Pumping Iron, Meat-Free Edition
In honor of the Great American Meat-Out, I thought it might be a good idea to consider one of the major challenges facing vegetarians and vegans: how to get enough dietary iron.
While meat-eaters are supposed to consume 8 milligrams of iron (men and older women) and 18 milligrams (pre-menopausal women) respectively, the recommended USDA intake for vegetarian men and post-menopausal women is 14 milligrams and 33 milligrams for pre-menopausal vegetarian women.
Everyone knows that iron is an important part of the diet, but what exactly does it do? Iron is a component of hemoglobin cells, a type of blood cell that is responsible for carrying oxygen throughout the body, helping organs to function properly and fortifying systems like metabolism, temperature regulation and the immune system. Iron performs the same cell-building function for myoglobin, an oxygen-carrying component of muscle tissue.
So how should vegetarians (and really, all of us) get all of this iron into our bodies? My top ten picks for vegetarian iron sources after the jump.
