Iron absorption in raw and cooked bananas: a field study using stable isotopes in women
Sammanfattning
Background: Banana is a staple food in many regions with high iron deficiency and may be a
potential vehicle
for iron fortification. However, iron absorption from bananas is not known.
Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate total iron absorption from raw and cooked
bananas.
Design: Thirty women (34.996.6 years) from rural Mexico were randomly assigned to one of two
groups
each consuming: 1) 480 g/day of raw banana for 6 days, or 2) 500 g/day of cooked banana for 4 days.
Iron absorption was measured after extrinsically labeling with 2 mg of 58Fe and a reference dose of 6
mg 57Fe;
analysis was done using ICP-MS.
Results: Iron content in cooked bananas was significantly higher than raw bananas (0.53 mg/100 g
bananas vs.
0.33 mg/100 mg bananas, respectively) (pB0.001). Percent iron absorption was significantly higher in
raw bananas
(49.3921.3%) compared with cooked banana (33.9916.2%) (p0.035). Total amount of iron absorbed
from raw
and cooked bananas was similar (0.7790.33 mg vs. 0.8690.41 mg, respectively).
Conclusion: Total amount of absorbed iron is similar between cooked and raw bananas. The banana
matrix
does not affect iron absorption and is therefore a potential effective target for genetic modification for
iron
biofortification