Food iron absorption in man. I. Isotopic exchange between food iron and inorganic iron salt added to food: studies on maize, wheat, and eggs

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Abstract
The present study was a first step in testing the hypothesis that food iron can be regarded as a two-pool system (heme and non-heme) with respect to absorption. Biologically, radioiron-labeled foods (maize, wheat, and eggs) were mixed with an inorganic different radioiron tracer during preparation of the food. The absorption of the two tracers was almost identical in each of the foods studied. This was valid in spite of a great individual variation in absorption both within and between groups, indicating that there was a complete isotopic exchange between the biological label and the added tracer. The absorption of iron from the three foods differed markedly, which may be due not only to different chemical forms of the non-heme iron compounds in the foods but also to the presence of other compounds favoring or inhibiting iron absorption.

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