Fortification of vegetarian diets for increasing bioavailable iron densityusing green leafy vegetables

There is a high prevalence of iron deficiency anaemia in many developing co untries today; especially in vegetarian women. The major cause of this stat e is low bioavailability of nonheme iron from vegetarian diets. An investig ation was undertaken to improve bioavailable contents of nonheme iron from vegetarian meals. Forty-eight meals with combinations of roti (unleavened w hole cereal pancake) of one of the six cereals and one of the four commonly consumed green leafy vegetables (GLV) along with 35 meals with cereal roti and fruit vegetable/legume were tested for their in vitro dialysability of iron using simulated gastrointestinal conditions and standardised protocol with Fe-59 as a tracer. Average bioavailable iron density of GLV-based mea ls was significantly higher (1.2+/-0.7 mg/1000 kcal) as against the value i n prevailing dietary patterns having cereal-legume or cereal-fruit vegetabl e combinations (0.36+/-0.17 mg/1000 kcal, p less than or equal to 0.001). A round 31 GLV-based meals were identified as having higher amounts of bioava ilable iron density than 0.75 mg/1000 kcal. Thus, one such GLV-based meal p er day will increase gross as well as bioavailable iron intake which will h elp in meeting daily requirements of iron especially for vegetarian women o f reproductive age. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology. All rights reserved .