Vegan/Vegetarian/Juicing...anybody out there who practices any of these?

oldman said:
I am and have always been a bit of a health nut, so to speak. Exercising and running are my favorite past time things to do, but no marathons or working with weights. I ran two marathons and it took me several days to recover, or I should say, for my body to recover. I was told about a month ago by my PCP that I have some unknown anemia going on and to eat some lean red meat at least once per week. I told him I loved liver and onions, so that won't be a problem. So, then he tells me to avoid organ meat. I can't win. I have always eaten salads and plenty of fruit. We have a juicer, but don't use it much. I feel really good, but this anemia thing has me concerned.

As a side note, my PCP tells me that taking pills won't help. I need to absorb the iron and proteins from the food that I eat. My red cell count and hemoglobin is low. Not real low, but low none the less. The doc has also cut back my running from five days per week to two days per week.
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Are you making sure that you eat something with vitamin C at the same time you eat your iron source? Because that's supposed to be really important for proper absorption.
 

Vit c helps with Fe absorption, but the critical one is Vit A, and that is the acetate, not the many derivatives. The Acetate is hard to find and you must watch for it. Carnivores have longer intestinal tracts than other animals, to say nothing about parallax vision etc. Cats especially. Have nothing against the Vegan stance. Red Blood cell and hemoglobin count will not give you reliable information on your iron levels, they only work for clinical differentiation of anemia. Your PCP is wrong, keep eating the liver it is the best source for us carnivores to obtain Fe. Better sources than most of iron, are the chelated varieties, stay away from the sulfates, gluconates, and other salts.
Salt cannot turn into ammonia. Ammonia has nitrogen and hydrogen in it, Salt is sodium and chloride, it is more than likely that she was deprived a source of iodine that shut down her thyroid production, resulting to increased protein metabolism that resulted in increased creatine clearance, (renal stress) and ammonia as by products.
 
Hello, Debby, yes weight has been an issue since childhood. My mother had severe emotional problems and was prone to absolute rages. I know that I comforted myself with food from a young age. It's been a life long issue for me. Even to this day, it's how I'll comfort myself. No longer being able to attend the vegan events I've been to in the past is not helping.

Working as an RN, I can outwork and do more than a lot of people I've known. But at 54, I know I'd feel better if I lose weight. My job is very stressful, I directly work with a very negative person. So dealing with this individual for 8 hours doesn't help when I can only come home to the cats. But thank goodness for them. It's hard not to eat when I get home form work.
 

I'm sure sorry to hear that things aren't going well at times for you but thank goodness for loving cats, eh? I've got a black cat that adopted us last Christmas. He'd been lurking around our little rural property for most of the summer but we could never get close to him. Then one day in mid-December, we realized that he was hiding under our porch for protection. With a snow storm coming, we rigged up a wood box on the porch and put hay to snuggle in and a big bowl of food. He settled in immediately, but then a few days later we realized that he wasn't eating the food anymore or coming out of the box (no tracks in the snow). So I summoned the courage and stuck my hand into the darkness, found his shoulders and dragged him out. He was so thin and just limp. But he was purring even though he didn't know me and til that moment had always been too terrified to get close!

Anyway, I whisked him off to the vet and when we got home, he took up residence in our garage (too snowy and frozen out for a sick cat). Now he's gone from 5.5 lbs to about 12.5 (gives you an idea how starved he was) and he lives in our home and he is the most affectionate cat I've ever known personally. Just wonderful. So I hope your pussy cats are as friendly and loving as our Ziggy is, because they sure can make life so much better!

I know what you mean about comfort eating. I think we all have times when we just can't help it. And working with cranky people can always feel like a good reason to give in to those urges. I sure feel for you and hope that eventually things start 'working' for you Kitties.
 
rt3 said:
Vit c helps with Fe absorption, but the critical one is Vit A, and that is the acetate, not the many derivatives. The Acetate is hard to find and you must watch for it. Carnivores have longer intestinal tracts than other animals, to say nothing about parallax vision etc. Cats especially. Have nothing against the Vegan stance. Red Blood cell and hemoglobin count will not give you reliable information on your iron levels, they only work for clinical differentiation of anemia. Your PCP is wrong, keep eating the liver it is the best source for us carnivores to obtain Fe. Better sources than most of iron, are the chelated varieties, stay away from the sulfates, gluconates, and other salts.
Salt cannot turn into ammonia. Ammonia has nitrogen and hydrogen in it, Salt is sodium and chloride, it is more than likely that she was deprived a source of iodine that shut down her thyroid production, resulting to increased protein metabolism that resulted in increased creatine clearance, (renal stress) and ammonia as by products.
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While I'd never heard of the necessity of Vit A for Iron absorption, it sounds interesting and like something I should look up so thanks for that.

As for animals digestive tract, I think it's actually more accurate that carnivores digestive tracts are shorter and smoother so their meat goes through them faster. Their digestive acids are also stronger which helps prevent sickness from eating slightly off meat. Those bacterias are killed off more significantly and the shorter intestine means the bugs that don't get killed are out before they can begin to cause illness. Cats are 'obligate' carnivores which means there are certain enzymes that they cannot live without and which are found only in meat, a dog can live on the right balance of nutrients from a plant based diet.

My doctor never told me anything about liver so I don't understand what you're suggesting. I'm a vegan. Why in God's name would I eat liver? Besides, the last time I had my bloodworm done in April, my iron levels were perfect so I guess I'm doing something right wouldn't you say?

Well my friend is not a doctor, so when she said the salt 'turns into ammonia' which then pickles her brain, she may have misunderstood the process that her doctor explained, but whatever the case, she can't eat salt and it's basically destroyed her her brain function as a result. When her husband was there tonight, she didn't recognize him any more.
 
rt3 said:
Vit c helps with Fe absorption, but the critical one is Vit A, and that is the acetate, not the many derivatives. The Acetate is hard to find and you must watch for it. Carnivores have longer intestinal tracts than other animals, to say nothing about parallax vision etc. Cats especially. Have nothing against the Vegan stance. Red Blood cell and hemoglobin count will not give you reliable information on your iron levels, they only work for clinical differentiation of anemia. Your PCP is wrong, keep eating the liver it is the best source for us carnivores to obtain Fe. Better sources than most of iron, are the chelated varieties, stay away from the sulfates, gluconates, and other salts.
Salt cannot turn into ammonia. Ammonia has nitrogen and hydrogen in it, Salt is sodium and chloride, it is more than likely that she was deprived a source of iodine that shut down her thyroid production, resulting to increased protein metabolism that resulted in increased creatine clearance, (renal stress) and ammonia as by products.
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Could you give me a link to your points about Vitamin A being necessary for iron absorption? When I did a search (Is Vitamin A necessary for iron absorption) I couldn't find any mention of it, only Vitamin C.
 
google vitamin a acetate and iron absorption,,, careful though, sometimes they use beta carotene, and FeSO4 as the sources from the study which can give fluctuations.
 
rt3 said:
google vitamin a acetate and iron absorption,,, careful though, sometimes they use beta carotene, and FeSO4 as the sources from the study which can give fluctuations.
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Thanks for that and looked it up. Very interesting read. Our bodies are the most amazing balance of chemicals and impulses and energies aren't they! And in looking for sources of Vitamin A, I found that I was pretty much covered. Hope you're having a good day.
 
Debby, that's a really nice story about saving your kitty! He was very lucky to have found you. My two came from a Craig's list add so they have always been around people. The woman had kids but it was obvious the kittens had been treated well and I'm grateful for that.
 

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