Iron
<p ><strong>Iron</strong> is a mineral that the body needs to produce red blood cells. When the body does not get enough iron, it cannot produce the number of normal red blood cells needed to keep you in good health. Much of the iron in the body is attached to hemoglobin molecules in red blood cells, thereby delivering oxygen to all of the tissues. Myoglobin are heme-containing proteins that are involved in the transport and storage of oxygen. Hemoglobin is the primary <a href="http://www.vitamins-supplements.org/nutrients/proteins.php" >protein</a> found in red blood cells and represents about two thirds of the body's iron. The body recycles iron. When red blood cells die, the iron in them is returned to the bone marrow to be used again in new red blood cells.
Iron is mostly stably incorporated in the inside of metalloproteins, because in exposed or in free form it causes production of free radicals that are generally toxic to cells. Iron distribution is heavily regulated in mammals. The iron absorbed from duodenum binds to transferrin, and carried by blood it reaches different cells. There it gets by an as yet unknown mechanism incorporated into target proteins. </p>
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Good sources of dietary iron include meat, fish, poultry, lentils, beans, leaf vegetables, tofu, chickpeas, black-eyed pea, strawberries and farina.</p>