Diet to prevent Anemia

How to Create a Diet to Prevent Anemia
By an eHow Contributing Writer

People who eat balanced diets will rarely have problems with anemia. However, vegetarians, pregnant women and people with a history of blood problems need to take special care to create a diet to prevent anemia.

Learn to Create a Diet to Prevent Anemia

Step 1

Work eggs into your morning breakfast. You don't need to eat them every day, but three to four servings of eggs each week will help you get a host of vitamins that help prevent anemia, including about 10 percent of your daily value of vitamin B12 per egg.

Step 2

Eat red meat at least once a week if you've had problems with anemia in the past. Beef and other meats contain vitamin B12 and are excellent sources of iron, which is essential to prevent anemia.

Step 3

Create a few seafood meals to add more fish to your diet. Trout and salmon contain close to 100 percent of your daily value of vitamin B12. As an added benefit, fish contains omega-3 fatty acids, which is thought to be a natural treatment for attention deficit disorders.
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Step 4

Look for whole grain cereals that are fortified with vitamin B12 if you are a vegetarian. Also, some nutritional yeasts contain enough vitamins to make up for a lack of meat, fish and animal products in your diet. You can either cook with the yeast or use it as a condiment.

Step 5

Snack on fruits like raisins and dried figs to get a little bit of extra iron in your diet. Vegetarians may need to eat more iron-rich fruits than most people, since meat and animal products are the major sources of iron for many people.

Step 6

Talk to a dietitian if you want help to create a diet to prevent anemia. Your overall diet will have to be adjusted to account for the amount of physical exercise you get and your age.


Tips & Warnings

A glass of milk with dinner can help you get your vitamins on days that you aren't eating meat or fish.

Carefully read the ingredients of nutritional yeast to be sure it contains the vitamins you need. These yeasts are regulated as foods and are held to looser regulations than drugs and medications.

It can take several years of eating a vegetarian diet before vitamin storage is used up and anemia appears. Take early steps to create the proper nutritional diet.

Don't take iron supplements without consulting your doctor. Large amounts of iron can interfere with many other processes in your body.

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