The four best iron chelators

These products have been shown to have an effect, with included links. H63D.us is sponsored here, by affiliate advertising. Check with your doctor before undertaking diet changes.

Mitigate absorption too!

Eat any of these with meals to absorb less iron from that meal.

Green tea

Green tea has one of the few readily available brain-permeable natural iron chelators in the form of catechins.

Green Tea works with meals, mitigating absorption, or away from meals where it's more readily absorbed as a chelator.

Mandel S, Amit T, Reznichenko L, Weinreb O, Youdim MB. Green tea catechins as brain-permeable, natural iron chelators-antioxidants for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2006 Feb;50(2):229-34. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.200500156. PMID: 16470637. LINK

Brew it:

In the can:

Capsule form:

Add to smoothies:

IP6

IP6, or inositol hexaphosphate, is an effective dual-action chelator. It's also great to take before meals, where it can deal with iron before you absorb it.

Most IP-6 is made from rice husks, a natural edible food byproduct.

Bhowmik A, Ojha D, Goswami D, Das R, Chandra NS, Chatterjee TK, Chakravarty A, Chakravarty S, Chattopadhyay D. Inositol hexa phosphoric acid (phytic acid), a nutraceuticals, attenuates iron-induced oxidative stress and alleviates liver injury in iron overloaded mice. Biomed Pharmacother. 2017 Mar;87:443-450. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2016.12.125. Epub 2017 Jan 6. PMID: 28068635. LINK

Grape seed

Grape seed extract is a potent chelator of iron, one of the best pound-for-pound on the market.

It may also boost vascular health.

Grape seed proanthocyanidin extract chelates iron and attenuates the toxic effects of 6-hydroxydopamine: Implications for Parkinson's disease January 2010Journal of Food Biochemistry 34(2):244 - 262 DOI:10.1111/j.1745-4514.2009.00276.x LINK

Capsule form:

Add to shakes:

Capsule form:

Quercetin

Quercetin is one of the most abundant dietary flavonoids, a class of molecules that's great against iron overload.

Quercetin helps with iron metabolism. Iron metabolism issues and overload issues aren't a great combination.

Lin Xiao, Gang Luo, Yuhan Tang, Ping Yao, Quercetin and iron metabolism: What we know and what we need to know, Food and Chemical Toxicology, Volume 114, 2018, Pages 190-203, ISSN 0278-6915, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2018.02.022. LINK

Check with your doctor to make sure these choices are right for you. Dietary iron chelation is no substitute for phlebotomy.