Soluble dietary nutritional labeling

Dietary fiber is the accepted terminology ia the United States for nutritional labeling. Total dietary fiber (I DF) and its subfractions, insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) and soluble dietary fiber (SDF), are defined analytically by official methods (3—5). 

Monoferric phytate is the major fraction of iron in wheat bran, and is a highly bioavailable form of dietary iron in contrast to insoluble di- or tetra-ferric phytate. Monoferric phytate equilibrates with the miscible nonheme iron pool of a meal in extrinsic label iron absorption tests. Whole wheat bran depressed absorption by humans of nonheme iron in a meal. Dephytinized wheat bran also inhibited nonheme iron absorption by humans and the inhibition could not be clearly attributed to either the insoluble or soluble fractions of the dephytinized bran. Adult men who consumed 36 g of wheat bran per day had positive iron balances. Iron balance was not increased when dephytinized bran was consumed. The form of ferric phytate must be known to properly explain the effect of phytic acid on iron absorption. The overall meal composition must be considered to evaluate the effect of wheat bran on iron nutrition of humans. 

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