The iron file: worried that giving up meat means you've a date with anemia? Research shows it just isn't so - includes list of foods that are good sources of iron

No doubt you've heard that vegetarians also are at risk of developing iron-deficiency anemia. Vegetarians do tend to have lower--though not deficient--stores of iron than meat eaters, which means they have fewer reserves to call on, for example, during pregnancy. But studies have simply failed to bear out vegetarians being more at risk: The research to date, while admittedly not extensive, shows that vegetarians are no more likely than meat eaters to have iron-deficiency anemia, says iron expert Janet Hunt, Ph.D., R.D., a research nutritionist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Human Nutrition Research Center in Grand Forks, N.D.

Contrary to popular belief, many plant foods are abundant in iron. In fact, typical eating patterns of vegetarians indicate they actually consume more iron than meat eaters, and that vegans--who eschew all animal products--eat the most iron of all, according to Virginia Messina, M.P.H., R.D., and Mark Messina, Ph.D., authors of The Vegerarian Way (Crown, 1996). Thus, although the heme iron from meat may be better absorbed than the non-heme iron from plant foods, vegetarians seem to make up for the difference by taking in more total iron; vegetarians also tend to consume above-average levels of vitamin C, enhancing the absorption of the iron they eat.

Moreover, research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (51 :3018[1990]) indicates that iron from plant foods may be more responsive to the needs of iron-deficient people than iron from meat. In this study, iron-deficient subjects absorbed twice as much heme iron as non-deficient people, but they absorbed 10 times the amount of non-heme iron as non-deficient subjects. The study's implications go against everything you learned back in Home Ec 101. If you're low on iron, eating a helping of iron-rich lentils (especially with a glass of o.j.) can boost your levels as much as a piece of steak-and without steak's fat and cholesterol. And there's no difference in the way your body uses heme and non-heme iron.

So why have vegetarians gotten a bad rap? "Because the Meat Board and the Cattlemen's Association have done their propagandizing and convinced us that we have to eat meat to get enough iron," says Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D., nutrition adviser to the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group and immediate past chair of the American Dietetic Association's Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group.

The National Live Stock and Meat Board is one of the largest providers of nutrition-education material to schools. What kind of message does it send? Take its program called "Mirror, Mirror," which

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You don't need to tote around a calculator to ensure you're getting enough iron. Most people will have an adequate intake if they simply focus on eating a varied diet that includes plenty of high-iron foods, says Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D., nutrition adviser to the Baltimore-based Vegetarian Resource Group and immediate past chair of the American Dietetic Association's Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group. When you do eat a food rich in iron, consume a good source of vitamin C at the same time. One orange or 6 ounces of orange juice can double the amount of iron your body absorbs from plant foods.