How To Get Enough Iron On A Vegan Raw Food Diet

Is it possible to get enough iron on vegan raw food diet? Yes it is! Iron is a mineral that I was concerned about when I started on raw foods but now I don’t give it much thought since I eat a lot of iron-rich plant foods. You don’t need red meat to get your daily iron requirements. You only need to make sure that you are eating some of the nutrient-rich foods listed below every day.

How Much Iron Do You Need On A Raw Vegan Diet?

According to guidelines set by the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science in 2000, adult vegetarian or vegan men should get about 14 mg (milligrams) of iron per day and adult, pre-menopausal vegetarian/vegan women should strive for 33 mg of iron daily. Post-menopausal vegetarian/vegan women have the same 14 mg RDA that adult men have. Infants, children and teens have differing iron requirements based on gender and diet.

The iron requirements for vegetarians and vegans are higher than they are for those on a typical diet because plant-sourced iron is less bio-available. To avoid iron deficiency, be sure to read the total milligrams of iron in a food and don’t rely on the percent daily value as you will typically see on most nutrition labels. Following daily value percentages of iron on nutrition labels could lead to iron deficiency for raw vegans!

Leafy Greens

I like green smoothies and big salads so I am already getting lots of iron. A whole head of romaine lettuce has 6.1 milligrams of iron and a head of green leaf lettuce has 3.1 milligrams. I’ll either stuff the whole head in my blender for a green smoothie or chop it up into a delectable salad!

Other iron-rich leafy greens include Italian parsley (3.7 mg – milligrams per cup), dandelion greens (1.7 mg per cup), kale (1.1 mg per cup), spinach (0.8mg per cup) and Swiss chard (0.6 mg per cup). I typically put three cups of dandelion greens in my morning smoothie which starts my day at over 5.1 mg of iron!

Iron-Rich Vegetables

Iron is found in just about all vegetables but fennel is especially rich with 1.7 milligrams in one bulb. One cup of chopped broccoli contains about 0.7mg.

A medium-sized zucchini contains 0.7 milligrams of iron. There are a lot of things you can do with zucchini. Use it for the base in a raw vegetable-herb soup, slice it up and make crispy zucchini chips using your dehydrator. Of course, the most popular use for zucchini among raw foodies is spaghetti. An inexpensive spiral slicer will quickly turn this squash into long strands of angel hair pasta ready to be slathered with a tasty raw marinara sauce and wound up on your fork!

Nuts and Seeds

Sesame seeds are not only a great source of calcium per tablespoon, but they also provide 1.3 mg of iron too! Use them in smoothies, salad dressings or other raw recipes. A fourth of a cup of sunflower seeds provides 1.8 mg and the same amount of almonds gives you 1.3 mg.

Cashew butter (or cashew “cheese”) is a particularly rich source of iron. Three tablespoons contains up to 1.6 mg of iron!

I recommend that you stick with getting most of your iron from greens, fruit and vegetables and limit your fat intake on a raw food diet.

Sprouted Legumes

Chick peas (garbanzo beans) are a rich source of iron (as well as protein and calcium) and 1/2 cup will provide 6.2 mg of iron. You’ll need to sprout them first, which is an easy process and takes about 3-4 days. You can toss sprouted chickpeas in salads or make a raw hummus! Your hummus recipe will also call for sesame tahini too so you’ll have yourself a super iron-rich meal (also rich in calcium and protein).

Sprouted lentils are good sources of iron and just 1/4 cup provides 0.6 mg. Stir them in raw soups or mix into salads.

Iron-Rich Raw Chocolate

Sunfood brand raw cacao (chocolate) contains 56.6 milligrams of iron per one ounce serving, making it one of the richest sources of raw, plant-based iron I know of. However, I don’t recommend eating cacao on a regular basis due to the high fat content and stimulating effects it has.

Iron Supplements

Raw vegan men should have no problem meeting their recommended daily values of 14 mg of iron per day. Women, on the other hand, require more than double this amount and that can present a bit of a challenge. By eating some extra leafy greens, you should be able to get close to 33 mg per day, but a high-quality iron supplement might help you reach your target iron intake on a vegan diet. I recommend that you take a look at Vitamin Code Raw Iron supplements by Garden of Life. I am taking their Raw B12 supplements.

Just because you don’t eat red meat on a raw food diet doesn’t mean you’ll be iron-deficient. Include some of these foods in your daily meal plan.

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Tags: chick peas, dandelion, dandelion greens, diet, fennel, garbanzo beans, iron, kale, legumes, lentils, Nutrition, nuts, parsley, Raw Food Diet, raw food nutrition, romaine lettuce, seeds, spinach, sprouts, supplements, swiss chard, Vegan, zucchini