Tar_alcaran,

It’s a bit of both. Diet, volume and biology.

Humans mostly absorb iron through the duodenum, which is a very short bit of intestine near the stomach.

Herbivores, on the other hand, have either massively complex systems of stomachs, chew their cud to make nutrients more absorbable, or letting food ferment before digesting. The latter also works for humans, if you like fermented veggies.

Of course, diet also matters. Humans don’t eat all that high iron foods, but grass is a cow’s main food source and it’s high in iron.

CanadaPlus,

Are we actually that bad at absorbing iron? Honest question, I always assumed it was a matter of the amount of iron in there in the first place.

TheBananaKing,

We suck at it. Read ferinstance this

CanadaPlus,

I’m having trouble finding a comparable number for other animals, though. Apparently for a lot of trace elements (like copper or selenium) ruminants are actually much worse at absorption, because the microbes essentially put them into a less available form.

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