Suffering from iron deficiency - ex-Tea Addict

I went to give my 55th pint of blood on Monday, but got turned away for the first time. I've got a low haemoglobin count, apparently it can happen if you regularly donate and don't have the right diet. Recently they have allowed men to give every 4 months (it used to be 6) so I probably don't have enough time in-between to replenish my iron stores.

It's nothing to worry about medically, my result was 134 g/l and the cut off is 135, so I'm not aneamic, it just prevents me donating.

I've been given a leaflet of things to eat to boost my iron stores. This is what I have learnt: the best source of iron is red meat which I hardly ever have, other things I eat in abundance like cereals & veggies but these are more difficult to adsorb. Drinking tea at the same time blocks the body's ability to adsorb iron.

So I'm giving up tea at mealtimes, it's tough yesterday I only had three mugs. Mrs JWK is cooking me roast beef this weekend and I have requested fried liver another night - this might make up for the lack of tea!

Also I have to change my GC status to ex-Tea addict

 

Me too until Monday! You ladies are already at a disadvantage, going by what I've read your iron stores are normally lower than men's anyway.

I'm going to have to find another avatar now as well

 

I don't really know, the leaflet doesn't mention coffee, I only drink tea and I'm only finding out stuff on the web by googling. I think one web site said the problem with tea is the tannins which I think you don't get in coffee?

 

No I don't think decaff makes any difference. I have been trying to find out more and Wikipedia threw this up:

So coffee is bad :(

Also I hadn't clicked milk was just as bad, I have that with my cereal in the morning. At this rate I'm going to be on a beef and water diet!

 

It might be worth cutting down for a week or two to see if it helps.

Sorry!