Iron Status of Young Vegan Women

by Michael Greger, M.D.

Iron deficiency is considered the most common nutrient deficiency in the world. In the United States, up to 1 in 25 menstruating women are so iron deficient that their bodies can't produce enough blood and they become anemic.

The iron in animal blood is generally absorbed better in the digestive tract than the iron in plants, so there was a concern that people who didn't eat or drink blood--vegetarians--would have higher rates of iron deficiency anemia. Thankfully the concern was unfounded, as vegetarians have been shown to generally have the same rates of iron deficiency anemia as blood-eaters.

The latest from the German Vegan Study was just published and showed that 4% of vegan women had iron deficiency anemia,[13] the same rate of anemia we see generally here in the U.S.[14] But just because vegans don't have worse rates than meateaters here doesn't mean much, because meateaters have such crappy rates in the first place.

All menstruating women, vegan or not, should be screened for anemia between 15 and 25 years of age. They should then consider getting re-screened once every 5 to 10 years, unless they have a lot of kids, frequently donate blood, have heavy periods, live in poverty or were previously diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, in which case they should consider getting screened more frequently.

REFERENCES

[13] Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 48(2994):103.
[14] Centers for Disease Control MMWR 51(2002);897.