The American Red Cross wants your blood. That’s their whole business. Not only that: they want THE BEST blood. An iron-rich diet is essential for making good hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells. Red blood cells have the critical job of carrying oxygen throughout the body.
What do you think the Red Cross is encouraging you to eat to get plenty of iron into your body?
Answer: meat.
Iron that comes from animal-based food is called heme. And that which comes from plants is called non-heme. Heme iron is found in meat, fish, and poultry, and is the kind that is most readily absorbed by the human body - up to 30%.
Non-heme, plant-based iron, on the other hand, is absorbed at a meager 2 to 10%.
Let’s average that out to 6%, and then compare the two forms of iron.
Heme iron that comes from animals is absorbed up to five times better than non-heme, which comes from plants.
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