How to improve iron levels without relying on iron supplements?
Tried, tested & traditional technique.
You recycle 90% of your iron for most of your life.
^read that again.
Iron is so important to growth, maintenance and repair that it is very tightly regulated by the body.
More than half of all iron in the body is used to make hemoglobin for red blood cells.
When the red blood cells die, most of that iron is reused to make more red blood cells.
In this way, your body recycles 90% of your iron for most of your life.
You lose very little (when you pee, sweat or menstruate for example).
For example:
A woman can usually store 3000mg of iron in the body, but loses just 0.55mg during heavy menstrual flow.
That’s <0.02%.
So in an ideal world, all we have to do is make up the deficit.
How much is the deficit?
Theoretically, you need just 1 mg/day.
That’s how much you’d get in a small bowl of spinach or 1 tbsp of pumpkin seeds.
But because vegetarians usually absorb only 7-10% of the iron they eat, the RDA is 8 times more at 8mg/day.
If we need so little, why are so many people deficient?
If you take too much Vitamin C, your body will just pee the extra out.
The same does not apply to iron.
Why? Because your body has NO system to remove iron.
Instead, it controls how much iron you absorb from your food.
When you need more, it increases how much iron you absorb from your food.
When you have enough, it reduces absorption.
So for example:
When you donate blood
When you lose a lot blood
When you exercise (and break red blood cells)
When you smoke
When you become pregnant
When you are breastfeeding
…the body naturally increases how much iron you can absorb from your food.
The result: balanced iron stores.
However, when your body needs iron BUT it cannot absorb properly, you become deficient.
Why isn’t my body absorbing iron properly?
Poor gut health.
Inflammation in intestines, poor gut bacteria make up, toxin build up in gut, damage to micro villi, poor nutrition (from other trace minerals) … all affect iron storage.
For example, if you are constipated, you absorb less iron.
Studies show that 70%+ Indians report some type of gastro-intestinal issue.
So it should be no surprise that more than 50% of women report iron deficiency.
The solution 99% of people talk about: increase iron in diet.
The smarter solution
Three steps to get there:
Improve absorption by making your body need more
Improve absorption by improving gut health
Increase quantity of bioavailable non-heme iron in the diet
Step 1
Start exercising.
When you exercise, the body needs to send more oxygen all over the body.
To do this, it needs more iron to make hemoglobin.
The result: it tries to increase absorption of iron from food.
This is why people who work out regularly have a higher hemoglobin level (and that red ‘glow’ on their face)
Step 2
Improving gut health is not about ‘eating probiotics’ or ‘having more fiber.’
The world’s best practitioners use a 5R framework to seriously improve gut health.
It works irrespective of how good or bad your gut is.
I’ve made an 18-minute video outlining the rules here 👇
If you have more questions on gut health, you can email me on harsh.doshi@hatabevtech.com, and I’ll point you in the right direction.
Step 3
My secret: the pearl millet (Bajra) grade ICTP-8203Fe.
Normal pearl millet has 2mg/100gms of iron.
This particular variant has 400% more (8mg/100gms).
It is largely grown in Maharastra and Andra Pradesh, but available for delivery almost anywhere in India.
A double-blind, randomized study on 140 school children confirmed that this variant improves ferritin (iron) and hemoglobin levels better than regular pearl millets.
Another trial in Bikaner, Rajasthan had the same result.
However, I don’t use the millets in raw form.
I germinate them, meaning I let them sprout before I use them.
Why? Sprouting increases iron bioavailability from millets by 2.2x.
Here is the documented evidence.
This means we have 4x more iron, that is 2.2x more available.
i.e. 8x improvement over regular pearl millets.
My recipe
I convert germinated pearl millets into simple one or two ingredient laddoos, and usually have this with a glass of lemon water.
Why? Ascorbic acid in lemons is proven to increase iron absorption drastically.
It changes the bonds to convert Fe2 → FE3 (the form the body prefers for absorption).
I usually don’t have anything 20 minutes before or after my laddoo-lemonade snack.
Why? Because other nutrients can seriously affect iron absorption.
Tea reduces iron absorption.
Some leafy greens reduce iron absorption.
Milk reduces iron absorption.
Eggs reduce iron absorption.
Even soy reduces iron absorption!
So I try to keep my ‘iron’ portion of the day separate to keep absorption high.
—
If you are iron deficient today, it is MOST likely because of your gut …
…and not just your diet.
Focus on both if you want a fast (and permanent) result.
If you liked this article, hit the ❤️ button below.
It would mean a lot!
Have questions about where to procure this millet, how to germinate or just want to know more about me? Write to me on harsh.doshi@hatabevtech.com, and I’ll help you out :)
Thanks for sharing such great stuff,very informative and helpful.Keep sharing:)
This is so much informative!