The latest video in the North American Meat Institute’s Meat Mythcrusher series explores the differences in iron absorption between meat and vegetables. While the total amount of iron in meat compared to vegetables is similar, Lindsay Chichester, extension educator at the University of Nebraska, explains the difference between heme iron found in meat and non-heme iron from vegetable sources in the latest video.
“Our bodies can more easily absorb the iron in the heme form from meat than from vegetables in the non-heme form,” Chichester says. “For vegetarians, you need to eat 1.8 times the amount of non-heme iron to get the amount from one serving of meat.”Chichester adds eating meat with vegetables helps increase the absorption of iron from both sources.