American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 19, 132-136, Copyright © 1966 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Effect of a Low Iron Diet on Iron Absorption

¹ From the Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri

In order to test the applicability to human subjects of observations made in rats that a brief period of iron deprivation was associated with marked increases in iron absorption, human subjects were maintained on an iron-poor diet (1.5 to 2.9 mg. iron daily) for seven days, and on a diet containing approximately the normal daily intake of iron (14 to 15 mg.) for another seven days ("normal iron" diet.) The sequence of diets was varied, and three of the subjects on the normal iron diet were given 15 mg. of supplemental inorganic iron per day. Iron absorption using Fe⁵⁹-labeled ferrous sulfate was measured at the end of each seven day period. No consistent increase in iron absorption was observed after the period on the iron-poor diet.