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| 11-grain bread, almond butter, banana; organic skim milk |
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| red and green seedless grapes* |
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| marble cheese* |
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banana, original plain (unsweetened) 4% yogurt,
chopped walnuts, organic Canadian honey |
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romaine heart, taco meat (extra lean ground beef, reduced sodium
taco seasoning), corn and black bean salsa (PC brand), avocado, cilantro |
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| kale, evoo, sea salt, pepper |
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| clementines (plus another I ate later with my iron supplement!) |
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salmon, garlic, dried basil, tomato, light parmesan cheese,
evoo, sea salt, pepper; brussels sprouts, evoo, sea salt, pepper |
*No, your eyes do not deceive you! These are indeed the same photos I used in yesterday's post. I wasn't able to take a picture of the grapes and cheese I ate yesterday (while on the subway!) so I figured I'd use these photos twice instead. The portions were almost identical, so it's still pretty accurate. :)
Yay, kale chips! ^_^ Also, I hear vitamin C is supposed to help with iron absorption (I see you've heard, too ;p)! (I've been planning meals around that assumption [amongst others], so, hopefully it works!)
ReplyDeletexoxoxo!
I haven't tried kale in any form other than homemade kale chips, but part of me thinks why mess with a winning formula? The other part wants to simmer a big ole pot of veggies soup/stew and throw some kale in there and see what happens...
ReplyDeleteRe: vitamin C + iron, yes it does help your body absorb iron! I think it's pretty well backed up by legit research, so I trust that it is an accurate guideline.
Iron is most easily absorbed by the body from animal sources like beef, mussels, liver, etc. The body can extract iron from plant sources (such as mushrooms, spinach, and other dark, leafy greens) but apparently it doesn't get as much from them or absorb the iron as easily. That's why it's especially important to have something high in vitamin C (citrus fruit, tomato, red pepper, etc.) with your plant sources of iron. But since I'm iron deficient (and thus taking a supplement) I try to make sure I have some vitamin C with most of my iron, and especially my supplement.
It's also important NOT to have calcium within a few hours of your iron-rich foods if you are really trying to get the most iron out of them. Calcium binds with iron and prevents your body from absorbing it. So try to have your iron-rich meal two to three hours before and after having foods that are high in calcium (which includes dairy products (obviously!) as well as fortified drinks like soy or almond milk, which often have calcium and vitamin D added to them). Oh, the things you learn when reading about healthy diets! :)
Yes! Looks like we've been reading the same info! XD I've been trying to keep my iron-rich and calcium-rich meals separate, and to add some animal-based iron sources (or at least lots of vit C) to my main iron meals . . . but it can be hard! So many traditional (and tasty) food combos have iron + calcium.
DeleteAnd then I'm not sure how much oxalates (seemingly found in nearly everything aside from broccoloids, dairy, and meat!) affect the absorption of both (and may lead to kidney stones?); apparently there's some debate on the matter . . . and whether cooking or food combos help at all (and whether pre-existing illnesses/disorders make it worse) . . . so, for example, they say spinach is not a good source of iron and rhubarb is not a good source of calcium because they're so high in oxalates. But who knows?!
UGH! SO COMPLICATED! So more or less I'm just trying to eat as healthy as possible (within reason: stress is also detrimental ;p) and hoping my body gets something good out of it. XD