Iron rich meat tastes bad

NooMoahk

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I have always been a huge fan of beef and the like but lately, it all tastes like iron and my stomach is not 100% happy when I eat it. Whitefish, shrimp, gelatine, cheese, it's all a pleasure to eat at the moment so I don't think it's protein in general. Is this a sign that I need to lose some iron? I have also eaten more meat(at least 75% beef) in the last 3 years than in all my life.

Should I try to donate blood? I tried to give blood perhaps 2 years back for a blood drive but was denied because I lived with my mother who has Hepatitis C so apparently my blood was too risky. I think they claimed I had to wait 6 months from the time I moved out though I only moved out about 1 month ago. Should I attempt it and lie on the medical survey? Is there another way I could lose some blood? Maybe I can find some leeches, haha.

Can you think of anything it could be other than iron? The taste is the main issue for me here.
 

jyb

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Note that shrimp is high in iron. Whether to donate or not would depend on your age and diet... My understanding is that on a typical non-vegetarian Western diet, excess might accumulate as early as 30. I wrote a post some time ago trying to calculate how much iron accumulates over the year depending on diet, reduction with coffee, donation..., but I'm no biologist and these could be misleading. As to lying on a medical survey, no you shouldn't legally (I'll leave the moral aspect aside), but nothing will happen if you do.
 
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NooMoahk

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With shrimp I can enjoy about 5 oz before the taste is no good, and you're right that its comparable to beef amounts of iron. I'm really not sure what's going on with this.
 
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NooMoahk

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Here is an update.

I went to a blood drive today because I heard they would check your iron levels before the donation. They refused to take my blood because I lived with a person who has hepatitis(mother) in the past 12 months. I can not give blood until September 14th, 2014. The good news is they were willing to test my iron anyway! It was a pinprick test, I assume that's an accurate way of testing? It seems I am at least on the high end.

My result: 16.6 g/dL
"Normal" range for men[sup]1[/sup]: 13.5 to 17.5 g/dL

Would it be worth it to lose some blood? How can I do it without donating? I weigh about 120 lbs if that is relevant.

1. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/iron-d ... -diagnosis
 

fyo

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I live in the US. After I donate blood, I can later have them scrap my donation by calling a confidential line and providing a number they give me.
 
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NooMoahk

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fyo said:
I live in the US. After I donate blood, I can later have them scrap my donation by calling a confidential line and providing a number they give me.

Well, I think I'm in a database now(at least local) for being honest. So I can't really hide the information now and tell them I forgot later if that's what you are implying.
 

Mittir

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I have seen several studies where they used dairy based low iron diet and
were able to lower total iron storage significantly within 4-6 months.
It is not as quick as phlebotomy but it is effective.
IIRC those studies limit their iron intake to 7 mg, mostly non-heme iron.
 
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NooMoahk

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Mittir said:
I have seen several studies where they used dairy based low iron diet and
were able to lower total iron storage significantly within 4-6 months.
It is not as quick as phlebotomy but it is effective.
IIRC those studies limit their iron intake to 7 mg, mostly non-heme iron.

That is interesting as well because I have eaten fairly low iron the last 6 months. Shrimp(maybe 6 times), oysters/mussels/clams(around 8 times), chocolate(rarely), beef ribeye(maybe 4 times), beef jerky(twice), and heart/liver(only once for each) are the only significant sources I can think of. Most of my protein has been dairy, though I may have forgotten a few things, so I'm scared to think what my iron was pre-Peat.

This gets me thinking... might lactoferrin help over time? I bought some last year and never opened the bottle. It's Life Extensions brand lactoferrin, only has some rice starch in each capsule so it's pretty pure. I think it is supposed to bind to iron in the intestine and hinder absorption. Either way I think I'll be the guinea pig for the leech experiment.
 

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