Iron: A Powerhouse Nutrient for Your Health

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Organization: Health Canada

Date published: August 2025

Cat.: H164-398/2025E-PDF

ISBN: 978-0-660-78414-4

Pub.: 250202

Getting enough iron helps:

Your body needs more iron during:

Low iron can lead to anemia, a condition where your body makes fewer healthy red blood cells.

Did you know?

Low iron levels can:

Who is at greater risk of low iron status?

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Health Measures Survey 2012–2019 (cycles 3 to 6), ShareFile; Cooper et al. Population Iron Status in Canada: Results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey 2012–2019, Journal of Nutrition 2023 May; 153(5):1534–1543.

Where can you get iron?

During pregnancy you should take a daily multivitamin containing iron.

You can use the Nutrition Facts table to see how much iron is in the food.
Text description

Truncated nutrition facts table in English and French for a food product. The serving size is 1 cup (250 mL). Contains 110 calories, 450 mg (13% daily value (DV)) of potassium, 30 mg (2% DV) of calcium, and 1.5 mg (8% DV) of iron. The iron information is highlighted in yellow. There is a %DV footnote at the bottom indicating: "5% or less is a little, 15% or more is a lot" / "5 % ou moins c'est peu, 15 % ou plus c'est beaucoup".

Quick tips to improve iron absorption:

Acknowledgement: This data was made possible by a collaboration between Health Canada and Statistics Canada.

For more information, visit: Learn about iron.

Talk to our doctor if you are concerned about your iron status.

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2025-09-15