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Top Iron-Rich Foods for Vegetarians: Boost Your Health

A balanced diet is a basic essential to maintain the healthy body. We need equal amounts of vitamins, proteins, minerals and nutrients to meet the basic requirements of the body. Iron for example is an essential nutrient that is important for the production of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood. There are many foods that meet these criteria. However, very few foods fall under the list of vegans diet.

Iron is required by the body and if you are a vegetarian, you need to increase the intake of iron. Iron comes in two sources, heme (meat and egg) or non-heme (plant). Scarcity of iron can be really harmful for the health as it causes anemia.

If you are a vegetarian, there are few veggie iron rich foods that you can include in your diet. When iron rich foods are consumed with Vitamin C, the iron is easily absorbed by the body. Green leafy vegetables like spinach, collard greens, kale etc are few healthy iron rich foods that are ideal for vegetarians. Check out the list of iron rich foods that can be included in the vegetarians diet.

Iron rich foods for vegans:

Spinach

This superfood is packed with iron and antioxidants that are required by the body.

Potato

The widely used vegetable is served in many cuisines. If you are a vegetarian, have this iron rich food in your diet.

Dried tomatoes

Sun dried tomatoes are used as toppings over salad, pastas and omelette. A cup of sun dried tomatoes contain 20 percent iron.

Kale

Kale is an alternative for beef. If you are a vegan, you must have kale. This food is considered to contain more iron than beef!

Legumes

A vegetarian diet contains healthy legumes that are rich in iron and other nutrients. Beans and lentils are not only delicious but healthy foods too!

Collards

It is one of the foods that is rich in iron. Include this vegetable in your vegan diet to get the iron supplement in the body.

Dried apricots

Dried apricots contain non-heme iron which makes it healthy and rich in iron.

Chickpeas

We all love to eat chickpeas. This legume is one of the rich sources of iron.

Tofu

If you are on a diet, you can have this calcium, iron and vitamin rich low fat tofu in your vegan diet.

Pumpkin seeds

To prevent anemia and balance the intake of iron in the body, have roasted pumpkin seeds.