Figure used for iron %

nosiesta
nosiesta Posts: 1 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi. Sorry I know that this has probably been asked before, but I can’t get the search to work today.

Iron is reported as a %, but does anyone know for certain what figure is used in this calculation? ie, x % of what?

Replies

  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    percent of daily value i would think. same as any other nutrient
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,122 Member
    If it's coming from U.S. food labels, it's % of 18 mg, which is the recommended amount for women in their reproductive/menstruating years. Men and post-menstrual women only need 8 mg (or about 45% if you're looking at the % in MFP or food labels). I think pregnant and/or lactating women need more than 18 mg., but I'm not sure how much more (thinking 27 mg), and am too lazy to look it up at the moment.

    Another thing to remember is that database entries are for the most part user-created, and many people put the raw milligrams in when they create an entry, which will be much less than the %. I have noticed that U.S. nutrition labels are increasingly listing "Iron, 1.8 mg, 10%," for example, and users grab the first number they see. Or when they create an entry using info from the USDA nutrient database, which just lists the raw amounts (mgs), they don't convert it to %.

  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    I'm anemic and can attest to many of the USER-created entries having incorrect iron values.

    ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database can have their own issues, but I have never noticed a problem with the nutrients.

    Unfortunately, the green check marks in the MFP database are used for both USER-created entries and ADMIN-created entries that MFP pulled from the USDA database. A green check mark for USER-created entries just means enough people have upvoted the entry - it is not necessarily correct.

    To find ADMIN entries for whole foods, I get the syntax from the USDA database and paste that into MFP.

    https://fdc.nal.usda.gov

    Use the “SR Legacy” tab - that seems to be what MFP used to pull in entries.

    Note: any MFP entry that includes "USDA" was USER entered.

    For packaged foods, I verify the label against what I find in MFP. (Alas, you cannot just scan with your phone and assume what you get is correct.)

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