I was talking to a co-worker who said that he used to be a vegetarian(he ate eggs and dairy) and but he said he had to give it up because he has anemia and he cannot get iron from vegetables or other sources because of his body chemistry he can’t metabolise iron from sources other than red meat.
Is this possible? I mean men aren’t usually even anemic, could there be some other disease he doesn’t want to say, like maybe if you were suffering from cancer and getting radiation treatment or something that would cause you not to be able to absorb iron from vegetables or a pill. Heck I was under the impression using a genuine cast iron skillet would put iron into your food.
So is it possible to have a condition where you can only metabolize iron from red meat? And if so what could that be?
I hesitate to say anything like that is impossible, but I’d class it as very very unlikely. Probably he’s mis-remembering a factoid, which is that the form of iron in vegetables (non-haem) is harder for the body to make use of than that in red meat (haem). What he can do is eat them together; eating some haem iron in your diet helps you absorb more iron from non-haem sources if eaten at the same time.
According to this study, if he wants to reduce red meat intake he can use
He could just move to Jewett City Ct … you can practically smelt the water there. No lie, we used a britta pitcher and could see particulate iron settling out in the top section and would blow through a filter every 2 weeks
Fans of Popeye The Sailor say that spinach has lots of iron. That’s true, but any leafy green veggie has just as much. Potatoes are rich in iron, as are almonds.
For several months, I was low on iron. (I’m a guy, and a meat eater.) Not low enough to call me anemic, but too low to allow me to donate blood. At the blood center, the flea-bottom-ists gave me lots of advice to bring my iron up. Caffeine, they said, impairs your ability to absorb iron from food. I drink caffeine only in the morning, so when I started taking Slow-Fe® iron pills, I take 'em at mid-day. Yes, Vitamin C helps to absorb iron. Yes, a cast-iron skillet will add iron to food. Get a cast-iron sauce pot, too.
As for your last question, I have no answer for you.
The Iron in spinach (and several other veggies) is locked up due to Oxalates.
Wiki sez : “However, spinach contains high levels of oxalate. Oxalates bind to iron to form ferrous oxalate and remove iron from the body. Therefore, a diet high in oxalate (or phosphate or phytate) leads to a decrease in iron absorption.” The calcium in spinach is also 95% locked up.
So your friend has a point. You can, by eating some other veggies, get enough iron, but it is not easy. Cooking in iron pots/pans as AskNott said, will help a lot also.
Vegetables contain no B-12 at all, and not enough B-12 can lead to iron and anemia issue. Some foods (like Tofu) do have B-12 from a bacteria symbiont.
However, taking a Iron and B-12 pill once a day solves both issues, cheaply.
