3.How Much Do You Need?
If you’re a man, you should get about 8 milligrams (mg) per day. If you’re a woman 19 to 50 years old, you need more than double that: about 18 mg per day. That jumps to 27 mg if you’re pregnant and drops to 10 mg if you’re breastfeeding. After age 50, women’s needs drop to the same as men: 8 mg per day.
4.What If You’re Vegetarian or Vegan?
Your body doesn’t absorb iron from vegetables as easily as it does from animal protein like fish, chicken, and meat. That’s why vegetarians or vegans should almost double the daily iron amount that doctors recommend for meat eaters. That’s 14 mg for men, and 32 mg for women age 19-50. You can do it if you eat a varied diet and get plenty of vitamin C (in foods including oranges, red peppers, strawberries, and broccoli), which helps your body absorb the iron.
