"You'd need to drink three pints of Guinness to provide the same amount of iron as a single egg yolk (1.1mg), and alcohol is not good for babies. A pint of Guinness contains 0.3mg of iron, less than three per cent of daily adult needs. Put another way, you'd need to drink 15 pints of Guinness to get the same amount of iron as two Weetabix. " (taken from the daily mail so it must be true!)
But it's also in the Times: "Guinness contains no more iron than most other beers, and that's precious little - a mere 0.3 milligrams a pint, compared with 1.1 milligrams in an egg and a whopping 4.2 milligrams in a bowl of Weetabix. "
I also read ages ago that there is way more iron in 100g of dried apricots (3.4g) than in a pint of guiness so that's a no brainer for me since I hate guiness!!!
Spinach is an interesting one. I'm not an expert so I can only go on what I read but the way I understand it, it's got iron in just like any other green leafy vegetable, but it's not the best source of iron because it also contains oxalic acid which is an iron absorption inhibitor. See here.
Bottom line, spinach is good for you cos it's a green leafy vegetable, but there are better sources of iron. I've got a load of chick peas in my salad and I'm making a big chilli this evening, so that should sort me out.
and anyway, I hate the horrid ad-speak "up to" 40% in their article. Where do RW get their info? Pill makers? A cursory search of the web throws up a scientific paper from 1989 that studies male/female runner/non-runner with/without iron supplements that concluded that "the runner's iron status is similar to that of the general population." If they have better or more recent info they should tell us, else we can't distinguish what they say from hearsay like the Popeye spinach myth.
Spinach may contain oxalic acid but around 50% is still available as iron it has alot of other nutrients which make it a useful food.
there are alot of myths about food and alot of confusion and alot of the reserch is biased - ie towards whoever is funding it there are many clever ways of designing experiments to give you results that you want
me - vegan who was ironed up enough to be accepted as a blood donor so therefore NOT anaemic and I don't tend to use suppliments
A friend of mine was diagnosed as borderline anaemic but not low enough to be prescribed iron tablets. Instead the dr told her to make sure she ate some chocolate everyday. She interprereted that as a licence to snarf down curlywurlys - although I'm not sure that's exactly what he meant, apparently it did the trick.
We did wonder at the time...however that was 20 years ago and she's not dead yet! . I think the dr had plain chocolate in mind, which does. Stuff here for anyone who's interested http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/irondeficiency/
I hadn't noticed any symptons, but was diagosed as anemic after attempting to give blood, Doc the put me on Iron tablets..... and my running improved, e.g. my half marathon PB reduced from 2'10 to 1'53. Felt as if I was taking performance enhancing drugs!!! Where is the boundary between medication and cheating?
The boundary in this case is that a deficiency is being corrected. More iron on top of that doesn't make you even better and can actually be bad for you.
Comments
Don't forget a pint of the black stuff
http://www.fitandtrim.co.uk/calories_guinness.html
Extreme violence and an anorexic girlfriend ?
There's hardly any iron in guiness - it's a myth!
"You'd need to drink three pints of Guinness to provide the same amount of iron as a single egg yolk (1.1mg), and alcohol is not good for babies. A pint of Guinness contains 0.3mg of iron, less than three per cent of daily adult needs. Put another way, you'd need to drink 15 pints of Guinness to get the same amount of iron as two Weetabix. " (taken from the daily mail so it must be true!)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1222684/Dont-believe-say--Guinness-isnt-good-you.html#ixzz16wxSL5pb
But it's also in the Times: "Guinness contains no more iron than most other beers, and that's precious little - a mere 0.3 milligrams a pint, compared with 1.1 milligrams in an egg and a whopping 4.2 milligrams in a bowl of Weetabix. "
I also read ages ago that there is way more iron in 100g of dried apricots (3.4g) than in a pint of guiness so that's a no brainer for me since I hate guiness!!!
I would rather drink 15 pints of guinness than eat two weetabixs or an egg
Spinach is an interesting one. I'm not an expert so I can only go on what I read but the way I understand it, it's got iron in just like any other green leafy vegetable, but it's not the best source of iron because it also contains oxalic acid which is an iron absorption inhibitor. See here.
Bottom line, spinach is good for you cos it's a green leafy vegetable, but there are better sources of iron. I've got a load of chick peas in my salad and I'm making a big chilli this evening, so that should sort me out.
Spinach may contain oxalic acid but around 50% is still available as iron it has alot of other nutrients which make it a useful food.
there are alot of myths about food and alot of confusion and alot of the reserch is biased - ie towards whoever is funding it there are many clever ways of designing experiments to give you results that you want
me - vegan who was ironed up enough to be accepted as a blood donor so therefore NOT anaemic and I don't tend to use suppliments