On the Care and Feeding of Vegan Vampires

If you have issues with nutritional supplements or (non-graphic) discussion of lady business, this might not be the post for you. If you're curious about iron supplements, read on...

The idea that you can a make hardcore iron supplement out of flowers might sound slightly odd. Floradix, however, aim to do just that. I should admit that I haven't been taking it that long, but have taken it during and in the run-up to a special female time (can you feel the sarcasm dripping from my keyboard in that sentence? It is 'special' in that I have an excuse to lie around and eat chocolate. If only I had the time to do that!) which normally leaves me feeling like your average used dishcloth by this point, especially if I have to (*gasp*) do anything involving the expending of energy.

Floradix claim that their liquid supplement contains a form of iron that is easy to absorb. Some people have a problem absorbing plant-derived iron, and I've heard Floradix touted as a way around this. I normally take tablets - cheap Superdrug ones, and not every day for that matter - but Shark Week evidently calls for something more.

So does it work? Well, I'm not rollerblading through fountains in white jeans or whatever people do in tampon adverts these days. I'm sitting at my desk plodding away at some work at half the normal speed and feeling owie all over. (seriously, smut aside my hands and feet are not reproductive organs, so why do they have to hurt because the carpet's coming up in another department?) I get emo over random things and can't walk past a large object without crashing into it. I do, however, have functional energy levels. I can achieve something workwise, plus cook two meals from scratch (half the battle in health terms) and generally make use of my body and brain rather than lying around in bed all day. And it isn't because the party in my pants was less wild than usual.

I should warn you that some Floradix products contain honey. What I have is Floradix Floravital, which is made without honey - it is explicitly labelled as vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. I bought the smallest bottle, about £9 in Holland and Barrett - it doesn't go as far as I'd like for the price, so I may save it for the times when I need it most. People have described it as 'pleasantly flavoured' - I'm not sure I buy into that one. At first it just tastes like apple juice, but the aftertaste is slightly bloody. (Which makes sense, as iron is what gives blood its taste. Don't worry, I know this from sucking my finger when I get papercuts, not from anything more sinister!) This is why my first dose netted it the nickname 'vampire food'...