Dietary approaches to assessing iron-related nutrition.
OBJECTIVE
Both dietary and nondietary factors contribute to iron deficiency, the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide. Identifying dietary factors associated with iron deficiency is challenging due to the number of components in food affecting iron absorption. This review describes recent advances in dietary approaches to assessing iron-related nutrition.


RESULTS
Most research investigating the relationship between dietary intake and iron deficiency has focussed on individual foods and nutrients, despite several components in foods influencing iron absorption. More recently, studies have considered the overall diet and combinations of foods eaten, through the analysis of dietary patterns and practices. This includes the development and validation of dietary assessment tools to assess iron-related dietary patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
Dietary pattern analysis which considers the whole diet and combinations of foods eaten may enhance our understanding of how diet impacts on iron deficiency. The analysis of dietary patterns offers an alternative and complementary approach to the traditional focus on individual foods and nutrients when investigating dietary factors associated with iron deficiency.
aInstitute of Food Nutrition and Human Health, Massey University, North Shore City bDepartment of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Kathryn L
KL
Beck
Anne-Louise M
AL
Heath
D018798:Anemia, Iron-Deficiency / Q000188:drug therapy; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D006801:Humans; D019266:Iron, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D019266:Iron, Dietary