Summary
Here is our list of top iron snacks. Keep reading to learn why you should incorporate iron snacks into your routine, to learn more about each snack, and to see how you can improve your iron absorption from these snacks.
- Dark Chocolate (12 mg iron per 100 g serving)
- Pumpkin Seeds (8 mg iron per 100 g serving)
- Cashews (7 mg iron per 100 g serving)
- Sesame Sticks (5 mg iron per 100 g serving)
- Beef Liver (5 mg iron per 100 g serving)
Why are High Iron Snacks Important?
With many people needing additional iron in their diet, high iron snacks are a great way to get extra iron. Moreover, spreading out your iron intake can increase absorption. Eating these foods can help you build healthy blood, increase ferritin levels, and feel your best.
What is a High Iron Snack?
In this post, we've considered any food that would be reasonably eaten between meals or on-the-go. Using data from the US government (with links below), we've evaluated how many mg of iron is in a typical serving size of each food. From this info, we've compiled our list of the best high iron snacks based on the iron content and the flavor.
Dark Chocolate is the Most High Iron Snack
It may be surprising to see that dark chocolate, at 11.9 mg of iron per 100 g serving, is the highest iron snack. This is because cacao, the main ingredient in dark chocolate, is very rich in iron. However, the same 100 g serving of dark chocolate will come with about 600 calories and a whopping 43 g of fat, so it's best to moderate your chocolate snacking and incorporate dark chocolate along with the other snacks on this list.
Pumpkin Seeds are a Very High Iron Snack
The second highest-iron snack is pumpkin seeds, or pepitas, which offer 8.1 mg of iron per 100 g serving. But this 100 g serving of pumpkin seeds will also add up to 570 calories and a staggering 49 g of fat, so you should treat pumpkin seeds similar to dark chocolate as a source of iron to enjoy in small doses.
Cashews have the Most Iron of any Nut
The third highest-iron snack is cashes, which offer 6.7 mg iron per 100 g serving. Yet the trend shown above continues here, as a 100 g serving of cashes also brings 550 calories and 44 g of fat. For all these high-fat and high-iron snacks, we advise you to stick to a roughly 1-oz portion to get a nice source of iron without all the fat or calories.
Sesame Sticks are a Good High Iron Snack
Sesame sticks offer a solid mix of high iron levels and healthy eating. Sesame sticks offer 4.8 mg of iron per 100 g serving, along with 530 calories and 37 g of fat. They can be used for a more filling snack that provides a good dose of iron without bringing as much fat as the options listed above.
Liver is the Healthiest High Iron Snack
If you are not vegetarian, and you can get over the taste, liver is the best high iron snack. Liver provides 4.9 mg of iron and 20.4 g protein per 100 g serving, along with only 135 calories and 3.6 g of fat. Liver is also rich in other vitamins and minerals, which can help iron to support healthy blood.
Drink Orange Juice with your High Iron Snack
For all of these snacks, what's most important is not how much iron you ingest, but how much iron you absorb. To boost absorption, have a glass of orange juice (or any other strong source of vitamin C) with your high iron snack. Vitamin C has been shown to improve iron absorption by delivering it to absorption sites in the small intestine.
Can Iron Deficiency be Fixed with High Iron Snacks?
As shown above, high iron snacks can provide around 3-5 mg of iron in each healthy serving size. This represents 15-25% of the 18 mg of iron that is recommended to be included as part of a healthy diet. Despite that, people with iron deficiency typically need more than 18 mg of iron per day, meaning that it will be hard to fix iron deficiency with iron snacks alone.
Are there any High Iron Drinks?
Something we haven't yet discussed is high iron drinks. These can be used with your high iron snacks, or in between them. The team of doctors and nutrition experts at Smart Eats has developed protein and electrolyte powders that are excellent sources of highly absorbed iron. Check our our products to see if they can help compliment your dietary iron intake.
Nutrition Data
- Dark Chocolate (USDA Food Data Central)
- Pumpkin Seeds (USDA Food Data Central)
- Cashews (USDA Food Data Central)
- Sesame Sticks (USDA Food Data Central)
- Beef Liver (USDA Food Data Central)
