In answer to Grahame King's letter "Unhealthy diet" (Mailbox, November 14), it would be interesting to know how many vegetarian and vegans he is speaking about?

I would say that they got anaemia due to poor eating, not because they were vegetarian or vegan!

When someone changes their meat diet and goes for a cruelty-free diet they must not eat loads of junk food or starve themselves eating only salads.

There are plenty of good vegan sources of iron, including black beans, bran flakes, cashews, chickpeas, grape nuts, kidney beans, lentils, navy beans, oatmeal, pumpkin seeds, dried fruit, prunes, raisins, soya beans, soya milk, spinach, sunflower seeds, tofu, black strap molasses and tomato juice. The list goes on and on!

Learn a little bit about iron. There are two types of iron: heme and non-heme. Non-heme iron makes up over half of the iron in animal tissue and all of the iron in plant foods (including nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables), but it is not absorbed as well as heme iron.

Eating foods rich in vitamin C greatly increases the absorption of non-heme iron.

Decrease intake of coffee and black tea. They contain polyphenols and tannins, which can interfere with iron absorption. Wonders such as broccoli and bok-choy, are high in both iron and vitamin C.

Conclusion: Vegetarians and vegans do not have a higher incidence of iron deficiency than do meat eaters.

Sue Daniels, Saddington.