Cereal Chem 64:399-402   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Effect of Meat-Bread Mixtures on Bioavailability of Total Dietary Iron for Anemic Rats.

A. M. Thannoun, A. W. Mahoney, D. G. Hendricks, and D. Zhang. Copyright 1987 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The effect of meat on total dietary iron bioavailability was determined using diets prepared in which the ratios of beef iron to bread iron were 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, or 0:100. Enriched white bread, whole wheat bread, and ground beef were lyophilized, ground, and incorporated into diets balanced for iron, fat, and protein. Efficiencies of incorporating dietary iron into hemoglobin (hemoglobin regeneration efficiency) were determined using anemic, weanling, male Sprague-Dawley rats. Hemoglobin regeneration efficiencies for the respective mixtures of meat and white bread were 58, 51, 50, 56, and 41. Hemoglobin regeneration efficiencies for the respective mixtures of meat and whole wheat bread were 58, 57, 57, 55, and 53. Hemoglobin regeneration efficiency for the FeSO4 diet was 64. The bioavailabilities of white bread, whole wheat bread, and beef relative to FeSO4 were 64, 83, and 91%, respectively. Beef did not enhance the bioavailability of total iron in diets prepared with either bread.