Hi there, I'm Stella Metsovas and today, we're going to talk about two types of iron for human consumption. Iron one of the most abundant metals on earth is essential to most life forms and to normal human physiology. In humans, iron is an essential component of proteins involve in oxygen transport. It is also essential for the regulation of cell growth. A deficiency of iron limits oxygen delivery to cells resulting in fatigue, poor work performance and decrease immunity. You also want to be careful though of excess amounts of iron. So, the two types of iron are heme iron and non-heme iron. Heme iron can be found in a variety of foods coming from animals that contain hemoglobin. Beef, fish and chicken are all examples. Hemoglobin is a protein that exists within the red blood cells and it's job is to get oxygen to other cells throughout the body. Heme iron is the type of most easily absorbed by the body. Non-heme iron is a chemical unit that exists in foods obtain from plant life. The non-heme iron is found in plant foods such as lentils, beans and strawberries. And by the way, heme actually means "haima" in Greek, which is blood.
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