Also contains 100% Folate -- not folic acid
"[+] THE REVIEW
This is a great product. What I found amazing is that it also contains 400 mcg of Folate (not folic acid) 100% daily allowance. This is important because it is almost impossible to get Folate as a supplement. The Folate is produced as part of the whole food process in creating the supplement. This is a great bonus!! Taking too much folic acid can be harmful because the body needs to convert folic acid to Folate. Folate, on the other hand, is what is found in foods and it is what our bodies metabolize. As we age, our body converts less folic acid to Folate thereby leaving more folic acid in the body. As the folic acid builds up, it can cause problems of its own (google it). Therefore, especially if you are getting older, pay attention to how much folic acid you consume through supplements. Because this is Folate, it is already in the natural form that would be ingested as with any foods we eat. Great product for Iron, but also great product for Folate!!! This is just one example of why GOL is a superior company for supplements.
Note: I am confident the Folate is derived from the whole food process and not "Folate (as Folic Acid)" as you will see on other supplements. But, I wanted to confirm it, so I call GOL product support and the representative I talked to said that their science team did verify the Folate is the natural form of Folate being produced from the whole food process (i.e., not synthetic Folic Acid being added as Folate).
[+] WHAT MAKES A GOOD IRON SUPPLEMENT?
We've heard about nutrition being more "bioavailable." For example, coenzymed vitamins are in a form that is ready for cells to use which makes it more bioavailable. Minerals are chelated in advance to allow them to be absorbed through the intestinal wall which makes them more bioavailable. So what makes iron more bioavailable? Well, I figured this out and the answer is small particle size. You see, I found out that a very, very small amount of iron is used within the hemoglobin structure (i.e., the red blood cell). In fact, this structure is composed of four polypeptide chains with each chain containing only 1 atom of iron meaning 4 iron atoms is all that is needed to make one red blood cell. Yep, you read that right - 4 atoms. So, knowing that, what makes iron more bioavailable is small particle size. The smaller the particle size, the more surface area that is available for "an atom" of iron to be pealed off the "chuck" of iron (in relative terms even a small shaving of iron is a huge chunk when we are only talking about 1 atom).
This is why I believe GOL to have a superior iron supplement. Because GOL uses a whole food process, only the smaller particles of iron are picked up by the cells (in the whole food process when creating the supplement) because it makes sense that a cell can't absorb large particles. When the supplement is digested in the human GI tract, the particles of iron are at the "right" size for bioavailable consumption. Then single atoms are pealed away to be available to be used in creating red blood cells. For iron, bioavailability is all about physics. The smaller the particle size, the more surface area available to peel off single iron atoms. I also suspect the smaller iron particle size is why this product is less likely to upset the stomach because there is less "left over" iron for your body to expel after single atoms are pealed away.
[+] IRON ABSORPTION (8/1/2018 update)
I talked to Lee, the garden of life representative. The GOL iron in this supplement is non-heme iron in the form of Ferrous Sulfate. This typically has an absorption rate of 2-20%; however, GOL reports that combining the iron in a whole food process increases the absorption such that it is possible to absorb the full 120%. For example, I have read that digesting Iron with Vitamin C can increase Iron absorption by 30%. Note that each person's absorption rate will vary; for example, a person with Iron deficiency will absorb more Iron than someone not deficient. Therefore, it would be virtually impossible to state the actual absorption of the product for any one individual. GOL states that they provide the constituents to maximize Iron absorption up to the 120%.
I did some searching about this subject, and there is little specific information on how the non-heme iron actually gets absorbed. I suspect that it acts similar to other minerals in that it needs to bind to a substance to be pulled across the intestinal wall much like other minerals that need to be chelated to amino acids to be absorbed. The iron in this product is Ferrous Sulfate, which is ionic (meaning it needs an electron). Vitamin C has an extra electron. Normally this extra electron is pulled from the Vitamin C when it is acting as an antioxidant. However, I suspect that this extra electron binds it to the ionic Ferrous Sulfate Iron. When the Vitamin C gets absorbed, so does the iron. I suspect this is why Vitamin C increases the absorption of iron, but it's just a guess on my part.
[+] HEME vs. NON-MEME IRON (8/1/2018 update)
Heme Iron is found in meat/animal products. This type of iron is already is already bound to a protein, which makes it easier to be absorbed by the small intestine. Because it is found in animal tissue, the iron is already broken down to a single atom (i.e., the animal that digested the non-heme iron did the work of breaking down the iron into a single atom to be used). Non-heme iron is found in plants, and is considered elemental iron. The body has the ability to regulate the absorption of non-heme iron better than heme iron; therefore, for most people, it would be safer to digest a plant based non-heme iron, which is what this product contains.
[+] GOL MAKES ANOTHER GOOD IRON SUPPLEMENT:
Garden of Life makes another good iron supplement in addition to this one. It is "
Great Supplement
"This is a great source of iron, with the C to help absorb and B to pep energy. It's loaded with other good stuff too. Although it's not recommended to do, I can take it on an empty stomach and mine is quite finicky! This is one of those I have reordered several times and shared with friends and family as well. It's that good! Thank you Vitamin Code!"
