How to tell if your anemic?

[cavy_lover]

Hi all,

I recently became vegetarian a couple of months ago now and I have heard that a lack of iron can cause you to become anemic. Is this true? What are the health issues associated with becoming anemic any potentially harmful? How long does it take to become anemic and how can I prevent this. The reason I ask is that I am always getting headaches and I am always tired, are these signs? I havent been properly supplimenting my diet either and I need to know what foods to eat to get iron and protein into my new diet.

Thankyou all any help would be appreciated.

[Jeanne]

There are many ways to increase iron in your diet. You could eat spinach, or any other dark green vegetable (and make sure you have something with vitamin C in it at the same time). You could use an iron frying pan. You could take an iron supplement with a vitamin C supplement. If you don't have the vitamin C, your body cannot absorb the iron properly.

Many soymilks are fortified with iron.

Signs of anaemia:
-general weakness (could also be a sign of not eating enough)
-tiredness (could also be a sign of not eating enough)
-reduced appetite
-depression
-pale gums
-getting breathless easily

Low iron is the primary cause of anaemia. Other causes include low levels of folic acid or vitamin B12. You can easily get both of these from fortified soymilk (or milk). You could also take a multi-vitamin (most people should take one of these daily anyways).

[Susan W]

I have hemochromatosis (where your body collects too much iron and doesn't get rid of it) so I have to try to avoid iron, and its actually a pain. The big thing I have to avoid most is some bread products like breakfast cereals. Some of those fortified cereals have as much as 80% of the iron you need in a day in a bowl. I had to stop eating my frosted mini wheats because it contained that much. I also had to stop eating those flavored packets of oatmeal, and grits. If you need iron, go for all of that fortified stuff.

[kat_0521]

I dont usually post on the "veggie" forum, but this caught my eye. I'm anemic, and have been so for over a year now. Many different things can cause anemia, most of them would be some sort of severe blood loss (like from a heavy menstrual period). Anemia is when your body does not produce enough red blood cells to support your system, and taking an iron supplement or eating foods high in iron helps this. Symptoms (at least the ones I get) are: being very pale, fainting, dizziness, and being tired all of the time. Even since I'm on the iron supplement (65mg daily), I still feel tired a lot. I also know that there are certain foods to avoid but I'm not sure what they are. Try doing a google search on anemia, this should give you a couple of websites that can help with that.
I hope I was helpful. Good luck.

[cavy_lover]

Thankyou all you have all been such a great help! Ill start taking iron suppliments and improving my diet to avoid a loss of iron. Ill also research it a bit more as kat suggested : )

Ill see if I stop getting so tired and dizzy all the time hopefully it improves! Thankyou again all!