. "Appendix I Iron Intakes and Estimated Percentile of the Distribution of Iron Requirements from the Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII), 1994-1996." Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Arsenic, Boron, Chromium, Copper, Iodine, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Nickel, Silicon, Vanadium, and Zinc. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2001.
a Source: Whitney EN, Rolfes SR. 1996. Understanding Nutrition, 7th ed. St. Paul: West Publishing; Pennington JAT. 1998. Bowes and Church’s Food Values of Portions Commonly Used, 17th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
b The CSFII database provides total food energy (average of 2 days) and the proportion of energy from each of 14 food groups. The iron content of each food was determined from appropriate references (expressed as iron content per 100 kcal), thus the iron content of each food was calculated. The results are based on a total daily energy intake of 1,345 kcal (n = 1,868) as reported in CSFII.
c Calculated as shown above. Based on a total daily energy intake of 1,665 kcal (n = 1,711) as reported in CSFII. According to the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the median intake of iron by infants is 15.5 mg/day; the iron mainly comes from fortified formulas and cereals, with smaller amounts from vegetables, pureed meats and poultry. It is estimated that the absorption of iron from fortified cereals is in the range of 6 percent, from breast milk 50 percent, and from meat, 20 percent.