meat

It's a funny coincidence for me that the SMH has run this article about giving up vegetarianism (reprinted from London) today. I was having almost the exact same thoughts last week. But I haven't yet bitten into a steak...

I stopped eating meat when I was 24. I hadn't ever cooked with meat since moving out of home when I was 19 anyway. The occasion of my firm decision to become a vegetarian was seeing a school of large fish driven into a net on a beach in Western Australia and hauled onto the sand to die in their hundreds. I was at the end of a month's cycling holiday with a vegetarian friend - I hadn't eaten meat for a month and was horrified by the sight of the dying fish.

Ironically, eight years later I decided to start eating fish again. It was on another holiday - this time in France. I'd already endured several miserable holidays in the European countries like Portugal and France where being a non-meat, non-fish eater who doesn't particualrly like omelettes is not much fun. And this time I really wanted to have fun, so I took to fish with gusto. Interestingly, in the months that followed, I noticed my health improve a lot - I had more energy and didn't constantly feel as if I had some indefinable 'virus'.

That was 17 years ago. In the intervening years, my diet , while basically of the vegetarian wholefoods variety, has varied a lot. At times I eat fish regularly, at times I don't. At times I get by on pasta, pasta and pasta, at other times I shop and cook creatively. It all depends on time and what else is going on in my life.

When I was pregnant I became slightly anaemic and took iron pills. During the next two to three years I continued to take iron pills most of the time, while breastfeeding and undergoing disturbed nights. I could feel them doing me good. In the past couple of years this had tapered off - I might take one bottle of iron pills a year.

I'd just completed one when I went to my GP in July about a few nebulous problems. She ran a full blood count. It threw up some unexpected results. My cholesterol level was high, in the risky zone. [But I don't eat meat or any fast food at all! I ride a bicycle to work! Not fair!] One white blood cell level (neutrophils) was slightly below normal [though I found a website which gave the range as slightly lower, which puts me in normal range - who knows which to believe?] But she told me my hameoglobin was fine.

I was freaked out about the cholesterol and went into serious damage limitation mode. I went non-dairy on the spot, embarked on the eight week liver cleansing diet and started taking numerous supplements - fish oil capsules for my arteries, Vitamin C, liver tonic capsules... I didn't keep taking iron [there's only so many pills I can pop each day] as I figured that at least was okay. I lost weight, began to feel much healthier and got some red back into my cheeks again.

Three weeks ago I went to see my GP again, this time because of my blasted swollen knee. She ran another series of blood tests. The knee improved and I kept forgetting to ring her for the results. Then I started riding to work again and the knee swelled again. I finally rang last week.

All the inflammation reaction markers had come out normal, so it wasn't rheumatoid arthritis or anything like that. Good. My neutrophils were at exactly the same low level, which is good (they had't changed in a bad direction) but possibly a result of vegetarianism - not good. Oh, and my anaemia status wasn't looking good - the normal haemoglobin range is 119-160 and mine was 119. And that was three weeks ago. Last week I'd been incredibly tired all week, finding it hard to get out of bed. I was irritable and headachey. I wondered if my haemoglobin had fallen even lower since the blood test.

This is the point at which I gave serious thought to eating meat. I mean, I'd just completed a health diet, I'd been taking zillions of supplements, putting huge care into what I ate and I still came out the end of it iron-deficient and tired. What more could I possibly do?

Of course, there was more.

I dutifully looked up iron and vegetarianism websites (though I've read it all before), started taking iron pills again, began making sure to eat apricots and eggs and bought some black strap molasses. But I have to admit that the simplicity of meat is beginning to look very tempting, although I have never missed the flavour or 'experience'. Co-parent and Olle do eat meat once a week or so, so it would be easy for me to include myself in that. Organic only, of course.

Ironically, however, I am blood type A, which is said to be the most suited to vegetarianism. (Not that I swallow that blood-type diet theory in the first place...)

I really prefer not to depend on taking pills for basic good health. So if I can't manage my own diet in order to stay within the right haemoglobin range, I think meat is in my future...

Comments

[webfrau]

Though of course meat is no guarantee of keeping those iron levels up either. Mine are always low and I'm a carnivore!

[brownie]

I never buy meat and only eat it away from home if there is no alternative. I am a regular blood donor and my haemoglobin is good enough for them. My 'bad' cholesterol is the right level too, despite eating many more eggs than are recommended (only privately bought free range though).
I think buckwheat is a protein source - I buy the pancake mix from the Safeway 'health section'.
Google (buckwheat + nutrition).
and good luck with the whole darn thing. xxx

[Kate]

I suffered from borderline anaemia for quite some time thanks to vegetarianism -- I do have to eat red meat at least twice a week or else I feel pretty horrible, so I can sympathise. The iron pills didn't do it for me, sadly.

[Cristy]

It makes me sad to think that you need to meat to be healthy. However, I do believe that everyone is different and you are the only person in any position to judge what is best for your health.

Personally, I have been a vegetarian for 21 years and a vegan for 11, and I have always had high haemoglobin levels. For me wholegrains, green leafy vegetables and not drinking caffeine within the same hour of eating iron-rich food (because it restricts your body's ability to absorb iron) all seem to work. I have never taken pills.

However, it sounds as though you have tried all that and still have low levels, so your body may well just need different things.

All the best. I hope whatever you decide works for you.