Ever notice how your second (or third) cup of coffee has started to feel more like a necessity than a ritual? As a nutrition consultant, I hear this subtle shift described all the time—that sense of chasing energy rather than simply enjoying a morning routine. While stress and poor sleep often take the blame, low iron is one of the most common, easily overlooked contributors. Yes, even mild depletion can leave you feeling far more drained than your lifestyle alone would suggest! Which is exactly why paying attention to foods high in iron is one of the most supportive, sustainable ways to rebuild energy from the inside out.
Iron is essential for producing hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that transports oxygen throughout the body. When iron levels dip, oxygen delivery suffers. And that’s when fatigue tends to move in. But what makes iron especially fascinating is how deeply it influences daily function. Adequate levels help support mental clarity, physical endurance, immune health, and hormonal balance. When stores run low, the effects are rarely subtle. If you know, you know: it’s a depletion that feels difficult to explain.
Did you know that iron deficiency disproportionately affects women? To no surprise, this is largely due to menstruation, pregnancy, and increased vulnerability to under-fueling. Heavy periods alone can significantly deplete iron stores over time. Add in restrictive eating patterns, very regimented plant-forward diets, or intense training schedules, and the gap can widen quickly. In practice, I often see women normalize symptoms that deserve a closer look. Their persistent fatigue, headaches, reduced exercise tolerance, or unusual cravings aren’t just a coincidence.
Iron deficiency often creeps in gradually. Fatigue tends to lead the conversation, followed by weakness, pale skin, headaches, shortness of breath, brittle nails, hair shedding, cold intolerance, dizziness, or restless legs. Because symptoms develop over time, many women adapt without recognizing the shift. If you suspect your iron is low, it’s time to schedule blood work! Chat with your healthcare provider about getting the following tested:
These will help paint a complete picture.
With this information in hand, we can shift the focus toward nourishment—beginning with the types of iron found in food. For context, dietary iron appears in two forms:
Rather than focus on a single category, it’s helpful to consider iron sources across a variety of foods. Variety is key.
While fruit isn’t the most concentrated source of iron, these options can meaningfully contribute— particularly dried varieties, where nutrients are more concentrated! Many also contain vitamin C, which helps enhance non-heme iron absorption.
Speaking of vitamin C, let’s talk about absorption. Here’s where nuance matters. Consuming iron-rich foods is important, but absorption determines how much your body can actually use.
Vitamin C significantly increases non-heme iron absorption. A squeeze of lemon over leafy greens, berries alongside overnight oats, or sautéed bell peppers added to lentils can make a measurable difference.
Cooking in cast iron, particularly with acidic ingredients (citrus, vinegar, tomatoes, etc.), can subtly increase the iron content of meals. It’s a small adjustment that works in your favor!
Coffee, tea, and calcium-rich foods can inhibit iron absorption when consumed simultaneously. This doesn’t require elimination—simply spacing these items away from iron-rich meals can help.
Iron may not dominate wellness headlines, but its influence on how you feel each day is undeniable. When energy feels unreliable or fatigue becomes your baseline, small, intentional shifts can make a meaningful difference. As the seasons change, it’s time to prioritize deep nourishment—including meals with foods high in iron—to help you feel more vibrant this spring. Cheers to feeling more like yourself again.
This post was last updated on March 18, 2026, to include new insights.
The post The Sneaky Nutrient Deficiency That Might Explain Why You’re Always Tired appeared first on Camille Styles.
This chilled sando is a convenience store must-try.
When you’re travelling around Japan and learning the language, you’ll find yourself picking up new words in odd places, and right now the word at 7-Eleven is “yokubari“. Literally translating as “greedy” or “indulgent“, the chain is using the word to describe a range of single-serve “one-piece” sandwiches that are so loaded with decadent fillings they’re bulging at the seams, and now there’s a new variety on the shelves.
▼ Chocolate Chip & Whipped Cream
At first glance, you might wonder where the chocolate chips are, as the cross-section shows what appears to be flakes rather than chips.
The chocolate chunks are there but they’re hiding inside the sandwich, scattered within the cream filling.
We only found out about the chunks after picking up one of the “yokubari sando” at our nearest 7-Eleven. It took us a while to get to the inside of the sando, though, as we were mesmerised by just how beautiful it looked.
▼ The combination of white, brown and pink created a wonderfully harmonious colour palette.
The pink slices are called “sakura bread”, and are said to add more than just visual appeal as they’re slightly salty, with a flavour that’s reminiscent of pickled cherry blossoms.
Opening the sandwich for a closer look, we were pleased to see that the filling hadn’t just been pushed to the cross section – it covered the entire surface area of the bread, proving the chain wasn’t skimping on the chocolate chip cream.
This is when we discovered that the cream was actually filled with chunks of chocolate, making it look like chocolate chip ice cream.
▼ Flakes up front, chips out back.
Putting the sandwich back together for a taste, we took a big bite and lost ourselves to the super soft texture.
The bread was plump and chewy, the cream was fluffy and exquisite, and the mixture of chocolate flakes and chips made it taste chunky and melty at the same time.
This meltiness actually had another surprising effect, as it made the whole thing taste like an ice cream sandwich. The chocolate itself tasted like the hardened sort you get on chocolate-covered ice creams, so every bite fooled the taste buds into thinking this was an ice cream.
It was such an unusual sensation that we hardly noticed any saltiness from the sakura bread – if it was there it only added to the ice cream effect – and we were glad we had it chilled as this made it taste even more like chocolate chip ice cream.
We didn’t think the chain could outdo itself after wowing us with its previous Yokubari Sando, filled with colourful chocolate sprinkles, but we’re happy to say they’ve blown us out of the water with this new variety. Sweet, delicious, and very indulgent, the Chocolate Chip and Whipped Cream Yokubari is a convenience store must-try, and it’s perfectly timed for summer, when its ice cream-esque character will keep you cool and refreshed during Japan’s scorchingly hot days.
Images©SoraNews24
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Sellers of luxury villas have wiped tens of millions of pounds off asking prices, with sales down 19% in May from the previous month
Property sales in Dubai have fallen “off a cliff”, a leading market watcher has said, after war in the Middle East forced a dramatic slowdown in one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets.
Sales in the city dropped 19% in May compared with the previous month, accelerating from a 4% drop in April, the researcher ValuStrat found.
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© Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images
MONTMELÓ, June 14 — George Russell of Mercedes claimed pole position for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix after a thrilling end to the qualifying session on Saturday.
The Briton clinched his third pole of the season by finishing just 0.064 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton in his upgraded Ferrari, who bumped championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the other Mercedes on to the second row for Sunday’s race.
After a difficult outing in Monaco last weekend and a disappointing start to the campaign for the pre-season title favourite, Russell said it was good to “feel the groove” again as he secured a career 10th pole.
Antonelli has won the last five races and is aiming for a sixth on Sunday, but he will have to start from third after a superb late run from Hamilton.
The seven-time champion had endured a tough weekend but looked far quicker in qualifying and came extremely close to claiming pole himself.
It will be the first all-British front row in Barcelona.
“It’s been a great weekend so far, I’m always fighting. I came into this weekend with a clean slate, felt good and it is great to be on pole,” said Russell.
“It will be an interesting race tomorrow, Lewis did a great job to get up there so I’m sure there will be a fight. Tomorrow will not be easy.”
Antonelli has been dominant this season but admitted it was tough going for him at Montmelo.
“It’s been a little bit of a difficult weekend so far. I didn’t really have the feeling with the car,” he explained.
“The long run was strong yesterday but today I’ve been lacking a little bit, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
It seemed like McLaren were closest to challenging Mercedes this weekend but 2025 champion Lando Norris came in fourth and Oscar Piastri was seventh.
With track temperatures edging beyond 50 degrees centigrade tyre management was key, with the soft compound only good for one flying lap.
Max Verstappen moved top of the timesheets briefly in Q1 before Charles Leclerc laid down a benchmark of 1:15.964s.
Hamilton turns up
Antonelli fell just behind him but Russell replaced the Monegasque driver, and then Hamilton powered past him too in 1:15.625.
The Briton had toiled in the practice sessions as he worked to get to grips with Ferrari’s heavily upgraded car.
Lance Stroll triggered a brief yellow flag as he hit the gravel and both he and his Aston Martin team-mate, home favourite Fernando Alonso, will fill the back row on Sunday.
Williams’ Alex Albon, set to beat Nigel Mansell’s record of 95 Grand Prix starts for the team on Sunday, also failed to progress.
Drivers were in no hurry to emerge for Q2, but once the session came alive Verstappen again set the early running. Leclerc quickly usurped him, before being himself replaced by Russell with a time of 1:15.22.
Antonelli improved to third in Q2 while Nico Hulkenberg survived the cut after his first flying lap was erased for track limits, getting a second on the board late on.
In Q3 Leclerc spaked a red flag when he came off the track between turns four and five and hit the barriers, with the front wing of his car destroyed.
The medical car was deployed but the Ferrari driver, who also crashed in his home Monaco Grand Prix last weekend, was able to walk away from the incident.
Only Piastri and Verstappen had set lap times, leading to a gripping final eight minutes once racing resumed.
Antonelli took pole provisionally before Russell’s fastest time of 1:14.679 and Hamilton’s last gasp dart which means he starts the race in a Mercedes sandwich.
“I have no idea whether I will be able to keep up, we will find out tomorrow,” said Hamilton.
“All weekend we’ve been four tenths off, even with the upgrade, that’s where we thought we were.
“For us to be that close, less than a tenth between us, that’s a real showing of the hard work of everyone at the factory.” — AFP
An exclusive doughnut you won’t find anywhere else in the world.
Krispy Kreme Japan loves to cater to the local market with sweet exclusives, and it zooms in even further by catering to a micro market, with special doughnuts limited to regional stores.
Known as the “Krispy Kreme Premium” series, these regional exclusives were previously limited to select stores in Nagoya, Hokkaido, and Tokyo, with each region having its own lineup, but now there’s a new region getting its very own unique doughnut.
Called the “Krispy Kreme Premium Doughwich“, this style of doughnut is only on the menu at the Amu Plaza Hakata store in Fukuoka Prefecture, located on the island of Kyushu in southwestern Japan.
Available at only one store in the whole country, the Doughwich features Krispy Kreme’s signature fluffy yeast dough, layered with smooth cream and other flavourful ingredients in a luxurious “sandwich style” doughnut. When it was first launched late last year, to coincide with the opening of the Amu Plaza Hakata branch, it came in four varieties.
▼ Clockwise from top left: Original Glazed Whipped Cream & Custard, Cinnamon Apple & Custard, Original Glazed Amaou Strawberry & Whipped Cream, Original Glazed Hakata Mentaiko & Cheese.
With all four being well received by local customers, and popular with visitors looking for a distinctly “Fukuoka” souvenir, the chain has decided to release a new Doughwich for summer.
▼ Setouchi Lemon & Cream
This new limited-edition summer flavour lets you experience the chain’s chocolate glazed doughnuts with “a “new deliciousness” that highlights the flavour of Steouchi lemons from western Japan’s Seto Inland Sea region. Sandwiched inside the Doughwich is a refreshing Setouchi lemon cream, a sweet yet tart Setouchi lemon sauce, and light and fluffy custard whipped cream. Topped with a dusting of powdered sugar for a touch of elegance, the gentle sweetness of the chocolate and the refreshing tartness of the lemon combine to create a perfect summer flavour.
Refreshingly tart and satisfyingly sweet, the Setouchi Lemon & Cream Doughwich is a new doughnut experience that can only be found at Amu Plaza in Fukuoka, and it will be on the menu while stocks last from 3 June to late September, priced at 486 yen (US$3.05).
Store information
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Amu Plaza Hakata Store / クリスピー・クリーム・ドーナツ アミュプラザ博多店
Address: Fukuoka-ken, Fukuoka-shi, Hakata-ku, Hakata Eki Chuogai 1-1 Amu Plaza B1F
福岡県福岡市博多区博多駅中央街1-1 アミュプラザ博多B1F
Open: 10:00 a.m.–10:00 p.m.
Website
Source, images: Press release
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“Uncut, Uncensored & Incredibly Unsuitable for Children!” – Tagline for the 1976 X-rated film “Once Upon a Girl.”
Partly true, folks. The movie is uncut and uncensored, but it is incredibly unsuitable for any audience, unless you are a thirteen-year-old boy in 1976 with a head full of improbable sexual fantasies and a stash of Hustler magazines under your mattress.
This woeful film was produced, directed, and written by one Don Jurwich (although some sources credit Joel Seibel as Producer). Do not assume that Jurwich was a leering smut master; He harkened back to the early days of Jay Ward Productions and served a stint at Hanna-Barbera in the 1960s doing storyboards, layouts, and some writing. In the years after Once Upon a Girl, Jurwich had a long and productive career with HB and Marvel Productions spanning nearly fifty years.
Jurwich was quoted as saying that his group of animators on Once Upon a Girl had worked at Disney; this was stretching things a bit too far. The only person in his crew who could qualify was Bob Trochim, who worked as an assistant animator on Sleeping Beauty (1959). Paro Hozumi was a background artist for multiple DTV productions from about 1990 to 2005. Rene Garcia was an assistant layout artist on The Little Mermaid (1989).
Since these productions came decades after 1986, Jurwich’s claim is highly unlikely. No one else on his film’s animation staff has a single Disney credit at any time. Hal Smith did do voice work for Disney, but never did any animation. However, almost the entire animation department had worked at Hanna-Barbera before (or while) taking on this dreadful project.
Most of the humor for us animation fans comes from clearly seeing the mid-70’s Hanna-Barbera artistic style imposed on the characters as they play Hide-The-Salami in various orifices. It’s almost as if Bill and Joe gave the green light to a porno film. There’s the same limited animation, the same facial designs, the same run/chase cycles, the same vapid faces. These HB clones also get to recite dialogue like “Fucketh you, harlot bitch, fucketh!” or “Look at that little fucker suck!” Need I say that the Funky Phantom never did or said anything of the sort to April Stewart?
The first 5:41 of the movie is a cheesy live-action segment in which Mother Goose (portrayed in drag by Hal Smith, once the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh!) is on trial in some unnamed Southern courtroom on obscenity charges; it seems that she has been retelling classic children’s fairy tales to kids in a manner that would get Larry Flynt tossed in the slammer. In defending herself, Mother Goose begins recounting those same tales in the courtroom.
After the first tale, that of Jack and the Beanstalk, you have seen everything you need to see, roughly twenty minutes into the film’s 1:17 run time. Obscene language, close-ups of female genitalia, raging erections, stiff nipples, and, oh yeah, pimping and bestiality. Enjoy the scene involves Jack reaching the giant’s castle on a phallic beanstalk (watered by his ejaculate); A busty magic harp’s music has all the glasses and silverware in various stages of, um, sexual congress. Soon, the giant’s wife is using Jack as a live dildo.
There follows a filthy version of “Cinderella” featuring lusty, incestuous stepsisters, and a “Little Red Riding Hood” retelling that depicts a rape scene. “Goober and the Ghost Chasers” it ain’t, unless you’d like to imagine every form of sexual depravity set to cut-rate HB animation. Even John Kricfalusi, or that censor-challenger, Bob Clampett, would have disdained this flick.
Giving voices to these characters were Richmond Johnson, Carol Piacente, and Kelly Gordon (the latter two have no previous credits). Most of the voices came from the immortal Frank Welker, but everyone is entitled to one mistake and a paycheck.
Look, honored readers, I’m no prude. Out of respect for your collective good taste in animated films, I have avoided much of the language in this research piece (except for the quoted dialogue). I truly give a fuck about you (oops!). But is there any reason for this trash to exist? Yes. Let me explain.
1972 saw the first X-rated feature film, Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat. In 1973, production began on Charles Swenson’s Dirty Duck (completed in 1974 but not released until 1977). The bandwagon began rolling. When Osama Tezuka released his 1970 film Cleopatra, American distributors renamed it Cleopatra: Queen of Sex and slapped an undeserved X rating on it upon later release…because Fritz had one.
Once Upon a Girl was a 1976 film that fits squarely into the time frame for producers and distributors to cash in on the X-rated animation fad. The problem is, animated depictions of sex depend on considerable exaggeration, which often comes out as more risible than erotic. Exploring Once Upon a Girl for any arousing or erotic content is a fool’s errand. Even the wordplay of the title is unfunny (not to mention ignoring the pleasures of the cowgirl position). I’m a baaaaad boy!
The United States professional baseball league (MLB) was suspended for three months between May and July 2020, at the worst point of the pandemic. When it finally resumed, it did so behind closed doors or with very restricted access. For the first time in many years, stars of the sport such as Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers had to celebrate their victories in front of empty stands.
© Brian D. Kersey (Getty Images)
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