Exploding Food Myth 12. The best source of iron is in spinach and lentils

Lentils and spinach do contain iron, but it is absorbed less easily than that obtained from meat and fish. Sure, spinach is good for you, as is every vegetable, and so are legumes, among which lentils provide more iron, but the myth survives that these are the principal sources of it. However, the higher-absorption sources are in liver and kidneys, red meats, fish, seafood and egg yolk. What spinach and lentils do, though, is help in the digestion, largely through their 'roughage', an out of date word for fibre. This, in turn, will help keep weight off by keeping us 'regular' - but watch it, spinach can be a diuretic and mild laxative, as well as an anti-ageing agent (you makes your choice: live longer, look younger, but at what cost to the environment?) (See Exploding Food Myth 11)