Iron myths (b12 too!)

When Pubmed and Google Scholar are available to everyone with a computer, it kind of surprises me when journalists write things that are easily proved wrong on a simple search. A good example is this article from the Atlantic food section "The Foods That Hurt Your Iron Levels," which perpetuates the myth that omnivores and veg*ans are equally at risk for iron deficiency.

Yes, some omnivores get iron deficiency and b12 deficiency. Who are these omnivores? Often they are people eating nutritionally inadequate diets of processed foods, but mostly they are elderly people. When an omnivore has such a deficiency, a responsible doctor should test for conditions that prevent people from utilizing vitamins and minerals such as increased gut permeability and celiac disease. For one of my friends, a low b12 level led to her diagnosis with celiac. The idea that healthy omnivores eating a good diet get iron deficiency is probably false.

The Atlantic article points out that some foods can also leach iron like tannins in tea or coffee. Of course then things go very wrong as the author pegs the blame on dairy and forgets to mention that grains are probably a more likely source of leaching. She doesn't cite any studies for the dairy factoid, but a quick Google turns up several studies showing dairy does not leach iron. Contrast that with phytates in grains, which as AnimalPharm points out, are well accepted as iron leachers. But if you are against people eating dairy and for a "healthy" whole grain vegan diet, then that's just inconvenient isn't it?

As far as excess iron in meat causing heart disease, most of the the studies lump in processed meats with steak and are population based, contrasting with the studies cited above that involve direct observation.

Having to take iron pills sucks. When I was a vegetarian in college I was diagnosed with anemia and given pills. I found that bacteria love free iron and I had some of the worst IBS symptoms I've ever had.

Then here is the kicker: "few realize that red meat, although it builds muscle, is not actually any better a source of iron than greens." Sorry but you only have to eat a little steak to get a lot of iron (and even less liver). By iron per calorie they might compared, but who is eating 500 calories of mustard greens? You'd have to spend a lot of time eating them and I think your stomach might be a bit upset. Besides that, the iron in vegetables is less bioavailable. The author acts like that's a good thing because iron=heart disease and you can get "too much" iron from meat. Hmmm...for women I think too much iron is the least of our problems. 

BTW did you know that the spinach=good source of iron is an urban myth? It was spread by Popeye, but it's not true.

I haven't had iron issues since going paleo and I don't have too much iron either. It's possible for some people to have too much iron on the paleo diet due to genetic variation, but the paleo diet can be done quite easily with less dietary iron.

So journalists out there...get some better sources than Dr. Linda Page's Healthy Healing. It's all at your fingertips.