In this three-part video series, I'll be doing a deep dive into iron.

We'll look at the ferretin blood test, what that tells us about iron stores, and why vegetarians

tend to hit the sweet spot, since higher levels are associated with chronic disease like

type 2 diabetes and cancer.

That's why you can decrease cancer rates when you bleed people through blood donations. What's the healthiest way to maintain optimal iron levels?

Let's dig in.

The ferretin blood test measures iron stores, and a typical normal value is in a 30-300 range.

Almost universally, vegetarians have lower ferretin levels than non-vegetarians,

for example 39 versus 77.

One of the largest studies ever done, using that 30 cutoff as a sign of iron deficiency,

about half of the menstruating vegetarians scored as iron deficient compared to only

about a third of the menstruating omnivores.

But lower iron stores may actually be better, shooting for scores between 15,

which is the World Health Organization's cut off for iron deficiency, and 50,

because levels above 50 are associated with disease.

In that case, it could be vegetarians are in the sweet spot,

because iron is a double-edged sword, producing free radicals

in the body that can cause oxidative damage to our proteins and varied DNA.

For example, high iron intake is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes, contributing to all the

cardinal features of the disease, and that's true across the normal

range of iron levels, not just for people with some kind of iron overload disease.

So the quote-unquote elevated ferretin, that's a risk factor for diabetes, can just be

...