Iron absorption from typical Latin American diets

Abstract

The availability and daily absorption of iron was determined by the extrinsic label method in typical lower middle to lower class diets consumed in regions of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Differences in iron absorption from meals up to 7-fold, could be attributed to the varying contents of absorption enhancers, eg, in meat, and of inhibitors in tea, vegetables, and wheat or maize bread. The total iron available in the diets from four countries did not meet the physiological requirements for normal subjects but deficient subjects fulfilled their requirements absorbing from 1.0 to 2.1 mg/day. In five diets heme iron (6 to 24% of the total) provided 34 to 73% of the iron absorbed. These data suggest that such absorption and utilization studies may be used to correlate the prevalence of iron deficiency in a population with certain diets and to guide fortification programs.

Iron bioavailability and dietary reference values

“…These values compare well to the reported iron absorption from typical Latin American diets based on radioisotope studies, which ranged from 7.5% to 13.4% (100). The IOM similarly used the results of 16.8% of a single radio-iron absorption study to estimate iron bioavailability from the American diet in subjects with no iron stores who consumed a self-selected diet over a 2-wk period (60,101).…”

Comparison betweenin vitroandin vivomethods to screen iron bioavailability

“…They were selected above others (Acosta et al, 1984;Garcı´a-Casal et al, 2003;Gillooly et al, 1984;Hettiarachchi, Hilmers, Lyanage, & Abrams, 2004;Olivares, Pizarro, Hertrampf, Fuenmayor, & Este´vez, 2007;Pizarro et al, 2006) because the recipes were published, all ingredients could be purchased, and the in vivo results for each participant in the study were published. Additionally, the second recipe was selected because it is based on beans and corn.…”

Anemia e deficiência de ferro em gestantes adolescentes

“…Em nosso meio, a baixa qualidade de vida da população determina o consumo de dietas quantitativamente inadequadas em ferro, que além disso contêm feijão, e não produtos de origem animal como vísceras e carnes vermelhas como principal fonte do mineral (Szarfarc, 1983a;Acosta et al, 1984;Fujimori et al, 1987;Fujimori, 1994 A prática alimentar foi levantada, utilizando-se uma listagem de alimentos, os quais deveriam ser checados se consumidos ou não no dia anterior à consulta. Sua caracterização foi feita por meio de distribuição da freqüência dos alimentos consumidos, segundo grupos de alimentos.…”