Hey guys,

For those of you suffering from anemia (like me), I wanted to share some foods that I've found helpful....

I came across 'blood pudding.' I've always found that it sounded nasty- but it's delish! I bought some today and sliced 'em up and ate 'em in a sandwich with just some butter, onions and plumped-up raisons...You can omit the raisons, if you want but I find that they complement the flavour nicely...My mom thinks I've got pica on account of the anemia because I'm putting raisons in everything...lol...The blood pudding is almost sweet, has a cinnamon aroma to it...

Another one, of course, is liver...I eat cow's liver....My boyfriend lived in India for 10-years, so we eat it curry-style...Fried onions, garlic, tumeric, curry, a small green chili and the liver fried and served with rice or flat bread....

Fresh figs...They're so good...You must try them if you haven't...I've only ever had dried figs...There's this new Chinese supermarket by my house and they have the fresh ones- only place in the neighbourhood that carries them...They're scrumptious...

Dried fruit and nuts...I boil almonds, cashews, whatever other nuts you've got on hand and raisons, dried apricots, dried peaches, figs...I boil 'em for 5-8 mins. then I take them off the heat and let them soak all night...The next day, you've got delicious juice and soft fruit and nuts to eat....

I've read that liver and blood pudding are also good for MG...I think that liver might contain a lot of Manganese...I'm going to double-check on google to be sure...

I wanted to also add Wheat germ...This is bad if you're gluten-sensitive, obvi..hehe...It's so nutritious and you only need to use a bit to get a lot of nutrients...It's loaded with vitamin E, iron, and B-vitamins...

Another good one is blackstrap molasses...It's strong in flavour, but very nutritious...Google it and check it out...

One problem with a lot of these foods, i just wanted to add, is that while they're really nutritious, they also tend to be fatty...So be careful if you're watching your cholesterol, especially with the liver and blood pudding...they're full of it...Cholesterol is good for nerve-to-muscle communication, so if you're on the low side (like me), you might not need to be too wary...The molasses and other sugary items might be bad if you're insulin-resistent...


Nicky

THank you for the info! I'm going to give them ALL a try!

Love,
Erin

Nicky
Great info, & very healthy! Love recipes !

Thanks, guys- I hope you like 'em...Some of them are an acquired taste (the blood-pudding isn't the most scrumptious), but it's for our good health, so it's worth a slight sour look...hehe

Hi Guys,

I wanted to resurrect this thread to bring up something that's sorta important...

Before my surgery, I was a bit anemic from frequent PLEX and an IViG treatment. After my surgery, I was extremely anemic. While it had started to improve a bit, it suddently started going down again, seemingly for no apparent reason. I was at 80 at one point for hemoglobin.

Anyway, I decided that I needed something fast, and started eating liver 3-times a week, as well as spinach and other veggies high in iron. I also took one tablet of Iron everyday along with vitamin C. My doc. said that it could take 6+ months to get my hemoglobin back to normal.

Anyway, and I think that I may have mentioned this before, my hemoglobin went back up to 120 about a month and a half after my previous blood tests. I was really shocked. My previous blood tests were not wrong, either. I had multiple other tests around the same time that reflected the same numbers.

I told my neuro. about it, and he said that this was impossible and my bone marrow must have been suppressed, and maybe started working again. I thought that this was a bit odd. When I brought it up to my hemotologist, he also agreed that this didn't make much sense and that even if it were true, my hemoglobin couldn't have gone back to normal in such a short period of time. My regular GP didn't seem to care one way or the other (as usual).

Anyway, I really think that it was the liver. Check out this link.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...51/ai_8199925/

So if you guys ever have issues with any type of anemia, eat liver. It is so nutritious. It is like a godsend.

it is true that liver is high in iron, but there other iron-rich foods.

and the liver is also full of every pesticide, hormone etc that the animal recived. it is basically the place where all the "junk" that enters our (or the animal's body) is being metabolized.

ground sesemea with a lot of lemon for instance, can give you a very good and digestible iron, without all this stuff.

spinach has a lot of iron, but is not well absorbed, so practically is is not an iron rich food. ( so forget about popeye).

alice

Nicky, I'm glad the anemia is better.

Here's another thought. Guess what they gave patients with a B12 deficiency before shots, or tablets, were available? Yup, liver. B12 is stored in the liver. Yes, it is where the body filters out a lot of the junk but it also has lots of good properties as well.

When I was deficient, I used liquid iron (small amounts) with vitamin C. Worked really well. Too much iron, though, and it can buildup and become toxic to you, so be careful.

Annie

Thanks for the info., Alice and Annie.

I agree that eating liver too often could be unhealthy because of the toxins, both from the usual accumulation of 'standard' toxins that living things are exposed to, but also from the 'extra' things that animals are exposed to like pesticides and stuff...

Sometimes I wonder if halal meat is exposed to the same types of antibiotics and pesticides that non-halal meat is. I gotta look into that. My BF is muslim, and he only eats Halal.

Thanks for the info. re. the b12, Annie. I was surprised when I came across that info. as well because I thought that the only way to treat pernicious anemia was through shots, or the liquid form. I think that liver can be great in times of illness, but only in small 'doses' because of the toxins thing. Actually, I had told me neuro. about the liver and he warned me that I might get jaundice if I eat it too much. I'm glad that didn't happen!

It's funny that you mention the build-up of iron thing. We just found out that on my dad's side, they are carriers of the hemochromatosis gene (heterozogytes sp.?). There are seriously waaaay too many weird diseases going on in our family!