Mixed reviews on vitamin c intake

General principles:  As I understand it, iron from animal foods such as meat, fish, etc. (also called heme iron), is much better absorbed than is iron from plant foods such as leafy greens (also called non-heme iron).

Vitamin C and foods containing vitamin C, such as citrus fruits, bell peppers, etc., increase absorption of non-heme (plant) iron a lot and increase absorption of heme (animal) iron a bit.  It doesn’t take that much vitamin C to increase iron absorption – 50 mg will do it.

I looked it up, and tea itself doesn’t contain much vitamin C – traces only for black tea and maybe 5-7 mg for green tea.

Lemon juice contains 112 mg of vitamin C per cup, or about 7 mg/tablespoon.

What this probably means for your lemon tea:

If, for example, your lemon tea is green tea with a tablespoon of lemon juice, you’re looking at around 12-14 mg of vitamin C per cup, which is maybe enough vitamin C to cause a bit of an increase in iron absorption from any non-heme iron containing foods you eat when you drink the tea.

BUT - tea and coffee both *decrease* iron absorption, so the tea component of your lemon tea will counteract the lemon component.  Depending on how strong you brewed your tea compared to how much lemon juice you added to your cup, your lemon tea might have no effect at all on iron absorption or even reduce it a bit (although it won’t reduce it as much as tea without lemon juice would.)

Other ways besides tea to reduce iron absorption from iron-containing foods:

High calcium foods, such as dairy products and fish canned with the bones in, reduce absorption of iron.  Apparently 300-600 mg or so of calcium in food will reduce the absorption of heme iron so much that it is no better absorbed than non-heme iron.

Eggs also reduce the absorption of iron.

Plant foods containing oxalates reduce the absorption of iron – e.g., spinach and other leafy greens, nuts, chocolate, tea, wheat bran, strawberries, green leafy herbs.

Plant foods containing polyphenols reduce absorption of iron – e.g., cocoa, coffee, apples, blackberries, raspberries.

Plant foods containing phytates reduce absorption of iron – e.g., nuts, dried pulse, whole grains.

By looking up the lists of foods that reduce iron absorption, I get the idea that if one indulges in an occasional steak for dinner, it would help if it were a modestly-sized steak eaten with – for example - lots of broccoli or other green veggie topped with toasted slivered almonds accompanied by brown rice (or other whole grain like barley), if tea or coffee with milk were drunk with the meal, and if dessert was strawberries dipped in melted dark chocolate.   (No wine or beer, alas, because alcohol increases iron absorption.)

Or for a breakfast example, an egg or two with whole-grain toast and strawberry or blackberry or raspberry jam or ginger (but not citrus) marmalade.

You don’t want to give up your highly-nutritious high-vitamin-C foods like citrus fruits or bell peppers or tomatoes, so you could pair them with low-iron foods like dairy and/or pulses (beans, dried peas, lentils) combined with whole brains as your protein source; for example, vegetarian chili or cheese melts on whole-grain bread.

If you make soup stock from scratch, you can use a tablespoon or so of vinegar in the pot with the bones and water so that the calcium is pulled out of the bones into the liquid to give you a high-calcium broth.  (Organic bones or bones from small animals are best for this, because if there is lead in the bones, the vinegar will draw the lead out too, and you don’t want lead in your food.)

Organ meats are quite high in iron and are thus best avoided – and raw shellfish should also be avoided because of the risk of food poisoning.

I hope some of this is helpful -

However, a tablespoon or whatever of lemon juice should be inconsequential.  Avoid a glass of OJ with your meals though, because this usually involves more than one orange and lots of sugar.

It appears that tea/coffee, calcium foods (i.e. dairy) should be drank/eaten with meals so that it is in the stomach with your meal to reduce the uptake of iron which happens at the duodenal area and some say in the intestines.  I usually have cheese or yoghurt as a dessert.

However, RED wine has polyphenols in it which also help to reduce the uptake of iron so I have a small glass of quality red (for medical purposes only, you know!) with my evening meal.

And a vit C supplement last thing at night when hopefully my dinner has moved past the absorption area.

Borrow a copy of the Hemochromatosis Cookbook from the library for more excellent info.