Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Anyone out there expert on heme iron versus non heme iron
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Old 10-30-2012, 03:29 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by senior citizen View Post
So, even though we've all been told to avoid too much red meat, it seems necessary for iron. Ditto for turkey which does have heme iron.
Most of the iron we have in our body gets recycled. We lose iron when we lose blood or skin cells etc. But I would assume that most of us are not losing any significant amount of blood (unless you are one of those who likes to donate blood).

At any rate, before somone starts eating red meat just because of the iron it contains, they should at least know if they have iron deficiency. Hopefully, your doctor would have told you if you have a deficiency. We only need very small amounts of iron and too much iron can, potentially, be damaging to the body. It can damage your liver and other organs.

I've been a vegan since 2006 and my yearly blood work has never indicated iron deficiency.