Does eating meat regularly correct iron deficiency?

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You don't need meat for iron. Where do you think cows, horses, gorillas, etc. get their iron (all vegan btw)?? I've been a vegetarian for many years, and do just fine. I donate blood on a regular schedule as well.

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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.

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!

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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.

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.

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...

Meat sources.

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