Hey everyone,

I'm doing nine days of mono meals and I'm running low on my already low stores of iron. I know this because my gums are getting very light (as well as the insides of my eyelids). It's not extremely low, since I do have energy and I'm not having difficulty with oxygen while breathing.

According to Cron-o-meter, I am averaging about 4mg per day. Anyway, I don't want to stop my mono meals, since I don't think it's low enough to cause me a problem. However, I want to consume something to increase my iron while doing the mono meals. I thought about taking some iron supplements, but I'm wondering if that will bother my tummy when I'm not eating heavy foods. Does anyone know if it will?

Thanks!

Lots of love to you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Can you just eat some dried fruit per day or something?

There's no need to be short on any nutrients when eating raw foods (except possibly vitamin B12 which I choose to supplement). If you get tuned into your body signal it will let you know what foods are needed because it knows the food sources of the various nutrients it needs to be healthy. Eating a variety of raw foods is a very good idea. I eat small mono meals all day long with each mono meal consisting of a different food then the last meal. I usually eat fruits for the first part of my day and veggies including greens and seeds later in the day. For one of my veggie mono meals I like to put enough clean water + ice into my vitamix to cover the blades and turn it on and feed an entire bunch of spinach or some other green in through the top and blend it smooth. I like my foods as fresh as possible so as soon as my green drink is ready I drink it without delay or storage. You may want to look at including spinach and/or other greens in your diet for a test run to see how that makes you feel and also to see how that scores on Cron-o-meter. Good luck and keep listening to your body for good coaching.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/2008 09:36PM by EZ rider.

Wendi,

How is your calorie intake on this mono-meals? If you are eating too few calories, it could be that you are starting a detox/fasting reaction because of the reduced food intake.

Thanks, Utopian Life and EZ Rider. I'm doing a special 9-day mono meal thing right now, so I'm not interested in raisins (but I do like them when I'm not doing this). I do get a great variety in my normal raw diet, it's just right now while I'm doing this special 9 days that I was concerned about the iron. ;-)

Bryan,

You may be right, especially since I'm not feeling tired!! Except for the days when I've had the bananas, my calories are extremely low. So, did you mean the possible detox/fasting reaction could be causing the lighter color in my gums and insides of my eyelids? If so, then I'm not worried about the iron. :-) The only reason I asked is because I normally run low on iron and I don't want to get too low and then try to build it back up after the nine days (since my body doesn't absorb iron very well, yet).


Love,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Eat your greens!

I once read that if you take a real gold piece - of jewelry (or whatever) and rub it on your cheeks it will leave a black mark if you are low on iron. I have done it at various times and sometimes it leaves huge black marks on my face, and other times, nothing. I am just not sure of the correlation - whether or not the black marks truly mean low iron. But, you could try it. You can also google it to find out what the more details to the story, someone sent me the link but I know I don't have it anymore.

As far as getting iron rich foods, I don't really know of anything else other than the leafy greens. And, on the nine day mono eating, I can't imagine eating a full day of spinach!!

i know you're committed to the mono days, GA, but i would definitely incorporate some iron-rich food into my day before i took an iron supplement. all my personal experiences with iron supplements have been bad. i think they tax your body A LOT. just my opinion, of course! wishing you TONS Of good luck with this!

veggiefreak, that sounds really strange! I'll have to remember to check that out on the Net to see what it's all about.

maui_butterfly, I think I'm just going to not worry about it until the 9 days are over. Maybe I'll plan an iron-rich day, or two, following the mono meals to help just in case I am even lower with my stores of iron.

Thanks for the good luck!

Lots of love to all of you,

Wendi
XOXOXO

Butterfly - what do you mean when you say iron supplements 'tax' your body a lot?

In Canada, you can't get iron supplements over the counter because too much of the wrong kind of iron can actually kill you. There's also instances where the supplements collect in the body and don't get assimilated/flushed properly.

Funny to me, because I used to stock them in the aisles myself when I worked at a grocery store in the US...

Anyway, the more I learned about them, the less I wanted to put them into my body (even after I had a 33 day long period, which is why I started researching them). Lots of iron-rich foods, specifically greens, set me straight. >8)