Today, I’ll be sharing about a nutrient that has changed my life in a way. It is none other than iron! We’ve always heard about “iron is good for you” and “eat your spinach” but I always neglected this advice purely because I was too lazy to care. I mean as long as I’m eating vegetables, meat and carbs, everything should be fine right?

Why I Started Paying Attention to Iron

Well, I recently started incorporating iron into my diet to help with the dreaded time of the month. As months and years passed, it has gotten very difficult for me during this time. I get very intense cramps and I can’t even do anything other than lay in bed. I feel so weak and tired, my back hurts like I just fell from a height and my bones just feel so heavy.

Discovering How Matcha Affected My Symptoms

Over the past few months, I have been drinking a lot of matcha and I noticed that whenever I had matcha around this time, I tend to feel weaker and almost fainted a few times. Then I started researching. I thought matcha was supposed to be good for me. Turns out, matcha apparently has compounds in it that inhibits iron absorption, which is extremely important during this phase. I was also scrolling on Tiktok to find recipes and suggestions on foods I should be eating during the menstrual phase. I came across many different suggestions: cranberry juice, spinach, steak and spearmint tea among many others. I wanted to find a solution from food rather than only relying on Tylenol to ease the pain. I also needed something easy and accessible to bring for my lunch at work so that I knew I would still benefit from the nutrients of my meal.

My Simple Iron-Rich Steak Lunch

This led me to make a simple steak lunch. I cut up a ribeye steak into cubes, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and cooked them on a pan until they were seared well. I also cooked some spinach on the pan with salt, pepper and garlic powder for taste. It didn’t seem like much. When I opened my lunchbox at work the next day, it seemed really small and little. You know how spinach gets, you put a bunch in and it becomes a tablespoon’s worth. Nevertheless, I ate it all and it was surprisingly delicious and filling. I had somehow successfully cooked the steak cubes such that it was soft and not too tough on the inside while still making sure that there was a good sear on the outside, giving it a nice grilled flavor. The spinach was lightly seasoned and gave a very relaxing touch to the meal. After a few days of having this meal, I realized that my cramps had significantly reduced to a day or two (usually it’s multiple days) and I felt energetic too! Of course, I still went through the typical pain in the first few days but I felt an energy boost in general.

How To Boost Iron Absorption

I also read somewhere that having Vitamin C together with iron helps to increase iron absorption so that’s exactly what I did too. I had either orange juice or ate a mandarin before my meals to ensure any iron in there was getting absorbed better by my body. I have also stopped drinking matcha lattes during the menstrual phase and opted for juices and mild tea instead. I’m going to have to continue trying this over the next few months to see how I feel but I’m already feeling amazing!

Honoring Women’s Health Through Food

Women’s health has become so important to me in my own personal journey with food because a lot of the routine diets out there don’t suit our changing hormones. Each week of the month feels entirely different based on the phase of menstrual cycle I’m in and this directly affects my mood, behavior, energy and outlook on life. Over the past few months, I have learnt to detach myself from the strict diets that people online promote and have been trying to listen to my body and provide it with the nutrients it needs. While I only talked about my menstrual phase in this post, I will touch on the different phases in future posts whenever I have something insightful to share. My goal is to make it easier for women to approach food so that we can all enhance our quality of life by honoring our bodies the way we were made. Going through this journey has made me so grateful to Allah because He has provided us with many different ways to treat our bodies and different foods that cater to our specific needs. Even a few changes like the ones I made (eating more iron-rich foods) has helped me tremendously. I hope that this encourages you to explore with food and find out what suits your body the best while allowing you to enjoy the taste too! Till next time!

Love Noor ❤