Are iron levels hard to maintain after becoming a vegetarian?

Answer 1

because most iron is in meat and since vegitarians don't eat meat it's hard to obtain it Vegetarians are lucky in this respect because iron overload is serious, and non-heme iron is less stored. There's quite enough iron in many foods such as black treacle, parsley, oatmeal/porridge, etc. As a vegetarian over 40, I try to AVOID iron, except when it occurs naturally in foods. Random blood tests (e.g. school children) show that most vegetarians have higher ferritin than carnivores, and should avoid cooking in iron pans. But this is usually no problem. The 'anaemia' myth is a meat marketing ploy. Anaemia has nothing to do with iron, and last century was treated with arsenic. Zinc is more likely to be a bit low. And some soils are low in selenium, but that affects vegetarians and carnivores alike.