He Needs More Iron in His Blood

Jeffrey was supposed to donate blood yesterday.  I say supposed to because they wouldn't let him.  The iron in his blood was too low.  He says it's all my fault because I don't feed him enough red meat.  I say it's his fault for not reminding me ahead of time that he's going to be donating blood and reminding me that he needs to be sure to eat some iron rich foods.  And then, today I went looking for a list of those iron-rich foods just so I'll know what he should be eating.  Red meat isn't the only food that is rich in iron, though 3 oz. of beef or lamb provide 2.3 to 3 mg of iron.

Here are just a few other things he could be eating.

• 1 cup of brown rice - .8 mg
• whole wheat bread, 1 slice - .9 mg
• 1 cup of cooked oatmeal - 1.6 mg
• 1 oz. sunflower seeds - 1.4 mg
• 1/2 cup canned kidney beans - 1.6 mg
• 1/2 cup peas - 1.3 mg
• watermelon, 6 x 1/2" slice - 3.0 mg
• baked potato cooked with the skin on - 4.0 mg

 Get the rest of the list here

Not to say I can't feed him beef or lamb before he's scheduled to give blood, but it's nice to see that there are many more sources of iron than just meat, so I'll see if I can't get his iron up so he can donate blood soon.  It looks like increasing Vitamin C intake helps the body absorb iron, so I should also look at getting him more Vitamin C.  Sounds doable.  Now, if he needed a higher level of gold bullion in his blood, I think we'd be in trouble!