A fast refresher: Heme and non-heme iron come from totally different sources. Heme iron comes from animal sources (assume meat, fish, and poultry), whereas non-heme iron comes from each crops and animals. The latter just isn’t absorbed within the physique fairly as simply as animal-sourced iron.
So in case your food plan consists of primarily plant-sources, you could have a little bit of a more durable time absorbing the quantity of iron your physique wants. Nonetheless, there’s one important nutrient that may help this course of: vitamin C.
Vitamin C helps to improve the bioavailability of non-heme iron. Translation? The presence of vitamin C makes non-heme iron extra simply accessible for the physique to soak up and use.*
Moreover, vitamin C optimizes the uptake of iron from transferrin (the protein that transports iron by means of the blood), making certain that iron is absorbed not solely correctly however effectively distributed within the physique as effectively.* Fairly cool, proper?
