lentil soupIron deficiency anemia is a serious and common public health problem for people eating all different kinds of diets. While vegans don’t seem to develop anemia any more often than people who eat meat, we do have higher iron needs. It’s hard to know just how much higher those needs are for individual vegans, though, since requirements depend on a number of other factors—including how much iron you have stored in your body and what the rest of your diet looks like.

You probably already are eating a diet rich in this mineral, but the key is to make sure you absorb as much of it as possible. My newest vegan nutrition primer on iron provides guidelines for meeting iron needs and improving its absorption from plant foods.