Veggie MyPlate: Good Protein, Lacking Iron

Week one of the MyPlate challenge went off without a hitch, minus the lunch and learn I attended. The meals of the challenge that I had to make changes to the way I ate were breakfast and dinner. Mainly because I don't usually have vegetables at breakfast or fruit at dinner.

An easy way to add in vegetables with breakfast was with vegetable juice. It only takes 4 ounces to equal one serving and voila! Having fruit with dinner wasn't impossible either. In fact, it came to replace my post- dinner chocolate habit that I tend to acquire around the holidays.

Not feeling challenged enough, Monday I decided to go vegetarian for five days. The only reason I'm going five days instead of seven is due to the fact that St. Patrick's Day is coming up. There is no way this girl is going without corned beef and pub food that day. My thoughts going into this vegetarian style were 1.) I wanted to see if it became harder to meet my protein requirements and 2.) if I still felt hungry after meals.

I am currently on day four and still going strong, even with having my breakfast provided by the hospital today. This time instead of dairy being missing, it was the vegetable component that was hard to come by. Everything else (eggs, fruit, toast, and milk) were all pretty easy to find.

The only way I managed to achieve a complete MyPlate breakfast at the hospital today was with a fried hashbrown patty (which of course required ketchup). Not the best or recommended way to do it, but it got the job done. In retrospect, to many Americans this may be exactly how they get a vegetable in the morning. Besides ketchup on their eggs. And a single tear runs down the dietitian's face.

Image from: http://www.reordermenu.com/Breakfast.html

Even with today's little hiccup in my usual eating, going vegetarian has not been bad. I have been getting the protein component with eggs at breakfast, legumes at lunch, and Boca Chick'n Patties (soy) at dinner. Getting protein through these various sources are part of the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. At these meals alone though, it is nearly impossible to achieve my protein requirements. I have also been having regular snacks between meals with protein to help keep me from starving and to reach my protein requirement. Snacks have included nuts, peanut butter, and protein bars. Nuts and nut butters are other noted sources of protein in the 2010 DGA.

A bonus of being vegetarian is the additional fiber. Fiber aids in making me feel full after meals without feeling like I need a nap. Having the extra fiber is nice, but it can be a hinderance as well.

The one part of my diet that it has been hard to meet requirements in is iron. Even with fortified foods and a fortified protein bar, it has been difficult to achieve my daily iron needs. True, there are foods that are non-meat based that contain iron. It should be noted that although these foods contain iron, it doesn't mean that your body readily absorbs it. Iron from vegetables and other non-meat products is harder to absorb because it is not in a form that is readily absorbed by the body. Iron in meat products, however, is easier for the body to absorb because of the form it is in. Compounds in plants, tea, and coffee, as well as fiber, can bind to the iron making it unavailable for absorption.

As a vegetarian, one thing you can do to help your body absorb iron in non-meat products is by having Vitamin C with that meal. Vitamin C assists with the absorption of iron by changing the form of iron and making a soluble complex with the iron that is easier for the body to absorb. For instance, have a spinach salad with tomato on it is one way to get your Vitamin C and iron.

Another way to up your odds of absorbing iron is to make sure that you are not having too many other minerals with that meal. Minerals such as calcium and magnesium compete with iron for absorption. In this regard, it is also a good idea to take a look at your multi- vitamin/mineral to see what is in it. Sure, that little pill contains all those things, but that does not mean you are absorbing all of what is in there if it has to compete for absorption.

A vegetarian diet has it's benefits, but it has it's downfalls as well. Eating a balanced diet is the first step in good nutrition, no matter what you choose as your protein source. As a little "health" insurance, it doesn't hurt to take a multi-vitamin/ mineral (even half of one) to help ensure you are getting what your body needs.