Subject: Iron?

From: [email-masked] (seth j colitz)
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 14:49:52 GMT

I am a recently new Vegitarian (3 months) and I've recently met some- 
one who is also a vegi but says that he eats fish once in a while so he
can makesure he gets enough iron.  I'm just wondering how necessary this  
is because there are definatley other non-animal ways of getting iron.
Is the Quality of iron different in non-meat sources?  Or just lower in
quantity.

Any help on this or suggestions on how to make sure I get enough iron   
will be helpful.  Please email me:   [email-masked]

Couple more questions...  How can you tell if marshmellows have non-meat
gellatin?  Also what is so bad about cooking honey?        thanks again,
                                                           Seth   =}

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 1994 21:03:25 GMT

> will be helpful.  Please email me:   [email-masked]

Iron in veg. foods is less bioavailable, but the iron content in fish is
not very high either, so your friend is wrong.

[while iron content in fish is only about 1/2 of that found in soybeans, it 
is heme iron and shows about 12% absorption versus 8% for iron in soybeans]
[Moderator's note - Marty B]

There is some evidence that the body of the long
term vegan is more able to absorb minerals, including iron and calcium, than
the body of the omnivore.

[This may be true for calcium but it's not true for iron]

Iron becomes more available when some acidic agent is present in your food, and
also is more available from grains, beans and fruits than from certain leafy
greens. For example, spinach and Swiss chard have lots of iron (the colour of 
the stems of chard, as well as the stems of some variety of spinach, is red 
because of the high iron), but is bound to oxalic acid which is not absorbed.
Dressing your spinach with vinegar may roughly triple the absorption. 

Here are tricks to boost iron absorption (as well as most other minerals):
- always eat a fruit with your meal
- always dress your salad with vinegar
- cooking something like tomato sauce in cast iron will give you a whopping
  90mg of absorbable iron per serving (900% of RDA? Going from memory. 90 mg
  is from New Laurel's Kitchen). Don't do it too often or you will get
  iron toxicity...
  Most other foods do get lots of iron from cast iron pots as well.

[This is not going to be absorbable iron.  Cooking in iron pots and pans 
will increase the iron content of the food but average absorption is still 
going to be only 5-8%.  This poor iron absorption is why vegetarians have a 
higher iron intake than omnivors but have lower iron stores than omnivores]

- in hummous, citric acid extracts it out of chickpeas.
  So does tomato sauce to any bean or in chili. They are good sources.
- put a spoon of vinegar in your vegetable stock
- smoothie with soymilk and strawberries
- eat whole grains, beans, and generally a balanced veg. diet
- dress things with iron-rich nutritional yeast

The three major acids being absorbed are, as you have seen, acetic acid
(vinegar), ascorbic acid (Vit. C) and citric acid from citrus. You need
4g of iron per year, and a vegan typically intakes kgs/year of these acids.
They bind to all minerals but certainly help make lots of them available.
Typical grains iron content (whole grains only) is 1mg/100 Kcal, and typical
beans content is 2mg/100Kcal, while absorption ranges between 5 and 8%
(it is 20% for meats) before you add acidic agents. Leafy greens
have between 1 and 3mg(chard)/serving, with absorption ranging from 1.4% 
(spinach) to about 5% (cruciferous).
RDA is either 10 or 18mg/day, which includes the fact that absorption is 
low for all foods.

[The RDA assumes an average absorption of 10% which is not going to occur 
on a vegetarian diet.  Vitamin C, acetic acid and citric acid can all 
improve nonheme iron absorption but the improvement is never going to 
provide for the iron absorption that is seen when heme iron is present in 
the diet].

---

From: [email-masked] (Chris Brown)
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 1994 15:54:41 GMT

seth j colitz ([email-masked]) wrote:
:    I am a recently new Vegitarian (3 months) and I've recently met some- 

Like giving up smoking - stick at it becomes easier

: one who is also a vegi but says that he eats fish once in a while so he
: can makesure he gets enough iron.  I'm just wondering how necessary this  
: is because there are definatley other non-animal ways of getting iron.
: Is the Quality of iron different in non-meat sources?  Or just lower in
: quantity.

: Any help on this or suggestions on how to make sure I get enough iron   
: will be helpful.  Please email me:   [email-masked]

My wife works at a blood bank. They have found no differance in the bodies
iron reserves between omnis and veges. So have a balanced diet. Take a vitamin
supplement after a hangover and generally dont worry about what you eat.

: Couple more questions...  How can you tell if marshmellows have non-meat
: gellatin?  Also what is so bad about cooking honey?        thanks again,
:                                                            Seth   =}
There aint no good gellatin. Also watch out for emulsifiers and animal
whey

--

Chris Brown
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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 13:54:49 GMT

For those of you interested in iron, there is a post by
Michael Traub in rec.food.veg, with a transcription of an
interview with a MD about the epidemics of excess iron in 
the Western World. Title is "Iron: the double edged sword".
Should relieve some of people's worries about getting enough 
iron...