Iron question.

So... I've been vegetarian my entire life.

Vegan for almost 11 years now, and raw for about 3 years... ever

improving & increasing to 100%.

For 2/3's of my veggie life, I have not taken supplements, I have eaten

whole foods, greens/chlorella, etc.

and felt like there was no need for them.

I have also NEVER had a deficiency.

Over the past few years though, I have been experimenting with green supplements and whole food concentrates.

But I have noticed when I switch from an iron-free formula, to one

that contains iron, I don't feel as good during the day.

Could anyone explain why this could be?? It seems kind of strange,

but I know my body very well, and it doesn't seem to like that 'possibly synthetic' iron in multi-vitamins...

Maybe taking the supplement with iron is making you not crave iron rich foods in the rest of your diet so your not eating as much outside of your supplements and maybe the iron you are taking isn't so easy to absorb. Iron is an issue for everyone but not so much for non-impact athletes...I've never even had a thought about iron in my diet. Maybe I get so much it never affects me or maybe not...I just assume I have enough from the way I train and how I feel but part of that may come from cycling. Runners tend to need more iron than swimmers and cyclists because impact excersizes seem to be more taxing on your system in terms of the way it needs its oxygen. Some of this I've thought of in the past but some was reenforced by Brandan Braziers book.

I am a runner! hah, that's why recently I've been watching my iron

a bit more.. I am also a cyclist and swimmer though, so maybe I'm in the middle? either way.. I do think my body just isn't absorbing the iron in

the supplements and it throws my body 'out of whack' for the day...

I'll probably just put more greens in my smoothies, and forget buying

formulas with iron.. : )

Vitamin C is also important for iron absorbsion...supposedly you should have something with a lot of vitamin C within 3 hours of eating iron...the only time I really do this is when I have my morning raw oatmeal with strawberries and molasses(the iron source)...I also drink dilluted juice on my bike rides which has more vitamin C. Other than that I don't really think about it...I never really did either but at the same time I was a shot putter so I don't think iron was that much of an issue other than when I was doing clean and jerks and stuff like that. I do jumprope for an hour on the days I need to rest my butt...on those days I normally ride 40 miles then come home for the rope...so I'd think thats a little taxing but I've never felt like I've needed more.

Are you training for triathlons??? I'd like to do them but my swimmings weak now and my running has never been good. I was an awesome swimmer before I started loosing all this fat(swimming runs in the fam)...now I sink and it kills my wrists(another one of the reasons I stopped throwing the shot)...and I'm a fast runner so long as its a short distance...gotta work on the longer stuff for cross training. But I think running will be the event I don't like...my coach(pro triathlete) said everyones got one they'd rather not do. So I'm just waiting for them to make a triathlon that starts with a swim, then bike and end with a jumproping marathon...then I'd be good!!!