Does eating meat regularly correct iron deficiency?

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  • Abby2205
    Abby2205 Posts: 253 Member
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    BlondeBeauty5 wrote: »
    If eating meat several times a week won't work for me then how come when I ate ground turkey meat a few days ago and a decent amount (not just the small amount I usually eat) I felt less shortness of breath and felt less like I was gonna pass out? And even now a few days later, I still have symptoms and a lot of them but they don't seem as bad as before. A week ago, I could only get dressed while sitting on my bed. I was that winded. Now I can get dressed standing up. Before I would get shortness of breath after going up and down stairs and it would take me like 30 minutes to recover. I still have shortness of breath but not as bad. So if meat alone won't raise my iron levels, how do you explain this?

    There is no way that the amount of iron in one serving of ground could alleviate your symptoms so dramatically for three days after. You want to believe it will work, in the face of evidence that you cannot consume enough iron in food, so you've convinced yourself that you feel better (I'm not saying you are doing this consciously). You must get treatment for your anxiety around all forms of iron supplementation. Don't let yourself believe that your anxiety can never get better.
  • Eudoxy
    Eudoxy Posts: 391 Member
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    You need to take your supplement to fix the iron deficiency. No you cannot correct it through eating meat. If your anxiety is preventing you from taking it, then treating the anxiety should be your #1 priority.
    Good luck!
  • jennifershoo
    jennifershoo Posts: 3,198 Member
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    Eudoxy wrote: »
    You need to take your supplement to fix the iron deficiency. No you cannot correct it through eating meat. If your anxiety is preventing you from taking it, then treating the anxiety should be your #1 priority.
    Good luck!

    This
  • Vune
    Vune Posts: 673 Member
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    BlondeBeauty5 wrote: »
    Eudoxy wrote: »
    You need to take your supplement to fix the iron deficiency. No you cannot correct it through eating meat. If your anxiety is preventing you from taking it, then treating the anxiety should be your #1 priority.
    Good luck!

    So should I just give up then and not bother eating the meat 4 times a week? Just let it keep going down in the hopes that I'll eventually get my anxiety under control enough to where I can take a supplement?

    I don't see why you can't do both at the same time. The meat is probably giving you B12 that you were sorely lacking, which could account for the burst of energy. All doctors wouldn't say the same thing, either. I've been anemic for most of my life, and the different doctors I've seen have given me a wide variety of options. I'm currently getting Procrit shots with a side of supplements and a varied diet. In August, I had a blood transfusion because it had gotten so bad.

    I also have major social anxiety and have difficulty expressing myself, but I do the work. I go out, get on the bus, and interact with people. If it was easy, it wouldn't be anxiety. The first step to swallowing a pill is to swallow a pill. A therapist will make you write down
    (or talk about) all the reasons why you can't/won't swallow the pill, then turn them into reasons why it'll be okay to take the pill, but the end result should be an improvement in your ability to take pills.
  • Eudoxy
    Eudoxy Posts: 391 Member
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    BlondeBeauty5 wrote: »
    Eudoxy wrote: »
    You need to take your supplement to fix the iron deficiency. No you cannot correct it through eating meat. If your anxiety is preventing you from taking it, then treating the anxiety should be your #1 priority.
    Good luck!

    So should I just give up then and not bother eating the meat 4 times a week? Just let it keep going down in the hopes that I'll eventually get my anxiety under control enough to where I can take a supplement?

    No go ahead and eat meat too.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    You can track iron on MFP, eat things, and see how much you consume; you can add to this record by taking notes in the Food Notes section about how you feel. And then obviously follow up with blood tests. (has someone already said this?)

    In this case you do have to check to make sure the entries have been accurately entered by users or are USDA entries (in the case of e.g. beef)
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    BlondeBeauty5 wrote: »
    MrM27 wrote: »
    BlondeBeauty5 wrote: »
    Eudoxy wrote: »
    You need to take your supplement to fix the iron deficiency. No you cannot correct it through eating meat. If your anxiety is preventing you from taking it, then treating the anxiety should be your #1 priority.
    Good luck!

    So should I just give up then and not bother eating the meat 4 times a week? Just let it keep going down in the hopes that I'll eventually get my anxiety under control enough to where I can take a supplement?

    Go to a doctor. Go get a new doctor. You are looking for strangers online to help you cure a medical situation, that's not smart. Just go get a new doctor.

    All doctors say the same thing, to take an iron supplement which I can't do.

    In that case it might be worth having counselling to deal with this problem. It sounds like the supplement is necessary to get you back up to where you need to be.
  • tomatoey
    tomatoey Posts: 5,446 Member
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    I'm pretty sure that's been advised in the past; have you gotten psychotherapy for this? Phobias can be treated very successfully, with exposure therapy. Not all counsellors do this, you'd have to look for experience with this in their bio.
  • monikker
    monikker Posts: 322 Member
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    Personally, if I were really worried about my iron intake, which I have been because I've been anemic before-my iron levels were very low-I would scarf down that red meat and vitamin C like a champ (along with supplementation). I was very anemic in 2009 but took supplements for at least half a year to get iron back up. Trust me, you would rather deal with your anxiety and get that sorted out than become very anemic. You will be depressed, tired and have no energy. So your anxiety will probably be worse then. I failed 2 or 3 classes that semester due to absences. I don't think my GPA broke a 1.0 even. (I did graduate with a 3.1 though.)

    In 2012 I started to feel low. I hadn't been eating much meat for probably a few months, had gone kinda vegetarian. By low, I mean that I would eat a meal or snacks and still didn't feel energetic. I just felt totally drained and the food wasn't helping. That changed real quick...for 2 or 3 days straight I ordered steaks from the restaurant where I was working, gulped down an orange juice box with it, drank more of those, and took iron at home. After a few days I felt significantly better. I got a blood test probably around 2013 and my doc said nothing about low iron.

    There are a ton of vegetarian sources of iron, even though you're a picky eater. Popcorn being one of them. Please Google high iron vegetarian sources and eat them throughout the day along with your meat intake. Don't consume any dairy around the times you're eating heavy iron sources (wait at least 2 hours).

    But you really should be getting better help from your doctor and therapist, and taking a supplement shouldn't be such a problem. It would be the best thing to do for your iron problem. Get it sorted out if you can...
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    top_10_high_iron_foods.jpg

    Stay on top of this.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    irontable.gif
    Meat sources.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    Turkey, 0.5. Not turkey. The energy you felt was likely from the protein.

    http://www.healthlinkbc.ca/healthfiles/hfile68d.stm

    You'd be better off with the Cheerios.

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