Shake off your autumn fatigue, hair loss and dry skin!

Perhaps you're suffering from iron loss? It certainly wouldn't come as a surprise as it's common for young women to experience mild, temporary anaemia due to a lack of iron.

This can be partly due to an inappropriate diet (drastic dieting, inappropriate vegetarian or vegan dietary habits), yet it can also be related to pregnancy, blood loss due to your monthly period or even regular consumption of antacid drugs or calcium tablets.

Perhaps you should be getting a greater supply of iron?

If

• you often feel tired, lethargic, or have no appetite,
• your skin seems pale and lifeless,
• you have a greater tendency to attract diseases,
• you're losing hair,
• you often have extremely dry and chapped skin,
• you're always shivering and your limbs are cold,
• you often have headaches

these are all important signs that you should pay more attention to providing for enough iron.

Which non-animal foodstuffs contain a relatively high level of easily absorbed iron?

• legumes: beans, lentils, tofu
• spinach and sorrel: you can eat even more of these by cooking or baking them
• chia seeds: sprinkle some in your breakfast cereal or use them for a dessert
• sesame, flax and pumpkin seeds,
• walnuts, peanuts, almonds, pistachios

Also make sure to provide for a proper supply of Vitamin C, yet avoid caffeine-based beverages since the former facilitates and the latter hinders the absorption of iron.