Vegan sources of Iron & Calcium?

[RhythmSpring]

Hey guys. Last spring I became vegan. Is there enough iron and calcium in leafy greens and tahini and other vegetables and grains to sustain me? I just found out that I'm slightly anemic too. I'm a pretty skinny guy (always been like that), and I'm actually having some joint problems. I'm considering going back to eating meat again to see if it will help with my joints. Mind you, it's more of a Rheumatoid Arthritis deal where the joint areas are swelling. No bone deterioration. It's an autoimmune disorder anyway.

Yeah, so that sucks. But the main question is whether I can get enough iron and calcium (and potassium?) from non animal products.

I also take a multivitamin daily, but it only gives me something like 10 percent calcium and 25 percent iron of my daily diet. I guess it's harder to manufacture or something.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[Lysis]

Bone joint issues can also be a problem with Vitamin C, if I remember correctly. Vitamin C is very important for cartilage. I'd have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure I have the right Vitamin. My professor just lectured on it but I haven't studied it and I just woke up and haven't had coffee. LOL

I'm a fan of Solarray once-daily multivitamin. They took out the Iron in that pill though, but I'm sure they have a separate Iron vitamin. Your body doesn't need a whole lot of Iron to sustain. Be careful taking too much iron.

 

[Dave]

Dark green leafy vegetables. Lots of 'em. They've got so much good stuff in them (especially iron and calcium) they may as well be multivitamins.

Examples: Kale, collard greens, mustard greens, spinach, beet greens, kohlrabi greens (less so). Eat a good portion of 'em every day and you'll be right as rain in no time.

To a slightly lesser extent, cruciferous vegetables have also a decent bit of iron. Examples: cabbage, bok choi, brussels spouts, broccoli, cauliflower.

My personal opinion: whole foods >>> multivitamins. It's not that hard to eat a balanced, complete vegan diet. A large portion of the world's population has been doing so (or a 90% plant based diet at least) for thousands of years. The only sticky bit is B12, and as long as you have some marmite, vegemite, nutritional yeast or other yeast food every now and then you'll be fine on that front.

 

[yougene]

I think iron is a pretty common vitamin.

Your body needs other nutrients to produce the hemoglobin. B-12 and folic acid particularly. B-12 can be hard for vegans and vegetarians to get in their diet. I take the Solaray B complex because it has all the B's as well as folic acid. But folic acid is in greens and beans. B-12 can have a hard-time digesting in the stomach, so one of the sub-lingual absorption brands is going to be better.
You might not have vitamin deficiency anemia.

The jury is out on Calcium. Apparently there is a significant correlation between Calcium supplements and prostate cancer. Probably why you'll never find large quantities of it in male multi-vitamins.

I noticed you didn't mention any beans in your diet.
Might I suggest going vegetarian instead of vegan?

 

[a thing]

Since B12 ultimately comes from artificial synthesis or bacteria, I would imagine that someone has made a vegan B12 supplement from those bacteria.

 

[RhythmSpring]

yougene: Beans are a very big part of my diet. Black beans, tofu, tempeh, miso, and tons of hummus.

Dave: Totally agree that whole foods are the way to go. I usually go that route. As for vit. B 12, it's tough. My health food store's nutritional yeast is not fortified with b12. That's right, even in nutritional yeast b12 doesn't occur naturally. It has to be added. And I've never seen marmite or vegemite here in the northeastern US.

Lysis: Yeah, but vitamin C is in everything. I eat fruit and veggies every day, plus the multivitamin gives me something like 250 percent or more. I doubt there's a problem there.

The thing is, I know it's not good to take a lot of calcium and iron, but whenever I see it on any nutritional facts list (which is rarely), it always comes out to be no more than 10% of our recommended amount. So are we all deficient?? What's up with that??

Fuck it, I'll just start eating dirt.

 

[Mehm]

fortified soy milk and calcium pills

you need about a gram of calcium per day.

 

[Libby]

Leafy greens are your friend for both iron and calcium.
Eat your spinach!

And congratulations on going Vegan, you are doing a great thing for your body, the other animals, and the environment. Mwa mwa!

Cows milk is actually a very inefficient method of obtaining calcium and may cause osteporosis. At the same time you ingest calcium, you also injest acidic animal protein which leeches calcium from your bones and you pee it out in your urine, this continuous putting in and taking out of calcium from your bones weakens them, they need stability. And Vegetables sources of iron and calcium also provide vitamin c and magnesium at the same time in the desired amounts which are necessary for human absorbtion. Animals which are suppost to get their iron from animal products, make their own vitamin C within their bodies (cats for example).

And YES there are many, many vegan B12 supplements. vitamin b12 comes from vitamin B12 producing microorganisms, not from animals. the only reason it is in animal products and not in vegetable and water supplies (though it used to be) is because nowadays all our water and vegetatrion is treated to kill off microorganism. we have these microorganisms living in our guts, but they produce vitamin b12 so far down our digestive system that it is not absorbed through the intestinal wall. however if we were to fertilise our veggie garden with poop, problem solved.

 

[Dave]

Rhythm-- get out?! Really? I live in Western Canada, and while I have to look a bit for it I can find Marmite at any large grocery store. Oddly enough, it's usually with the peanut butter/honey/miscellaneous spreadables rather than the other yeast products. But it's there.

Also, B12 content depends on the strain of nutritional yeast AFAIK. Some have more than others, some are enriched with it and some are not. I don't know the specifics of which brands use which strains, and which ones enrich and which ones don't, but I do know that the bulk nutritional yeast at my local organic/hippie grocery store has plenty of it.

Libby-- Good call on cow's milk. People in rural China generally don't drink milk or eat dairy, and have essentially no osteoporosis. I've heard that the culprit is guessed to be the milk protein, that may actually leach calcium out of the body, but don't quote me on that.

 

[RhythmSpring]

Yeah, I'm totally anti-milk. Especially since I notice it makes me feel like crap.

Alright, it looks like I'm gonna go crazy on the leafy greens, but I might introduce a little fowl here and there to see if my body likes it (local & natural & organic & whatnot).

Thanks for all your support! I'll look a little bit harder for B12-containing products...

 

[LoveAlways]

I used to take those calcium chews (got them at Sam's Club or Costco) I wouldnt' be able to tell you if they are for sure vegan but they taste delicious!

 

[Dave]

Almost certainly not. Most commercial calcium supplements are made from bonemeal or eggshell. Much cheaper than vegan sources, as they're both 'waste' products.

 

[Dtergent]

I'm not sure if you have any easy-growing leafy green tree that you can stick in the ground near your place. It sure helps to have an abundance of them nearby, where you can take bits while on the way out of your house to munch on.

Here we have, among others, the malunggay tree, which is wonderful for iron and calcium.

• Comparative content: Gram for gram, 7 times the vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the calcium and twice the protein in milk, 4 times the vitamin A in carrots, 3 times the potassium in bananas.
• 100 gms or 1 cup of cooked malunggay leaves contain 3.1 g protein, 0.6 g fiber, 96 mg calcium, 29 mg phosphorus, 1.7 mg iron, 2,820 mg beta-carotene, 0.07 mg thiamin, 0.14a mg riboflavin, 1.1 mg niacin, and 53 mg of vitamin C. (Dr. Lydia Marero of the Food and Drug Research Institute -FNRI)

We have soup of it everyday, and make it into capsules. I take a lot with me when I go to Western countries, where there doesn't seem to be a lot of readily available iron, etc. for vegetarians.

You can also toss some amaranth or comparable seeds in empty lots around you to see if you can get some good greenstock going. It might be worth checking out your native plant database for any relevant weeds that you can appropriate easily

About the B's, you can try to get some kombucha or other fermented food going, which many conclude can contain significant amount of B12. However, because they are surely not consistent due to their being live colonies, you can probably still have some deficiency after all.

Again, unless you have a lot of money, I suggest you look into growing your own and investigating local/wild sources of food. Even a "varied" supermarket diet is pretty limited, especially in the little additions for relishes or sauces that give you bits of good stuff here and there.

 

[Dave]

Wow. That's quite the tree. I wonder how well it would grow indoors?

 

[Dtergent]

I'm not sure, Dave. It's a tropical tree... It tends to grow narrow and upwards, and we have to keep chopping it to ensure a more harvest-friendly growth. I tried to do a search on growing it indoors, without helpful results. I can send you some seeds, if you want to experiment.

 

[Dave]

Thanks, but I'll need to do a LOT more research into growing tropical plants period before I'd want to try something as ambitious (and apparently uncharted) as that.

I may take you up on that at a later time if that's cool though.

 

[RhythmSpring]

Yeah, that sounds cool n all, but a few nights ago it went to 11 below. Slightly different climates.

 

[Winding Vines]

New Mark Botani-Cal supplement is an algae derived calcium supplement.

Meat contains 16 vital amino acids that you cannot consume from any amount of beans, veggies, sprouts, fruits etc. I would recommend taking an amino acid supplement and some sort of whey protein powder.

Try to compromise with consuming organic, grass fed - no GMO eggs. The Omega's and aminos will benefit your skin, nails and joints. It is always best to eat your nutrients rather than supplement them.

 

[a thing]

Dtergent: Thanks for sharing about moringa. I wonder where I could get it here though...

Meat contains 16 vital amino acids that you cannot consume from any amount of beans, veggies, sprouts, fruits etc. I would recommend taking an amino acid supplement and some sort of whey protein powder.

Untrue. Soy, hemp, and quinoa (and probably some more I do not know about) all have every essential amino acid.

Try to compromise with consuming organic, grass fed - no GMO eggs. The Omega's and aminos will benefit your skin, nails and joints. It is always best to eat your nutrients rather than supplement them.

Seeing as how the OP has already decided to be vegan, that was pretty inane.

 

[belarki]

Flax seed (linseed) oil! :D Nothing to do with calcium or iron but it's a vegetarian/vegan's best friend for omega 3 fatty acids.