ExRx.net

Ok...so here's the situation-

My sister is a former vegan just turned vegetarian (she eats small amounts of cheese). She is also planning on running the columbus marathon in less than a week...but she has been training hard. She always kept telling me of feeling like crap when running, and eventually decided to get her iron levels checked out. Apparently, most people are around 50, while she is around 8. I don't know the units of measurement, but with any, that sounds bad!

So she is starting to take iron supplements...she refuses to eat any sort of meat for philosophical reasons, so there is no point in trying to convince to eat fish or chicken like me. Personally...I don't know if iron supplements work, but reading the box doesn't look promising. It talks of horrible side effects. So...here's I guess what I am asking

I keep telling her to eat plant foods with more sustence (and coincidentally more iron) but she seems to refuse. She typically just eats alot of leafy veggies and whatnot. She might have a little peanut butter or whatnot, but I keep telling her to go heavy on nuts/seeds, beans, potatoes, wheat bread, spinach,broccoli, because these items are the plant foods with the best amount of iron (as far as i know). Does anyone know of a better plant source, or maybe which plant source the body digests the best? Eggs and dairy are out of the question- she won't eat them.

Vitamin C tend to increase Iron absorption. Most vegetarians get loads so that compensates. She should make sure she gets enough.

here are the best sources of Iron: http://whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=70

Looks like spinich and herbs are the best per calorie.

Does she drink a lot of tea/coffee?

Caffeine intake with food limits the absorption of iron into the blood stream. While in most people this is inconsequential, for those who do long distance running (something to do with impacting the joints), so ensuring correct iron uptake is important.

I read a research paper many months ago but the conclusions were no caffeine 60 minutes before food and none 120 mins after food.

scholar.google.com might help you find some research on this.

Hmm...I shall have to inform her of this I had no idea!