Best foods for iron?
Hi folks, my ferritin levels are at 9ng/mL and the hair loss is real. I've been trying to figure out the best foods for iron absorption and prefer to stay away from red meat if I can. The recommendations online are throwing me off a bit. Specifically I've been comparing canned clams, mussels, oysters, chicken liver, and beef liver but the numbers online conflict. Some sources rank canned clams as the #1 food for iron (~24mg per 3oz), while others put them far lower (~2-3mg per 100g). The USDA database itself seems to have inconsistencies, and I've come across studies suggesting clam iron values may be unreliable, with measured values ranging anywhere from under 1mg to nearly 60mg per 100g depending on the product.
So if I want to raise my iron levels (other than pairing it with vitamin C rich foods), should I be focusing on canned clams? Or would oysters, or muscles, or a type of liver give me a better bang for my buck? (I'm slowly trying to increase my calorie intake as well, so ideally something that has high iron levels on a per calorie amount)
And more broadly, is there a good source of truth in the nutrition community to understand the correct levels of micronutrients across food for me to be able to make these decisions a bit better?