Pescetarian/vegetarian non-supplement iron

opalastrophel

What are all you pescetarian/veggie/vegans going to to keep getting enough iron? It's the hardest thing to math into my calorie limit - I do eat a lot of leafy greens, and shellfish when I can get ahold of good stuff, but most of my other iron foods are fairly calorie dense (tofu, nuts, seeds, grains, legumes) so I eat them in quantities too limited.

Molasses, chia, and lots of homemade dark hot chocolate helps, but I can't seem to break 70% on most days without some serious juggling.

kommodevaran

If I had iron deficiency, for whatever reason, I would have bought a Lucky Iron Fish.

Also be aware that iron isn't necessarily on the label, and then not in the database either. A deficiency is diagnosed in the doctor's lab, not in your food diary.

yirara

And if you have a deficiency then just eating food with more iron will hardly be enough. Filling up a deficiency with high potency iron tablet takes many weeks. Just with food I doubt you'd get anywhere near there, and then there's still the question of why you got deficient in the first place.

dragthewaters1991

It really depends on your calorie limit. If it's low enough then no matter what your diet is, it's going to be hard to get sufficient nutrients without supplementation.

I just checked my iron macros and my meal plan for today actually includes 132% DV of iron in 2075 cals (oops?) which is 105 cals under my maintenance limit including my exercise for today. Here's what I ate for some ideas.

Breakfast: two boiled eggs; overnight oats made with rolled oats, unsweetened soymilk and ground flaxseeds, and topped with a banana and some Ezekiel 4:9 sprouted grain flax cereal; and a cup of tea. Total: 47% DV in 726 cals.

Lunch: ginger kombucha, and a large salad consisting of raw kale, boiled acorn squash, raw beet, raw green pepper, roasted broad beans (these are pretty high in iron BTW, 10% DV in 100 cals), roasted chestnuts, EVOO, ACV, and dried herbs. Total: 39% DV in 607 cals.

Dinner: mixed whole grain and "supergreens" pasta with EVOO, nutritional yeast, and salt; steamed green beans and raw tomato with dijon mustard on the side. Total: 38% DV in 582 cals (the pasta is really high in iron as well, the "supergreens" one which is by Ronzoni has 20% DV in 200 cals)

Dessert: Go Raw lemon "cookies" (these are raw vegan cookies made from dehydrated coconut, sprouted sesame seeds, dates, and lemon oil) Total: 8% DV in 160 cals.