While infants and young children should gain dietary iron from foods in small increments, adults can improve their mineral levels in greater leaps. You can safely choose foods that are high in iron to arrive at an average 18 mg daily value, the allowance recommended by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Iron-rich foods frequently contain additional important nutrients, so go ahead and eat plenty of them. According to the National Institutes of Health, ingesting as much as 45 mg of iron won't cause health problems. In fact, your body may well absorb less of the total iron content in the foods that you eat, especially those that come from plant food sources.
Shellfish
Shellfish contain much more dietary iron than crustaceans or fish, with canned clams topping the list at 24 mg in 3 oz. These minimally processed food sources clear away the nonedible portions, concentrating their mineral compositions. Compare them to raw clams, which provide 12 mg in 3 oz. Raw or cooked oysters have about half of that iron content in similar serving portions, according to the USDA Nutrient Database.
Meats
Organ meats are rich in iron, with other cuts providing moderate mineral amounts, the USDA reports. Chicken and turkey giblets deliver 10 to 11 mg of easily absorbable heme iron, the type that comes from animal-based food sources.
A 3-oz. serving of cooked beef liver and pork liver sausage, or braunschweiger, provides 5 to 6 mg. Organ meat and corn flour ingredients contribute to 6 mg of iron found in corndogs, while hamburgers made from beef chuck also represent iron-rich foods.
Fortified Cereals
Among plant-based foods that contain nonheme dietary iron, which is less easily absorbed, enriched cereals provide the most mineral content. Manufacturers typically fortify ready-to-eat whole-wheat, rice, corn and oat cereals with large amounts of iron.
Cereals that need cooking may not be enriched, so check the package labels. Many fortified cereals offer from 20 to 100 percent of the FDA-recommended daily value of iron.
Legumes
Non-meat food sources of iron are important to maintaining a varied diet. The NIH suggests legumes such as soybeans, with 9 mg, lentils with 7 mg, and kidney beans with 5 mg, for their high iron content in 1 cup cooked. The USDA includes chickpeas, black-eyed peas and other types of cooked dry peas and beans on the high-content list.
Leafy Greens
You can round out your meals with healthy vegetables that are high in dietary iron by choosing dark, leafy greens. Spinach, turnip greens and beet greens all contain 3 mg or greater iron content, per the USDA.
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