GP just posted a table showing there is more iron in non-meat sources than in meat sources.
Iron is not an issue for any vegan I know. Spinach, beans, kale, etc are all super loaded with it.
See my other reply on the differences between heme and non-heme iron. You can’t just compare the mg figures listed on those tables. Many vegans and vegetarians test positive for iron deficiency [1].
FWIW the exact same thing is true of protein. Most people just think protein = protein, but it's not. Protein digestibility and amino acid balance vary radically, but tends to be very poor in non-meat sources. There's a table of scores for various foods here. [1] You can find the DIAAS score for most any food with a quick search.
So for example, fava beans are called high protein. 200g of fava beans has 220 calories, 15g protein, and a digestibility of 0.55. 200g of chicken breast has 220 calories, 46g of protein, and a digestibility of 1.08. You're getting about 6x as much protein in the chicken breast there. If somebody wants to maintain a relatively high protein diet, they're simply not going to be able to do that on a vegan/vegetarian diet unless they just start downing endless protein powder shakes.
Tofu e.g. has DIAAS of 0.97 and ~18g protein per 100g (checked the one in my fridge).
If you really need a lot of protein, you can just cook stuff with tvp, that usually has dry 50% protein, but I've seen also seen 75%. You basically hydrate it with water, add a bunch of spices cook, and eat it with whatever else you'd like.
I don't think there is a big difference for the average consumer, consider some processed stuff:
Protein/100g from the products on the rewe online store:
Vegan Nuggets: 9, 11, 3x13, 15, 17
Chicken Nuggets: 2x12, 13, 2x15, 16
Beef Burger: 17, 2x18
Vegan Burger: 10, 13, 2x14, 3x17
Salami: 3x21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26
Vegan Salami: 2x8, 29, 32, 2x33
Reguarding DIAAS, soy and pea protein seem to be the most used and have 0.89 and 0.82 DIAAS respectively.
This depends on dietary preferences. I prefer not to touch processed stuff, vegan or not, because that also introduces a million other new health issues and variables. For instance even with something as simple as pea protein you're looking at countless viable issues depending on exactly how it was processed. There's an entire paper on it here. [1] That paper is painfully unreadable and I link to it only to emphasize the complexities involved in processing food.
My issue is pretty simple. A quick look around the world today, compared to how things were not that long ago, shows we're probably not only moving way too fast in terms of changing what we consume, but we also seem to be going very much in the wrong direction. So my main focus in diet is sticking with what worked in the past.
Vegetable sources of iron are called non-heme iron, in contrast to meat which is heme iron. Heme iron is readily absorbed and used by the body whereas non-heme iron is not [1]. Note that this applies to humans, not other animals. Cows are far better at absorbing these nutrients from plant sources than we are.
