Best Iron Rich Foods
IRON
Going through puberty means your reproductive system has begun to function. Or is soon about to.
Iron is a mineral that’s especially important for girls because of menstruation (having your period).
Beginning to have periods means that your reproductive system has begun to function. The tiny eggs contained in your two reproductive organs (called ovaries) have begun to mature. Your period can start anytime between about the ages of nine and sixteen.
When you’re having a period, which lasts a few days, a small amount of bloody fluid trickles out of your vagina, which is an opening very close to where urine comes out of your body.
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Once it starts and becomes regular, most girls have a period once a month until the age of about fifty That’s when having periods stops (menopause).
HOW THIS RELATES
Iron is part of a compound in your blood (hemoglobin) that carries oxygen to every cell of the body. When blood is lost through having your period each month, the iron has to be replaced. Your body needs the raw material (iron) to re-create hemoglobin.
But your body can’t make iron for itself. When you’re not getting enough iron, you feel tiredlacking in energy.
Cooked dry beanslike black beans, kidney beans, and pinto beanscontain iron. Chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lentils, soybeans, seeds, firm tofu, and certain dark vegetableslike spinach, collard greens, and kaleall contain iron.
Lean red meat (especially beef) is a good source of iron. It’s also in shellfish, sardines, and dark turkey meat. And there are other good sources, such as iron-fortified breads and cereals (and in daily [complete] multivitamin/multimineral supplements for kids).
Getting plenty of sleepand still feel groggy? Nodding off in class? Talk to your pediatrician.
Many, many teen girls are short on iron.
Besides fatigue (being tired), not enough iron (called iron deficiency) causes shortened
attention span. It gets in the way of your intellectual performance, reduces your body’s ability to fight off infections, and makes you less able to do work.
F.Y.I. ANEMIA
Long-term deficiency in iron may result in anemia, which is when your blood doesn’t have enough hemoglobin in it to carry the amount of oxygen required by your cells.
