Eating for Two: Brown Rice with Lentils and Apricots
I’ve always been a little smug about avoiding anemia and iron deficiency. In my mid-twenties my primary care doctor would always explain that it was not uncommon in women my age, but that I was doing just fine. Chalking this up to my weekly hamburger and generally robust constitution, I patted myself on the back and felt a little sorry for wan girls who subsisted on undressed salad greens, thought of Tasti D-Lite as a treat, and had to pop vitamins to maintain enough strength to spend an hour on the elliptical trainer or to hoist their enormous designer bags.
Alas, My Iron Levels Are Sub-Optimal
Fast forward half a decade or so to today, when things are a little different. Now that I know more about meat production, hamburgers are a rare treat. My twenty-seventh birthday seemed to be accompanied by a flurry of articles about my decreasing bone density and fertility, and so I braved the baffling vitamin aisles of the health food store to pick up calcium supplements. Today, pregnant, I’m slightly embarrassed by the little club of pill bottles in my kitchen: prenatal multivitamin, calcium, folic acid, and DHA. Yesterday after I had some bloodwork done my doctor told me I need to add 50 milligrams of iron a day to the lineup, destroying my silly old self-satisfaction with my vibrant red blood cells.
