Home > Chronic Diseases > Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada > Vol 32, No 2, March 2012 > Text Equivalent - Dietary supplement use and iron, zinc and folate intake in pregnant women in London, Ontario
Figure 1 shows histograms depicting the distributions of the three micronutrients. While total zinc intake follows a reasonably normal distribution, the distributions for total iron intake and total folate (DFE) intake are bimodal, each showing two distinct peaks. For both micronutrients, one peak was below the RDA level while the other was above. The peaks correspond to the stratum-specific mean estimates in Table 3; in other words, the bimodal distributions are a function of dietary supplement use.
We found that a significant proportion of women had dietary intakes of iron, zinc and folate that ranked below the RDA values. Nutrient intake from food alone was particularly low, supporting other Canadian studies that suggested that it is difficult for pregnant women to meet recommendations for key micronutrients from food alone.