Algorithms for Iron and Zinc Bioavailability: Are they Accurate?
2010
Hunt, Janet R.
Several bioavailability algorithms have been proposed for iron and zinc, confirming the need for these tools while emphasizing the challenge of deriving algorithms with accepted accuracy. This manuscript briefly reviews current evidence on the accuracy of proposed algorithms. Iron absorption is strongly influenced by both body iron status and dietary availability, and most evidence suggests that these do not interact. There is considerable evidence of a logarithmic relationship between percent iron absorption and serum ferritin that allows a simple and accurate computation of how human iron status affects absorption (in the absence of inflammation). Computing the effect of dietary variation on nonheme iron absorption has been challenging because of multiple influential dietary factors and incomplete knowledge of their chemical characteristics, food composition, interactions, and dose-response relationships. At present there is no fully validated algorithm for dietary iron bioavailability. Predicting zinc absorption is less complex. Fractional zinc absorption is substantially influenced by the amount of zinc consumed, and this factor, together with ingested phytic acid, account for a considerable degree of the variance. A multivariate saturation model based on these two variables has been derived using data from multiple studies and independently validated with a single large data set.
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