Where has All the Iron Gone?

FOR RELEASE: Mon., Jan. 20
ACS News Service
Contacts:
Print media:
Sophie Wilkinson, 202/872-4443 (office), [email protected] Broadcast media:
Theresa Laranang-Mutlu, 202/872-4371 (office), [email protected]
For a copy of the full article:
Sally Pecor, 202/872-4451 (office), [email protected] 1/13/97 #12117

News Summary

WHERE HAS ALL THE IRON GONE?

You may not be getting enough, though orange juice could help

Americans who avoid red meat may not be getting enough iron in their diet, according to research reported in the January issue of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural & Food Chemistry, due to be published on Jan. 20.

Meat, fish and poultry (MFP) contribute only about 20 percent of the total iron consumed in the typical American diet. But MFP accounts for more than 50 percent of the iron that the body actually absorbs. One reason for this discrepancy is that MFP contains a type of iron heme iron that is absorbed much better than the nonheme iron found in other foods. It has been difficult for dietitians to work this difference in bioavailability into their recommendations, says Charles Carpenter of the nutrition and food sciences department at Utah State University in Logan. The problem is that "most literature on the mineral composition of foods contains only total iron analyses with no breakdown into the heme and nonheme iron fractions," Carpenter says.

In addition, the iron data for MFP is often based on uncooked products. But the researchers point out that Americans are becoming more dependent on processed foods, which now account for nearly three-quarters of their diet. Unfortunately, "processing degrades the highly bioavailable heme iron into the less available nonheme iron," making it important to "consider heme and nonheme iron concentrations in the meat products as normally consumed," Carpenter says.

Making matters more complicated is that the relative amounts of meat, fish and poultry in the typical diet are changing. "Fish and chicken are perceived as leaner and healthier than red meats," Carpenter says. "Consequently, consumption of red meat has declined 14 percent since peaking in 1975, the consumption of poultry has tripled since 1960, and the consumption of fish has increased about 20 percent since 1960.

Given these trends, Carpenter and his Utah State colleagues decided to examine the total, heme and nonheme iron in ready-to-eat deep-fried chicken bought from fast-food restaurants and grocery store delis. Chicken breast had only 8 percent and chicken legs had only 32 percent of the amount of heme iron found in cooked ground beef. Because of the lower heme iron content of poultry, the trend in consumption patterns away from red meat towards more poultry may put people at risk for iron deficiency, Carpenter concludes. "The impact for people who consume a high proportion of MFP as white meat such as fish or poultry, is that they will absorb significantly less iron than nutritionists assumed." He warns that women of reproductive age and adolescents are of special concern because of the large demands for iron imposed by menstruation and growth. Vegetarians are at even greater risk, because all of their iron is in the less-absorbable nonheme form. They can combat the problem to some extent by drinking orange juice with their meals to improve iron absorption.
# # # #