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Top 5 Common Food Sources of Iron
Looking to meet your iron needs from your diet? Look no further! My team and I have crunched the numbers and did all the math to determine the top 5 common food sources of iron, per serving. Getting iron from our diet through healthy eating is important since a large collection of studies show that getting nutrients from dietary supplements doesn’t improve health outcomes compared to getting nutrients from foods!
| Rank | Food | Nutrivore Score | Serving Size (Raw) | Iron (mg/serving) | % Daily Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soybeans, Mature Seeds | 326 | 1/2 cup | 14.6 | 81 |
| 2 | Liver, Average1 | 4192 | 3.5 oz / 100 g | 13.4 | 74 |
| 3 | Coconut Milk or Cream2 | 175 | 1 cup | 6.5 | 36 |
| 4 | Octopus, Common | 1618 | 4 oz / 115 g | 6.1 | 34 |
| 5 | Oysters, Average3 | 2759 | 4 oz / 115 g | 5.9 | 33 |
2Coconut milk or cream is an average of canned coconut milk and coconut cream.
3Oysters, average includes Eastern (farmed and wild) and Pacific oysters.
Want to know more about this important mineral including what iron does in the body, how many mg of iron we need, what happens if we have low iron levels or if we get too much, and even more awesome food sources of iron? Keep reading to learn all there is to know!
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What Is Iron and What Does It Do?
Iron is an essential mineral that all living organisms require for metabolism. In foods, it’s present either in the form of heme (an iron-containing precursor to hemoglobin) or non-heme (the form predominant in plant foods and dairy). It’s needed for the functioning of numerous proteins involved in energy metabolism, electron transport, DNA replication and repair, free radical scavenging, oxidation, and oxygen transport and storage!
Iron plays an important role in reproductive health, central nervous system development, healthy gestation, and immunity. Both too much and too little iron are associated with health issues: excess free iron (often a result of inherited iron storage disorders) can cause cellular damage, oxidative stress, organ damage, and an increased risk of cancer and heart disease. Meanwhile, too little can lead to iron deficiency anemia—causing symptoms like fatigue, heart palpitations, and impaired thyroid function.
Learn more about iron here.
Iron Deficiency
Iron deficiency is the most widespread nutrient deficiency in the world, affecting up to 2 billion people globally! A 2011 study evaluated American’s usual nutrient intake including nutrients that are naturally-occurring in foods, from fortified and enriched foods, and from supplements. The results indicated that 23.1% of American adults usual diet falls short of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for iron intake.
Groups At Risk
Those at risk of iron deficiency include:
- Children and adolescents
- Frequent blood donors
- Menstruating or pregnant individuals (nearly 1 in 5 pregnant people are iron deficient)
- Individuals experiencing chronic blood loss, often from gastrointestinal bleeding due to numerous reasons including parasite infection, peptic ulcers, gastrointestinal tumors, hiatal hernia, diverticulosis, chronic kidney disease, and even heavy endurance exercise
- Individuals with impaired absorption of iron including those with celiac disease, atrophic gastritis, or inflammatory bowel diseases
- Vegetarians and vegans (due to the lower bioavailability of plant-based iron sources)
- Individuals with chronic inflammation as seen in cancer, critical illness, chronic infection, or other inflammatory disorders
Learn more here.
Symptoms of Deficiency
Early stage iron deficiency (when iron stores are low but the functional supply is still sufficient) initially shows no obvious symptoms, but as it progresses to anemia, it can cause fatigue, rapid heart rate, and difficulty breathing. Reduced hemoglobin and myoglobin levels impair oxygen delivery, lowering physical performance and affecting thyroid function. Iron deficiency can also cause brittle nails, mouth sores, and, in severe cases, difficulty swallowing. For young children, iron deficiency is linked to cognitive and behavioral issues, while in pregnant women, it can lead to shorter gestation and low birth-weight newborns.
Learn more here.
Problems From Too Much Iron
While iron is essential, excess iron can lead to serious health issues, especially for individuals with genetic disorders like hereditary hemochromatosis, which causes iron to accumulate in vital organs, increasing the risk of liver disease, heart issues, and diabetes. Other genetic and acquired conditions, such as beta-thalassemia and sideroblastic anemia, impacting hemoglobin and red blood cells, also result in iron overload. Even without these conditions, high iron intake, particularly heme iron, has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease. Acute iron toxicity, often from accidental overdose, can cause severe symptoms and even be fatal, especially in young children.
Learn more here.
How Much Iron Do We Need?
The following table summarizes the current recommended amounts of iron, based on age, gender, or situation. Because vegetarian and vegan diets predominantly contain the less bioavailable type of iron (nonheme) found in plant-based foods, it’s recommended that people who don’t eat meat aim for about 1.8 times the normal iron RDA.
It’s also important to note that iron has some interactions with other nutrients including vitamin A, copper, zinc, and vitamin C. Learn more here.
| 0 – 6 months | |||||
| 6 months to < 12 months | |||||
| 1 yr – 3 yrs | |||||
| 4 yrs – 8 yrs | |||||
| 9 yrs – 13 yrs | |||||
| 14 yrs – 18 yrs | |||||
| 19 yrs – 50 yrs | |||||
| 51+ yrs | |||||
| Pregnant (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Pregnant (31 – 50 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (14 – 18 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (19 – 30 yrs) | |||||
| Lactating (31 – 50 yrs) |
Nutrient Daily Values
Nutrition requirements and recommended nutrient intake for infants, children, adolescents, adults, mature adults, and pregnant and lactating individuals.
More Food Sources of Iron
Food can contain one of two forms of iron: iron as a component of heme (a precursor to hemoglobin) or nonheme iron (the predominant form in plant foods and dairy, although it’s also present in meat).
Heme iron is significantly more bioavailable than nonheme iron. In fact, only about 2 – 20% of nonheme iron is absorbed, although the actual amount depends on a variety of factors. For example, vitamin C strongly enhances nonheme iron absorption, as do fermented foods and alcohol. A peptide in meat—called the meat-fish-poultry-factor—enhances the absorption of any nonheme iron present in the meal, while phytic acid (such as from grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds) and polyphenols (such as from tea, coffee or dark chocolate) can bind to nonheme iron, forming insoluble complexes that can’t enter intestinal cells. And, while meat contains both heme and nonheme iron, its heme iron can get converted to nonheme during extended high-temperature cooking, reducing its bioavailability!
Heme iron-rich foods include liver, red meat, and some shellfish (especially oysters, mussels, and clams). The best sources of iron in its non-heme form include plant sources such as dark leafy greens, legumes (such as lentils, kidney beans, peas, white beans, and chickpeas), dried fruits such as apricots and raisins, and blackstrap molasses. And, some foods that normally have a low iron content are commercially iron-fortified, such as breakfast cereals and whole grains.
Best Food Sources of Iron
The following foods have high concentrations of dietary iron, containing at least 50% of the recommended dietary allowance per serving, making them our best food sources of this valuable mineral!
Good Food Sources of Iron
The following foods are also excellent or good sources of iron, containing at least 10% (and up to 50%) of the daily value per serving.
Top 5 Common Food Sources
If you’re looking for top 5 common food sources of other important nutrients check out these posts!
cITATIONS
Expand to see all scientific references for this article.
Fulgoni VL 3rd, Keast DR, Bailey RL, Dwyer J. Foods, fortificants, and supplements: Where do Americans get their nutrients? J Nutr. 2011 Oct;141(10):1847-54. doi: 10.3945/jn.111.142257. Epub 2011 Aug 24. PMID: 21865568; PMCID: PMC3174857.
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