Improving iron absorption by decreasing molar ratio of iron: zinc from 6:1 to 3:1 in the 'Thriposha' dietary supplement.

Abstract

Thriposha programme as a community level nutrition intervention has been in existence to combat high prevalence of childhood malnutrition and iron deficiency anaemia in Sri Lanka. The word thriposha means 'Triple Nutrient' as it provides energy, protein and micronutrients. It is a pre-cooked 'ready-to-eat' cereal legume based food. We have determined the bioavailability of iron from thriposha formula at two molar ratios of iron:zinc with a view to improve iron absorption. Schoolchildren (n=29) of 4-7 years randomized into two groups (iron:zinc molar ratio 6:1 and 3:1) were given a meal prepared with 25g of Thriposha containing either 4.5mg of iron as ferrous fumarate and 0.75mg of zinc as zinc sulphate (group A); or 2.25 mg of iron and 0.75 mg of zinc 57 58 (group B). Meals were labelled with Fe whereas Fe ferrous sulphate was used as the reference dose. There was no difference between the groups in iron absorption from meals (4.4% ±2.6 vs. 6.6% when analyzed by ANCOV A with reference dose absorption as a covariate, absorption of 57 Fe ppeared significantly different between the groups (p=0.01). When normalized to reference dose absorption of 40%, ferrous fumarate absorption in both gro����s was good (9.6% vs. 13.6%). We conclude that ferrous fumarate is well absorbed from the food, but decreasing the molar ratio of iron:zinc from 6: 1 to 3: 1 slightly, but significantly, increased iron absorption.