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The Iron Metabolism of Young Women on Two Levels of Intake

New York State College of Home Economics and the School of Nutrition, Cornell University, Ithaca

Five women 18 years of age were maintained for 10 weeks on a controlled diet. The total period was divided into a two-week adjustment period and two 4-week experimental periods. During the first experimental period the diet contained 7 mg of iron a day and during the second period sufficient beef was added to raise the intake to 10.4 mg.

On the intake containing approximately 7 mg of iron a day, retentions for the 5 subjects were 0.26, 0.43, 0.61, 0.64 and 1.33 mg per day. The amount of iron needed per day to replace menstrual losses for 4 subjects was 0.62, 0.52, 0.58 and 0.50 mg; no value is reported for the fourth subject because the menstrual cycles were atypical. The retentions for three subjects were approximately the same as the amount needed to replace menstrual losses, and for one subject were less than the amount needed. The retentions were too low for safety because even in the three cases where retentions corresponded to menstrual losses no margin existed to care for small losses not usually included in balance experiments.

On the intake of approximately 10.4 mg of iron, retentions for the 5 subjects were 1.77, 1.79, 1.80, 2.37 and 2.53 mg per day. These retentions were more than adequate to satisfy the needs of the subjects. It should be noted that these high retentions were obtained on a diet containing beef in every meal.