Iron absorption from typical Latin American diets.

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.