Yah, I read that the red cells can take 4 - 6 weeks to fully replenish, so I intend to take some iron supplements for a while to help that process, especially as I'm vegetarian.
There are a lot of exclusions - I was surprised that if you have ever injected anything you shouldn't have, you are excluded indefinitely, or taken aspirin within the last two days, you can't donate a "whole blood" sample.
And the sex questions - you wouldn't want to be shy about your sex life. I was fine on that score, not having one.
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something like 4-6 weeks to replenish. and the blood donation center allows donations once every 8 weeks or so. which i used to do. anal retentively. for a long time. but then i noticed that i am just exhausted. tired. fatigued. paranoid about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. fibromyalgia. and i am 34 years old. i am getting old. and under 110 pounds.
for a while i took iron pills. they made me more constipated. and i was already pretty constipated. so stopped.
yeah i used to be a vegetarian 13 to 19 years old. and then gave it up. quit. when i was veg, my health seemed about the same as now. all other things being equal. which they are not. but it was just so inconvenient, to have to keep explaining to precious lil "people". and having to pick meat out dishes. and then what, throw it away? that's just as bad morally. if not worse. and seriously, granted, eating animals (meat) ain't great morally. but plenty of things are morally bad. but living things have to hurt other living things to continue living. right now, i eat about 1 serving of meat daily. seriously 1 serving. and usually it's the chicken or pig from the dumplings. and i hate cooking.
when i was 18, cooked bread, scones, pancakes, eggplant parmesan. but it just seems like it ain't worth the effort. and no matter what i do it is wrong. ate dumplings for dinner. for a lot of consecutive days. not consecutive days. but when i cook, it's always dumplings. never anything else.
spinach, broccoli, lentils, kale, bok choy, baked potato, sesame seeds, cashews, soybeans, dark chocolate, tofu, kidney beans contain a lot of iron.
but yeah. all other things being equal, it's harder to get enough iron as a vegetarian than as an onmnivore.
tofu makes me constipated. but. i. love. tofu. pretty much any method of cooking. inari from inari sushi. deep fried tofu. epicurean tofu. ma po tofu. i love tofu. even raw Silk tofu. although cooked tastes better. tofu has the umami taste. kind of like potatoes. savory. with fat. from getting deep fried. seriously i love tofu.
once in a while, i eat spinach.
sesame seeds come with the inari sushi from Whole Foods. four pieces for seven dollars.
safeway inari sushi does not have sesame seeds. yeah i noticed that. four pieces for five dollars. actually i like safeway sushi more than whole foods. safeway sushi is sweeter. and the sushi sticks more. although i suspect that what makes it sweeter is that it took less money to make. and boiled the rice with too much water. but whatever.
i love inari tofu.
but the rest of them i do not eat.