What is a good source for iron?

[roitelet]

Blood meal is a source of nitrogen. You need BONE meal for iron.

[Martin H]

Hmm. The haemoglobin molecule has 1 Iron atom for every four Nitrogen atoms, so I'd have thought dried blood was a source of both?

[Bigmallly]

Confucius he say Blood for Iron & Bone Meal for Phosphorous..............

[Penellype]

As someone who did a university degree including biochemistry (albeit a long time ago), believe me, blood meal contains iron, bone meal contains calcium and phosphorus (phosphate - not quite the same thing as phosphorus, but the bag will say phosphorus).

The iron in blood meal is technically chelated iron, meaining it is a metal ion surrounded by an organic (in the chemistry sense) molecule, in this case a heme group (which contains nitrogen). The heme-iron complex is then wrapped inside a protein called globulin (more nitrogen in the protein) and 4 of these subunits stick together in a tetrahedral pyramid shape to make up what we regard as one haemoglobin molecule.

The hard structure of bone contains little iron because it does not contain much blood, although living bone will contain iron in the bone marrow. Bone is a complex construction of calcium and phosphorus in the form of hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) supported by protein, mainly collagen.

[Penellype]

I've just found this and thought you might find it interesting DWS

Organic And Inorganic Minerals

I bookmarked this earlier and have now read it. I may be wrong, but a lot of it looks like complete mumbo-jumbo to me. Think for a moment about what happens when you sweat. As well as losing a lot of water, you also lose salts (lick sweaty skin if you don't believe me). Athletes and animals such as racehorses, who lose a lot of sweat due to exertion, are given drinks with "electrolytes" in them to replace these salts. It is also wise to take electrolytes in extremely hot weather. These are inorganic chemicals in every sense of the word and include common salt (sodium chloride), amongst other things. These chemicals are vital for the correct functioning of the body at a cellular level and the best way to replace them when they are lost is to take them in their inorganic form. I'm not advocating drinking randomly salty water, but specially formulated electrolytes designed for this purpose.

On a different level, as someone who regularly suffers from anaemia (shortage of iron), leading to tiredness, pale lips, eyelids etc and general weakness, I can absolutely vouch for the effectiveness of iron supplements. While a placebo might make me feel better, it would be unlikely to affect the colour of my skin. The iron supplement I take is not powdered nails (metallic iron) it is ferrous iron (Iron II), which is (confusingly) a positively charged ion. Hardly surprisingly, the iron ion sitting in the centre of the haemoglobin molecule is also Iron II. My body seems perffectly capable of assimilating this iron supplement, which I am certain is artificially manufactured, and converting it into haemoglobin in my blood.