How to incorporate more heme iron into your diet?

Instead of only relying on iron-rich vegetables like spinach and broccoli, start incorporating more heme iron sources to your diet to boost iron absorption. Common food sources high in heme iron include: red meats like beef, poultry, animal organs, seafood like clams, mussels, oysters, tuna and salmon. p.s. VEME Iron is the only plant-based source of heme iron, created by NUS researchers, friendly for all diet types!

How to easily sneak in more vitamin C into your meals without hassle

Drink a small glass of 100% orange juice alongside your iron-fortified breakfast cereal or bread.Squeeze fresh lime or lemon juice over iron-rich vegetables like spinach or beansprouts (e.g. in your laksa, hokkien mee or mee siam)Add vitamin C-rich ingredients like raw bell peppers and tomatoes as toppings to your salads or in your stir-fried vegetable dishes.p.s. Vitamin C is heat-sensitive and will be degraded during the cooking process, so it is best to add it raw or at the very end of cooking for maximum boost!

What this means for your diet

Avoid drinking coffee, tea, or red wine together with your iron‑rich meals or supplements. Try spacing them out by about 2 hours to give your body the best chance to absorb the iron.The good news: polyphenols mainly interfere with non‑heme iron (from plants and most supplements). Heme iron (from meat and seafood) is much less affected, so enjoying these drinks with a heme iron‑rich meal is usually fine.

The right way to consume both calcium and iron effectively

Avoid taking calcium supplements or consuming dairy (milk, cheese, yoghurt) alongside your iron-rich plant foods or iron supplements. If you need both, space them out by 2 hours so that you can still get the benefits of calcium without sacrificing your iron intake.Heme iron (mostly found in meat and seafood) is much less affected, so pairing them with calcium-rich foods is usually less problematic.

But I need my fiber as much as I need my iron… so what should I do?

You don’t need to avoid these foods completely. Try soaking beans overnight, or fermenting bread (like sourdough) which will break down phytates and free up more iron.Pairing plant‑based meals with vitamin C‑rich foods (like citrus or bell peppers) also helps counteract the effect.As with polyphenols and calcium, phytates also mainly only interfere with non-heme iron, and not heme iron, so it is not a major concern if you’re mostly getting your iron from animal sources.