Dietary iron

Big things:
-best plant sources are beans, lentils, leafy greens, dried fruit and nuts
-heme iron is in meat and is better absorbed
-but there is controversy about deleterious effects of heme iron
-Impossible burgers use heme iron grown in the lab for taste/appearance, but we don’t have longitudinal data on its risk
-enhance non-heme iron absorption with concurrent vitamin C (think lemon juice on kale salad, or fresh red peppers with beans or lentils)
-anemia does not require eating meat. Optimize diet, take a thorough gynecologic and hematologic history, rule out gastrointestinal bleed, etc. before supplementing iron