Iron

According to James Dinicolantonio:

Radiotracer study finds that heme-iron absorption is SATURABLE. The study shows that we can only absorb 2 mg of iron from heme iron! What does this mean? This highly suggests a risk of iron deficiency anemia on strict carnivore which I recently had someone message me that they DID develop iron deficiency anemia after 9 months of carnivore. -
So while heme iron may have greater bioavailability than non-heme iron it appears we can only absorb 2 mg. And while eating carnivore does provide some non-heme iron as well, many plant foods are very high in non-heme iron and the bioavailability of that non-heme iron will be dramatically increased with vitamin C or consuming along with meat. -
Additional side note - we can’t move iron around the body without enough copper. Unless a carnivore is eating oysters or liver their copper intake will be very low and low copper has been shown to cause iron deficiency anemia. -
Do I think only eating steak and eggs is an ideal diet? No I don’t. Even incorporating liver still has issues with ✅Low thiamine (B1).
✅Low potassium.
✅Low bioavailable iron. ✅Low vitamin C.
✅Low manganese.
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Don’t just blinded follow advice from someone who really hasn’t researched nutrition. Nutrition is EXTREMELY complex. I of course would love it too if eating just steak and eggs and even a little liver was the best healthiest diet and that carnivore was all what it’s cracked up to be. However, having people message me that they developed iron deficiency anemia or were hospitalized on carnivore after 9 months because they couldn’t breathe supports my notions of subclinical and now clinical deficiencies on carnivore
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If you want the hard truth please continue to follow me. I’m not going to hold back any punches on potential harms of ANY diet. I’m not here to promote a particular diet. I’m here to give you guys the really important information that matters when it comes to nutrition.
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Additional side note - when you cook meat you break the porphyrin ring converting heme iron to free iron ions further reducing iron absorption and increasing free iron ions in the GI tract that may damage gut microbiome.