Reviewed by Dr. Prabhat Arya, MD (Internal Medicine) on 29 September 2026
Diet chart for anaemia
Most anaemia in India is from too little iron. Food helps it and keeps it from coming back, but the iron tablets your doctor gives fill the store much faster, and the cause must always be found.
- Have an iron food at every meal: dal, chana, rajma, green leafy sabzi, or egg, fish, chicken or meat.
- Add vitamin C to the same meal: lemon on the dal, amla, tomato, guava or orange. It helps the body take in the iron.
- Keep tea and coffee one hour away from meals and from iron tablets. They block the iron.
Eat more
- Green leafy sabzi: palak, methi, bathua, sarson, chaulai, moringa (sahjan) leaves
- Dal, whole moong, chana, rajma, lobia, soya, sprouts
- Bajra, ragi and poha
- Vitamin C with meals: lemon, amla, guava, orange, tomato
- Til, roasted chana, peanuts, a few dates or raisins
- Eggs, fish, chicken, meat and liver, for those who eat them
Eat less, and time it
- Tea and coffee: not more than two cups a day, one hour away from meals
- Milk, curd and paneer: good food, but not in the same meal as iron tablets
- Calcium tablets: keep them at least two hours away from iron tablets
- Polished white rice and maida instead of whole grains
- Cooking oil and ghee together: 4 to 5 teaspoons per person for the whole day
- Salt: less than one teaspoon a day in all, counting pickle and papad
Avoid
- Tea with meals or with iron tablets
- Eating mitti, chalk, ice or raw rice: it is a sign of low iron, tell your doctor
- Packaged snacks and fried food that fill you up in place of real food
- Cold drinks and sweets in place of meals
- Stopping iron tablets as soon as you feel better: finish the full course
- Alcohol and tobacco
A sample day
Vegetarian first; the swap is for those who eat eggs, fish or chicken.
- On waking
- Water. Iron tablet if your doctor gave it for this time. Tea only after an hour
- Breakfast
- Palak or methi paratha with a little ghee and curd, or vegetable poha with peanuts and lemonSwap: Two-egg bhurji with palak and one roti
- Mid-morning
- One guava, orange or a few pieces of amla
- Lunch
- Salad with lemon. A katori of dal or rajma, a katori of sarson, palak or bathua sabzi, two rotis or riceSwap: Chicken, fish or meat curry in place of dal
- Evening
- Roasted chana and peanuts, or sprouts chaat with lemon. Tea, if you like, an hour laterSwap: A boiled egg
- Dinner, by 8 pm
- Chana or moong dal, green sabzi, one or two bajra or wheat rotis, tomato saladSwap: Fish or chicken with green sabzi
- Bedtime
- A glass of milk if you like: away from the iron tablet
Common myths
- Beetroot or pomegranate juice cures anaemia.
- They have little iron. Real iron comes from dal, greens, eggs and meat, and tablets.
- Gur is rich in iron.
- The iron in gur is small. It is still sugar, so do not rely on it.
- Iron tablets are "garam" and harm the body.
- They are safe. Dark stool is common on them. Tell the doctor if the stomach is upset.
- Anaemia is just weakness, so a tonic is enough.
- Anaemia has a cause. Blood tests must find it: worms, piles, heavy periods, or something else.
Dr. Arya’s note for you
Go to a doctor at once if you are breathless at rest, have chest pain, feel faint, or see blood in stool, black sticky tar-like stool, or very heavy periods.
This is general advice for adults. Pregnant women, children and people with thalassaemia or long-term illness need their own plan: ask Dr. Arya. With kidney disease, follow the kidney chart for dal, greens and dates; with diabetes, the diabetes chart for sugar. Use this one for iron.