Quinoa Iron

If you regularly enjoy a hearty bowl of quinoa iron consumption shouldn't be an issue for you. Why?

Well you see, quinoa has plenty of this vital mineral!

It’s amazing -- but quinoa’s iron content rivals that of meat! That’s right -- quinoa gives chicken and beef a run for their money. And you should see how it compares to rice. 

So exactly how much iron does quinoa provide? Before we get to that detail, we should probably first find out why your body needs iron in the first place. Then we can talk about quinoa iron content.

Keep reading and we’ll iron out the details...

Why is iron so important?

Iron plays a vital role in your blood. It contributes to producing oxygen-carrying red blood cells. And so if you’re low in iron you’ll likely have too few of these cells.

And since red blood cells carry oxygen throughout your body… can you imagine what happens if you don’t have enough of these cells?

Well, let me ask… what usually happens when you don’t get enough oxygen? You feel weak and tired -- sometimes to the point of passing out.

And so it shouldn’t surprise us that fatigue is a common symptom of iron deficiency. So getting enough iron may very well help you to feel more energetic and less tired.

And the effects of iron deficiency can be even more serious than just feeling weak. For example -- if a pregnant mother is getting too little iron her baby might even develop some birth defects.

And I could go on. There are a number of other reasons why you ought to be getting plenty of iron in your diet. But I think you get the picture.

So let’s move on and talk about how the iron content of quinoa compares to that of rice...

Iron content at-a-glance

Quinoa iron content vs. rice

You might think of quinoa as kind of an alternative to rice. The two are very similar -- both in appearance and texture.

But one more area where quinoa seems to have the upper hand on rice is in its iron content.

100 grams of cooked quinoa provides 1.5 milligrams of iron. The same amount of rice offers only about a quarter of that -- 0.4 milligrams of iron.

That’s how quinoa stacks up against rice. But how does it compare to meat? Let’s start with chicken...

Quinoa iron content vs. chicken

100 grams of cooked quinoa contains 1.5 milligrams of iron. The same amount of chicken meat has 1.2 milligrams of iron.

Wow, is that right? If you have identical serving sizes of quinoa and chicken sitting side-by-side... the chicken actually has less iron than quinoa?

That’s right. Quinoa would come out ahead in that fight.

OK. Well surely red meat - like beef -- would far exceed quinoa in iron content! Right?

Quinoa iron content vs. beef

100 grams of cooked quinoa have 1.5 milligrams of iron. That same amount of 70% lean ground beef has 1.6 milligrams of iron.

So beef has only one-tenth more milligram of iron than quinoa does.

That means that quinoa has almost as much iron as red meat. What a pleasant surprise!

So what now?

What an interesting food this quinoa is! If quinoa is so surprisingly high in iron… what other nutritional information about quinoa might be fascinating to know? Read our quinoa nutrition page for more fun and surprising information!

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