On the look out for iron

Turns out that struggling to get enough breath when I'm biking up hills is probably a symptom of being very low in iron.  It's common for most pregnant women to face this, especially at their third trimester, and most are lumped onto a generic iron tablet which gives them either constipation or diarrhoea and is likely to drain their zinc storage (among other things), as well as it never having been proven to solve the problem properly.  I say this with authority but when my midwife rang me to let me know, I very meekly asked her for a brand that she would recommend.  Since then I have been encouraged not to seek out this synthetic version and to continue working on alternative means of gaining and absorbing iron.  I had started out this pregnancy with the best of intentions to do so but life got busy recently and I started to wax and wane in my assertiveness of a good iron rich diet.   

Tonight we're having a beef pot roast.  But red meat is not the best/only solution.  Iron is categorised as either heme or non-heme.  I understand that heme is more easily absorbed than non-heme but non-heme is easier to include in every meal and snack.  I try to include heme in at least two meals a day.  Heme comes from meat (especially red), egg yolks, and fish and shellfish although there's no way I'm touching Indiana shellfish with a barge pole.  The fish is also pretty iffy but I cover it up with sauces and other flavours.  Non-heme can be found in any number of food items including lentils, chickpeas, beans, dried fruit, leafy greens, nuts, seeds, wheat germ, whole grain, and molasses.  The absorption of it is complicated.  Your body will only absorb so much, although when you're low in iron, it absorbs more.  Vitamin C aids in absorption so I take a spoonful of molasses and follow it with some kind of citrus fruit.  But that's only 15% of what I need.  On top of all this, I have just started using Ferrum Phos and Kali Sulph which are homeopathic cell salts recommended to help with iron absorption.  Here goes nothin'.