I have suffered with low Iron for 9 (diagnosed) years, and probably many before then.
This is what a small scrape will look like only hours afterwards if my Iron is low. This scrape was barely noticable when it happened.
When I had our son, I had an emergency C-Section and bled aLOT on the table. I lost over 2.5 pints of blood. They wanted to give me blood and a transfusion, but I politely declined. I was also told that my Iron was 6 points too low, and if it did not improve within the next 48 hours I would NEED the transfusion.
Well, we set out to fix that in the next 24 hours I had eaten over 20 ounces of beef (EBERSOLE BEEF). I kept eating beef and everything green under the sun. Plenty of yogurt too, so that the Calcium would help me replentish my blood supply. My iron improved several points and I was allowed to go home (while nursing my son) and have my levels checked in 3 days. As long as I was able to keep increasing my levels, I would not need the transfusion.
Once we were home, My wonderful Husband cleaned out our deep freeze and found every last package of liver possible. (EWWW) I don't like liver, but I wanted to keep my body mine and not have a transfusion.
My doctors were impressed. That is an understatement. He asked me EXACTLY what was I doing and eating. I simply said beef, lots and lots of HOME RAISED beef! Wow, was he amazed. I don't have high cholesterol, and he now understood how..... HOME RAISED. He even went so far as to ask how we raised our cattle. He was happy to hear that we pastured our beef. huh??
What I didn't know then, was that he had been researching nutrition and the relationship to what each animal was fed. This led me to start doing some of my own research and observations.
When I am consistent with a low carb, high protein (MEAT) diet, I have NO iron issues. When I am off track, and we eat alot, and eat a ton of pasta.....IRON problems (like the one you see above).
So, if you have low iron, EAT MEAT, specifically home raised pastured beef!
Eat happy beef!
Shanen - Mama to the MamaCows at the Ebersole Ranch