Is Broccoli High In Iron?

Broccoli is a great source of iron, not just because it has a high iron content, but also because of its high vitamin C content that helps absorb the iron even better.

A 3.5 oz (100 g) serving of broccoli has 4 percent of RDA for women and 9 percent for men. It also has 107 percent of your RDA for vitamin C!

Broccoli is also rich in fiber, vitamins K and A, folate, and potassium. As a result, eating broccoli helps improve your digestive health and reduces your risk of high blood pressure and strokes.

How much iron is in broccoli?

Standard broccoli that you can find in your supermarket contains 0.73 mg of iron per 3.5 oz or 100 g. A cup of broccoli (156 g) therefore has around 1 mg of iron or around 5% of the recommended daily iron intake for women and 12% for men.

Keep reading to see how much iron Raab broccoli and Chinese broccoli have as well as if you can intake too much iron from eating broccoli.

Can you get enough iron from eating broccoli?

A single one-cup serving of cooked broccoli provides you with about 7% of your daily need for iron.

So, while eating broccoli can’t help you reach your daily need for iron, including this veggie in your diet can help you get there better than other veggies.

Broccoli is also rich in vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid. This micronutrient improves the absorption of iron, ensuring that no iron is lost during digestion and metabolism.

So, in this way, eating broccoli is a great way to get more iron into your diet.

Nutritional Facts: Broccoli, raw (3.5 oz/100 g)

34 Calories
Total Fat 0.37 g
Sodium 33 mg
Total Carbohydrate 6.6 g
- Dietary fiber 2.6 g
- Sugar 1.7 g
Protein 0.7 g
Potassium 316 mg 7% DV
Vitamin C 107% DV
Calcium 5% DV
Iron 4-9% DV
Vitamin B6 13% DV
Vitamin K 97% DV
Magnesium 6% DV

The recommended daily intake of iron for adult women is 18 mg. For adult men, that's only 8 mg. See more in the chart below.

Are broccoli flowers or stalks higher in iron?

Broccoli flowers and stalks have different nutritional values.

To compare, let’s take a look at a three-ounce serving of each of them.

A 3-ounce serving of broccoli stalks contains 0.8 mg of iron. The same serving of broccoli florets contains 0.8 mg of iron. So, when it comes to their iron content, there’s no difference.

So, to get the most out of your broccoli, make sure to consume the whole veggie without separating all the parts.

This is important as you might be missing some other essential nutrients that one of the broccoli parts doesn’t contain.

Is raab broccoli high in iron?

Rapini or broccoli rabe is high in iron. Much more so than your standard broccoli. 3.5 oz serving contains 2.14 mg of iron. That's enough to cover 12% of your daily needs for women and 27% for men.

Broccoli raab is also extremely high in vitamin K (213% DV), vitamin C (24%), folate (21%), manganese (19%), calcium (11%), thiamin (14%), and many other vitamins and minerals.

Is raw broccoli high in iron?

One cup of chopped raw broccoli contains 0.7 mg of iron. This is less than cooked broccoli not only because of the different weight but also because cooking helps release some iron from the vegetable.

It’s perfectly safe to eat raw broccoli. So if you prefer the crunchiness of raw broccoli, you can include it in your diet without any problems.

Are broccoli leaves high in iron?

A three-ounce serving of raw broccoli leaves contains about 0.6 mg of iron, which is a small amount.

This is because most iron is found in broccoli stems and florets. So, the leaves don’t contain too many nutrients.

Eating broccoli leaves can help you get potassium, manganese, and folate. But the same serving mentioned above provides you with more than twice as much vitamin A and vitamin C than you need per day.

So, including broccoli leaves in your diet is beneficial for good health.

Is Chinese broccoli high in iron?

Chinese broccoli, also called Chinese kale, Gai lan, kai-lan, or Jie lan, is not as high in iron as standard broccoli. For instance, while standard broccoli contains 0.73 mg per 100 grams, Chinese broccoli only has 0.59 mg or 5-11 percent of recommended daily iron intake.

Is cooked broccoli high in iron?

Cooked broccoli is high in iron, although it has slightly less of it than the raw one. Cooked broccoli contains 0.67 mg of iron. That's 3.7% of RDA for adult women and 8% for men.

Cooking the broccoli, you're actually improving its antioxidant activity, but also reducing the content of some heat-sensitive nutrients like vitamin C and sulforaphane.

Is broccoli soup high in iron?

Homemade broccoli soup made with water or milk isn't a great source of iron. A cup of broccoli soup (239 g) has only 0.35 mg of iron. That's only enough to cover 2% of RDA for women and 2% for men.

Nevertheless, broccoli soup is still a healthy and nutritious meal that will fill you up while staying low in calories.

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Can you take in too much iron from broccoli?

You'd have to eat incredible amounts of broccoli every day to take in too much iron from it.

Although broccoli is high in iron and can help you boost your daily iron intake, especially because it's also high in vitamin C, I can't imagine anyone having issues with too much iron because of eating broccoli.

The thing that would lead to having too much iron in your body would most definitely be iron supplements.

Heme vs. non-heme iron

There are two types of iron in food:

Heme iron
non-heme iron

We find heme iron in meat, poultry, and seafood. It's also better absorbed than the non-heme iron that we find in eggs and plants.

What vegetables are highest in iron?

Many vegetables are higher in iron than broccoli. The ones that have the highest content of iron are spinach, legumes, and pumpkin seeds.

1. Spinach

3.5 oz (100 g) of raw spinach contains 2.7 mg of iron, or 33% of the DV for men and 15% for women. That's an outstanding amount even though the iron in vegetables isn't heme-iron and is absorbed worse than heme-iron from meats.

2. Legumes

Legumes like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, and soybeans are high in iron and great for meat-eaters but also for vegetarians and vegans.

Besides iron, legumes are also full of magnesium, potassium, folate, fiber, and other essential nutrients.

3. Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds come from pumpkins and are a favored snack and a wonderful source of magnesium, zinc, manganese, vitamin K, and, of course, iron.

A 1 oz serving provides you with 2.5 mg of iron. That's 14% DV for men and 31% DV for women.

Other good sources of iron include:

nuts
dried fruit
whole-meal pasta and bread
iron-fortified foods like bread and breakfast cereal
legumes (mixed beans, baked beans, lentils, chickpeas)
dark leafy green vegetables (spinach, silver beet, broccoli)
oats
tofu

Recommended intakes for iron

Your recommended daily intake of iron depends on your age and sex. It was developed by the Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) at the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies.

RDAs for Iron
Age	Male	Female	Pregnant	Lactating
0-6 months	0.27 mg	0.27 mg
7-12 months	11 mg	11 mg
1-3 years	7 mg	7 mg
4-8 years	10 mg	10 mg
9-13 years	8 mg	8 mg
14-18 years	11 mg	15 mg	27 mg	10 mg
19-50 years	8 mg	18 mg	27 mg	9 mg
51+ years	8 mg	8 mg

RDAs for nonvegetarians. The RDAs for vegetarians are 1.8 times higher than for those who eat meat.

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How to improve iron absorbtion

We can greatly impact iron absorption by how we eat our meals. For example, we should definitely avoid drinking tea with meals because it will hinder iron absorption.

On the contrary, eating or drinking vitamin C-rich foods can enhance it. Vitamin C from a single orange can improve iron absorption as much as three- to sixfold.

For that reason, we can boost iron absorption by reaching for some fruit or juice rather than a cup of tea or coffee.

Conclusion

Broccoli is one of the veggies that you should eat if you want to get more iron into your diet in an easy and delicious way.

This vegetable also provides you with a lot of vitamins C, A, and K, as well as several minerals like potassium, phosphorus, and manganese.

What’s more, eating broccoli has been shown to reduce your risk of several digestive conditions. It can also improve your blood sugar levels and help you load up on antioxidants.

So, make sure to include this nutrient-dense veggie in your diet.

Sources: Nutrition Data, National Library of Medicine, and Springer