“I’ve been taking an iron supplement for three weeks and still feel tired.” This was the comment from a woman attending a series of nutrition seminars I was running. She had been discharged from hospital three weeks earlier and prescribed an iron supplement. “When do you take it?” I asked her. “With breakfast,” she replied. Breakfast consisted of muesli with low fat milk or wholegrain toast and a cup of tea. A healthy breakfast – yes. But a suitable meal to take an iron supplement – no. The tannins in tea and the phytates in wholegrain bread and cereal bind up iron and reduce how much is absorbed.

I suggested she take the supplement with dinner and have fruit for dessert. The meat and vitamin C both enhance iron absorption. When she bounced into the room the following week, full of energy and smiles, I don’t know who was more excited. The theory really worked!

If you want to absorb more iron from your supplement, your iron fortified breakfast cereal or your spinach, have some meat or vitamin C rich fruit at the same meal. And wait a while before you have that healthy but iron-binding cup of tea.