[jak]

Originally Posted by mariewilcox

Believe it or not, iron deficiency anemia is not any more prevalent in vegetarians than it is in meat eaters. You need vitamin C to absorb iron maximally so being a vegetarian I probably consume more vitamin C than the average meat eater, thus the iron I get from foods such as spinach and beans is better absorbed than iron from a steak with potatoes. You would have to eat more than 1700 calories of sirloin steak to get the same amount of iron as found in 100 calories of spinach. Also a lot of vegetables are high in iron AND vitamin C (broccoli and bok choy) so just eating one of these by itself has much more absorbable iron than meat. Top ways to get iron from non-meat sources are spinach and other greens like chard, broccoli, bok choy, lentils, soy beans, any other kind of bean (kidney, black, pinto, white, garbanzo, etc.)

Thanks Marie. I already eat a fair few of those... maybe just not enough to get all the iron benefits. Will have to try eating more of them!