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If I use the term pumping iron, you probably think of a loud sweaty gym barbells weights. and rightfully so because that's typically what you mean by that. But today, I'm not talking about lifting weights. No, I'm talking about lifting a fork confused. In a moment, I'll explain.
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You're listening to the smarter Healthy Living podcast where we firmly believe that getting healthy should never feel like torture. We're your host, Jared and Anita Roussel were college sweethearts, and health professionals who help you redefine what getting healthy looks like using a whole food plant based lifestyle. It's time to hear from the experts and learn the best tips and tricks that helped others get beyond the overwhelm, to create a vibrant life they love. If you're sick and tired of being sick, and tired, you're in the right place. So pull up a virtual chair, grab your matcha latte, and let's get started. I have no idea where you're going.
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What are we talking about today?
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Today we
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are talking about iron?
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Not the kind that you pump, but the kind that you eat.
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Okay, I hear you.
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So yes. Well, the reason I wanted to bring this up today is that for a lot of people, whenever they think of eating whole plants, and doing that, even exclusively, they think of iron deficiencies or anemia.
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Well, that's really important. And the reason that people think about that is because what do we hear from the time were young? I mean, if you're like me, I heard that you need meat for iron. Where do you get your iron where you get it from mate?
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Well, there is iron in meat. But there's also iron in plants.
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Wow. Imagine that
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would Yes. Imagine that.
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Because where like, if you're eating beef, where are the cows going to get their iron, they're going to get it from the plants that they eat. The interesting thing about iron from meat and from plants is that they're different. You'll hear the term heme iron for meat. And what that is, is iron that is found in hemoglobin, that's the molecule within the red blood cell that actually carries the oxygen through the blood. So of
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course, that type of iron is not going to be in a plant because plants don't have red blood cells. Right? Exactly.
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It's exclusively
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in animals. Okay, whereas in plants, it's non heme iron. Now, why is that important?
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Well, iron is iron, right? I mean, I know they're different ones in red blood cell ones not but it's still iron.
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It's different, actually. It's different.
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Studies show that our bodies respond to the two different types differently. heme iron is associated with higher risk of heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, which is high cholesterol, high sugar and high blood pressure. Whereas plant iron is not associated with these things. It's actually the kind of iron that our body needs, the kind that we absorb appropriately, that we use for our red blood cells carry oxygen. But I've
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heard that vegans or whole food plant based people are more likely to develop anemia.
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Is that true? That is not true. Actually, what I think the misconception is with all of that is that people that eat plants only do show a lower storage of iron, there's a protein called ferritin that stores iron in our bodies, so that when we need it, we have a supply there, okay. from plants, we absorb the iron selectively, meaning we only absorb it when we need it. And there's tons of iron in plant food. But we just don't absorb it all. Okay, we just absorb what we mean, with heme iron, we actually absorb that indiscriminately. I mean, we absorb it well, but we absorb a lot, even if we don't need it.
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Okay, so with the animal products, our bodies absorb a lot of it a lot of the iron, even if we don't need it, we just absorb a lot of it.
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And in a form that can actually cause damage. Yeah, that's not good. And that's huge. Okay, so what they've shown with the studies is that people are not people that eat plant based, don't have a higher rate of anemia. If they're eating properly. I mean, if they're getting a good wide variety of the foods that they need, right, then they don't actually suffer that. So whenever your provider gets your lab work back, they may see that the ferritin is low and automatically think, okay, you're not getting enough iron, that's anemia.
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ferritin, meaning iron.
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So what may happen
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is he that stores iron, okay, they look at that.
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So they may you may go to the doctor and they may say if you're eating whole food plant based, you're eating vegan, well, your iron levels low, your ferritin is low.
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And I should correct that I'm sorry, I should say it's in low normal range, okay,
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it's in the low normal range. And then that might concern you, but we don't want you to be concerned if you hear that because that's typical. I mean, vegans and people who eat whole food plant based typically do have a lower iron level. The low normal range and that is normal for eating this way.
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Because our bodies selectively absorb iron. They only absorb what they need from plants. And it's a beneficial form that won't harm your vessels and cause heart disease and cause high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol, like heme, or animal iron.
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And if you're getting plants every day, then you have this constant supply of iron to draw from.
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So what should you be eating to get the beneficial forms of iron that don't do damage to your body, you should be eating less, we could say spinach and we could say and start listing a number of plants. But what we want you to do is break free from this idea that you have to know every single fruit or vegetable or grain or nut or seed that has this thing and unless you have a severely low level of something that your doctors found, you need to focus on variety, get a variety, a rainbow of beautiful things on your plate, things that you're not typically eating, pick new things to try.
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Get the color there because with that variety in that color, you're going to get a lot of nutrients, the things that you need. A ton of different plant foods have iron in them. I mean, it's in most all,
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most of them. Yes, right lentils, chickpeas, broccoli, spinach, there are a lot of green leafy trees that have it.
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Now we'll say like, one little insider secret tip here is that eating vitamin C with the iron actually improves the absorption considerably.
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And so what does that mean to you get your citrus get your other vegetables, which also have vitamin C. Bell peppers
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have a high C broccolis, high and vitamin C.
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So you don't need to try to remember my vitamin C with that. Because if you're eating your bell pepper and your broccoli, and your citrus and all these other things, because the truth is the berries, good point. See, if you're getting that variety, you're going to get all those things together, and the things will absorb the way they need to and you're gonna start feeling amazing. And that's what every bit of this is about. All these episodes, all these things we put out what's the point of it all is so you can feel better so you can do more of the things you love. So you're not spending your days miserable, barely surviving because you're exhausted and you're hurting. And now you have high blood pressure and you're overweight, all those things start to fall away and these doors of possibility can wide open for you. You're ready to do the things you love. And that's what we want for you. We've loved having you join us today.
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