Hello!

Ger

Forum Devotee
Joined
May 12, 2019
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87
Age
69
Location
Canada
Lifestyle
  1. Vegetarian
I occasionally eat eggs and fish. Other than that though, my diet is completely vegan. I guess that makes me a flexitarian. I didn't know that until today when I registered to join up.
 
Thanx Lou.

Just to elaborate on my introductory post, I should mention, I think, that, up until fairly recently, I had lived as a vegetarian for about twenty years, about ten of them as a vegan. It took me quite some time to evolve to finally adopt the strict vegan lifestyle that I had practiced not all that long ago. Last year though, after getting the results back from a blood test, my doctor informed me that I was anemic and that my results showed low levels of vitamin B-12. I was surprised by the latter finding because I've routinely always taken a B-12 supplement with many of my meals. I wasn't, however, that surprised to find out that I was anemic. You see, in the last several years, I seemed to have lost a lot of my get-up and go.

Anyway, at the beginning of 2019, I decided to add eggs and fish to my diet, but only occasionally. Although I eat these foods for the good of my health, I do have to confess that I've redeveloped a taste for them. As it pertains to adding these foods to my diet, I can't say that my conscience doesn't bother me. At present, I don't experience enough guilt to stop eating them though.

( I only eat fish that eat other fish, and I eat eggs because, in the past, I've even witnessed hens eating their own eggs from time to time.)
 
I am also always a little anemic. Some people just don't absorb iron as well as others. Plus non-heme iron isn't as absorbable.
My B12 levels seem to be ok for now. Last year I stopped taking a multivitamin. It contained some B12 and some iron which I believed helped. But lately, I have just been relying on soy milk.
 
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Welcome to the forum. If you are not able or willing to give up eggs, you could try and source some that are not from a major commercial operation at least.

I notice your post says age 64, and I recall that around this age people start to have a difficult absorbing B12. You may want to try for a higher dosage a certain % above the normal, since too much B12 is not normally a problem. It does seem a little surprising.

Probably you can fix the iron issue looking at high-iron plant foods. I made a list of plant foods with iron and I wrote down seeds, nuts, broccoli, beans and other legumes, dark green leafy vegetables. However I don't know for sure that's right, or which of those have a lot or iron or just some small amount. But when I wrote down the list I realized I didn't have to worry about iron probably since I'd be eating most of those anyway.

I suppose you'll take an iron tablet in the short term, if that's causing anemia. And then maybe look to work more iron in your diet over time. Of course, you could just take the tablet indefinitely, if you wanted to.
 
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Welcome. I'm anemic, too, and lately I've been putting meals into cronometer and am finding that I'm not getting enough iron from food. (I can also tell by how I feel, cronometer just confirmed it) In the past I've managed my anemia with a product called the Lucky Iron Fish, and I'm planning on using it regularly again.