Best Foods to Fight Anemia - Ms. Ranjani Raman

Usually people with low haemoglobin count will see symptoms such as weakness, tiredness, absent mindedness, headache, low immunity etc, this happens when the blood cells do not contain sufficient haemoglobin, which is an iron containing protein, whose function is to carry oxygen within our body. Hence it is important to provide the body with the right food sources that can increase our haemoglobin count. We need to include a lot of iron rich foods, such as green leafy vegetables, kale, curry leaves, coriander, or other leaves that can be included atleast twice a week. Also other vegetables can be included such as broccoli beetroot, mushrooms, or even red bell peppers, usually the colourful vegetables. Some of the iron rich fruits are pomegranate, pineapple. Apple and one should try to consume atleast 1 fruit each day. Dry fruits such as apricots, figs, dates are extremely important in improving the iron content. Care should be taken to avoid certain foods that actually block iron absorption such as coffee, tea, alcohol aerated drinks. Protein sources such as pulses, dals, eggs, chicken and nuts should also be included because as we know haemoglobin is an iron containing protein and we should not ignore the protein component. Research indicates that vitamin C is also very important to synthesise red blood cells and also to absorb iron. So we should include good citrus fruits like mosambi, orange, kiwi, strawberry, tomatoes, amlas and papayas. The simplest way is to drizzle some lemon to your food whenever you have a chance or drink a glass of lemon water after your meals. Folic acid which is a B vitamin is also required to make red blood cells and if one is deficient in folic acid, that may also lead to low haemoglobin levels. So we need to include good sources of folic acid such as broccoli, groundnuts, organs, bananas. Other than food sources it is important to include some cardio exercise because when there is a demand for oxygen the body is forced to prepare more red cells which in turn increase our haemoglobin levels. So we say that haemoglobin formation is a complex process and involves various nutrients that work together as a team. It is important that we value our body and provide the right kind of nutrition and varieties of food so that it can cater to the needs of the body’s complex processes.