pinkfrog , who told you you had an iron deficiency without giving you advice on how to remediate it? It seems like the reasonable thing to do is give the diagnoses and a list of iron rich foods simultaneously.
Stop drinking coffee. Caffeine interferes with iron absorption . Drink Milo or Ovaltine (whatever’s available in your area) instead - both are fortified with iron.
Many breakfast cereals are fortified with iron. Check the packets - Sultana Bran is a good one.
Cook with cast iron cookware, especially if you’re cooking with acidic foods like tomato.
Pate is great UNLESS YOU"RE PREGNANT, in which case, no.
FWIW, while B12 supplements* will not* help you unless you have a deficiency, it is available in a spray, that is absorbed through the nasal mucosa (in layman’s terms, you squirt it up your nose) as well as by injection.
Spinach is a very poor source of dietary iron- from Wiki:
*"In popular folklore, spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60 gram serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron (slightly more when eaten raw). A good many green vegetables contain less than 1 mg of iron for an equivalent serving. Hence spinach does contain a relatively high level of iron for a vegetable, but its consumption does not have special health connotations as folklore might suggest.
Ultimately, the bioavailability of iron is dependent on its absorption. This is influenced by a number of factors. Iron enters the body in two forms: nonheme iron and heme iron. All of the iron in grains and vegetables, and about three fifths of the iron in animal food sources (meats), is nonheme iron. The much smaller remaining portion from meats is heme iron (Williams, 1993).
This larger portion of dietary iron (nonheme) is absorbed slowly in its many food sources, including spinach. This absorption may vary widely depending on the presence of binders such as fiber or enhancers, such as vitamin C. Therefore, the body’s absorption of non-heme iron can be improved by consuming foods that are rich in vitamin C. However, spinach contains high levels of oxalate. Oxalates bind to iron to form ferrous oxalate and remove iron from the body. Therefore, a diet high in oxalate (or phosphate or phytate) leads to a decrease in iron absorption."*
From Iron on Wiki:
"Good sources of dietary iron include red meat, fish, poultry, lentils, beans, leaf vegetables, tofu, chickpeas, black-eyed peas, potatoes with skin, bread made from completely whole-grain flour, molasses, teff and farina. Iron in meat is more easily absorbed than iron in vegetables"
Kale is a low Oxalate plant:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cabi/bjn/2004/00000091/00000004/art00011
Abstract:
"The aim of the present study was to evaluate Mg absorption from a test meal served with an oxalate-rich vegetable, spinach, as compared with a test meal served with a vegetable with a low oxalate content, kale. Mg absorption was measured by a stable-isotope technique based on extrinsic labelling of the test meals and faecal monitoring of the excreted isotope labels. Nine healthy adults participated in the study. The test meals were based on 100 g phytate-free white bread, served with 300 g spinach (6·6 mmol oxalate; 0·7 mmol 25Mg label added, 5·0 mmol total Mg) or 300 g kale (0·1 mmol oxalate; 1·2 mmol 26Mg label added, 4·8 mmol total Mg). The test meals were served on days 1 and 3, at breakfast and lunch, using a cross-over design. The results from the present study demonstrated that apparent Mg absorption was significantly lower from the meal served with spinach (26·7 (sd 10·4) %) than the meal served with kale (36·5 (sd 11·8) %) (P=0·01). However, the lower fractional apparent Mg absorption from the test meal served with spinach can be assumed to be, at least partly, counterbalanced by the higher native Mg content of spinach as compared with kale. Although based on indirect evidence, i.e. not based on an evaluation of added (or removed) oxalic acid, the difference in Mg absorption observed in the present study is attributed to the difference in oxalic acid content between the two vegetables."
Thus, it would seem Kale is OK, but meat is better.
Vit B-12 is a problem in some Vegans and older dudes, and if you are either, you should *consider *a B-12 supplement. Cheap insurance. Yes, if you take a pill, much is lost but pill B-12 is so cheap you can afford the “wastage”.