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It is not this simple. A vegan diet can provide enough iron, but this is not automatic. One has to actually take care to ensure this. While some studies like
by adrian_b 2y ago
It is not this simple.
A vegan diet can provide enough iron, but this is not automatic. One has to actually take care to ensure this.
While some studies like those quoted by you have found vegans who ate enough iron, studies done in other countries have found vegans with iron deficiencies. I have seen at least 2 or 3 such studies, I think one was about vegans in UK.
While there are many vegetables with a relatively high iron content, their iron content is still rather low so you have to eat greater quantities than many people would want to eat. Moreover, many of those vegetables are not cheap and eating large quantities is likely to make the expenses for the daily food greater than when eating food that includes meat.
So yes, vegans can eat enough iron, but they must be aware of the danger of eating too little iron and they must carefully choose their food to avoid this danger. Similar problems are caused by calcium, which exists in vegetables, but also in much smaller amounts than desirable. It is possible to eat a vegan diet with enough iron and calcium, but in many cases it is much less expensive and also easier to eat less food, but complete it with some iron and calcium supplements.
- aziaziazi 2y agoIt’s not that complicated either: > One has to actually take care to ensure this. Yes, but not more complex than eating the perfect omnivorous diet, which nobody does. Do you precisely count your omegas intake? Your daily ratio of carbs/protein/fat…? Some nutrition aficionados do, but the vast majority of the population (rich and poor) does not. If you find the studies you remember please share them. Iron deficiency is a very common anemia, not only for vegans or poor countries. On the supplement, it’s interesting to note that most cattle and other farms animals are heavely supplemented so they stay relatively healthy during life and their future flesh has the nutriments expected.