the hard way: NEVER take iron on a totally empty stomach (unless you want to feel like puking.)

Also: Calcium interferes with iron absorption, according to every source I found. I have no clue how the multis with both can be helpful.

[annie]

Another method of getting more iron into your diet is to cook in a cast iron pan. Seriously! Some of the iron leaches into the food. If you eat eggs, they absorb quite a bit of the iron from the pan. I also do most of my stir-fry in an iron skillet. A very easy to add a little bit of iron!

annie

[RoadRaven]

Hmmm... I hadn't thought about the iron cookware and it leaching into the food - excellent

Time to chuck out all the aluminium cooking stuff though, huh?
And use glass not plastic cookware in the microwave, yes?

[DirtDiva]

Heh - given the number of rings of melty bits I've left on the inside of supposedly microwave-safe containers, the latter is a given.

[Dogmama]

Time to chuck out all the aluminium cooking stuff though, huh?
And use glass not plastic cookware in the microwave, yes?

Plastic supposedly leeches a chemical that is a carcinogen. So, yeah, use glass. Even to cover your glass bowls. I use a plate to cover a glass bowl if it is a spattering material (like everything I cook!)

[newrider]

Lots of good experiences shared here, thanks! I got to do labs through my work (at a deep discount) this week, and I'm eager to see the results and know what my iron level is right now. I'll be looking at the Bicycling article, hunting up Nancy Clark's book, checking out the website mentioned, and perusing the vitamin aisle for my future remedy of choice. I do use cast iron for eggs and stir fry, so that was good to know.

I wonder how much iron is in a veggie weiner? Maybe a veggie weiner a day keeps the doctor away?

[Trekhawk]

Plastic supposedly leeches a chemical that is a carcinogen. So, yeah, use glass. Even to cover your glass bowls. I use a plate to cover a glass bowl if it is a spattering material (like everything I cook!)

I read an article (sorry cant remember when or where) that talked about freezing of plastic. Freezing purchased water in its bottle can also release nasty chemicals out of the plastic. If you do reuse purchased water bottles you should ditch them after a while as the plastic starts to break down and then you are drinking it.

[Trekhawk]

I read an article (sorry cant remember when or where) that talked about freezing of plastic. Freezing purchased water in its bottle can also release nasty chemicals out of the plastic. If you do reuse purchased water bottles you should ditch them after a while as the plastic starts to break down and then you are drinking it.

Hey Guys - just looked this up on a search engine to see if I could find the article and guess what apparently this is a myth. Sorry I keep getting sucked in by stuff I read but this was not on the internet it was in a health mag of some sort. Oh well disregard my rantings.

[kmoty]

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information about the toxicity of plastics for food storage and cooking, but here are two good summaries of the concerns from a reliable source:

http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnew..._plastics.html (plastic and heating, not good) and http://www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnew...n_dioxins.html (plastic and cold storage, probably ok).

I was inclined to pooh-pooh the concern about cooking and plastic, but the Johns Hopkins piece was so very carefully worded that I'm working on breaking myself of the habit of using plastic wrap and plastic storage containers in the microwave.

[RoadRaven]

Well, with oil arriving on the "soon to be extinct" list, I guess this will eventually become a "non-issue"... we'll be back to cooking and storing food in iron and glass and pottery before too long anyways...

[DirtDiva]

But what will our take-aways come in?

[Dianyla]

Just thought I'd give this thread a little bump! and also say Thank you! I swear, this thread changed my life!

I first happened to read this thread a week before a scheduled annual physical, and it just nagged at me. I'd never actually thought much about low iron, and figured it wasn't something I needed to worry about. I cook on cast iron, eat lots of iron-rich meats and foods, and it never occurred to me before. But, the mentions of flagging performance and exhaustion really sounded familiar. After (barely) finishing the Seattle to Portland last July, I couldn't ride for weeks. In fact, that was the culmination of 4 months of training on the weekend and needing all week Monday-Friday to recover again for the next weekend's training ride. I've always wondered about those people who say they get all this lovely energy after they exercise, I just want to sleep all day to recover. Also, I've felt like this for years and so it didn't feel like a really new development.

So at my physical I asked my doctor to check my iron levels just for the hell of it. She called me a few weeks later telling me that the results were close to unmeasurable. Basically, I had no iron stores at all, not in my blood and even my marrow stores were depleted. Once I started doing research, a whole lot of things started making sense. The constant dizziness, intolerance to cold (needing fleece in summertime), undereye circles, easily getting out-of-breath just walking up a flight of stairs (even after having logged 80 miles on the bike a few days earlier!) and of course the insatiable need for sleep and recovery time especially after anything strenuous.

I've been taking iron supplements for the last 3 months and feeling loads better. I started out taking iron salts such as ferrous sulfate, ferrous gluconate, etc and found that those really upset my stomach and constipated me. After switching around a bit I found carbonyl iron supplements. I can take them on even my very fussy empty stomach with no upset and no more consti-poo-poo.

A few days ago I got on the bike again for the first time in months. Even though I can tell out of shape, I felt stronger than I've felt in a long time. In retrospect, I feel like a big idiot because I think I've had this problem for at least 6-7+ years. I thought this is just the way I was naturally.

Thank you again TE!!!

[Eden]

Food for thought. I certainly don't have all of those symptoms, but it does seem like I am always cold - wore my fleece and ran a space heater all last summer at work. And I get soooo tired around that time o' the month that I usually take a couple of extra rest days.
Though we eat a lot of spinach and other iron rich veggies, the hubby and I do eat a low meat, and especially low red meat diet so its not so unrealistic to think that it could be a problem. I think I may just look into it.
Thanks for bumping this thread!

[rocknrollgirl]

Thanks for all of the info. I suspect that I too have low iron. I have a very hard time recovering from my workouts, and I am tired and have a headache all day long.I do not eat meat, tons of veggies, but it may not be enough with the workout schedule that I have. I thought is was allergies, but this makes more sense. I have really avoided taking iron because of the stomach problems associated with the supplements, but now I am going to check for some of the more gentle types that I can take.

Thanks

Ruth