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Iron
An essential mineral with seven authorised EU health claims, and one of the easiest to get wrong. Your body has no active way to get rid of extra iron, so it is never part of anything everyone receives. The one formula that carries it is designed around a blood test, and it is still in development.
WHAT WE ARE ALLOWED TO SAY
Seven claims. All of them authorised.
These are the wordings on the EU register for iron, and we do not paraphrase them into something that sounds stronger. All seven carry the same condition: the product has to be at least a source of iron under Regulation (EC) 1924/2006. ADAPT-03 serves 28 mg, which is 200% of the NRV.These are the wordings on the EU register for iron, and we do not paraphrase them. All seven need the product to be at least a source of iron. ADAPT-03 serves 200% of the NRV.
None of the seven is a claim about anaemia. Iron deficiency anaemia is a diagnosis for your doctor, not something a supplement treats. And a claim is not a reason to take iron. ADAPT-03 is designed around a blood test (ferritin under 30 ng/ml); a reported iron-deficiency anaemia in the questionnaire also points to it, and ferritin is not in our blood panel yet. Extra iron is not harmless.
WHY BISGLYCINATE
The claims do not change. The side effects do.
The seven claims attach to iron, not to a particular salt, so the form is not a claim argument and we do not use it as one. At usual doses iron can cause nausea, stomach pain, constipation, dark stools and a metallic taste. Our notes record those as more common with sulfate, and that is why we chose bisglycinate.
The cheapest form and the usual reference in clinical guidelines. Our notes record it at 5–15% absorbed, with a metallic taste and more stomach side effects. We rule it out for our doses.
Microencapsulated ferric pyrophosphate has little taste and is used to fortify liquids. It is on file as an alternative, not as what we chose.
Iron chelated to glycine. Our notes record it at 25–40% absorbed, with fewer stomach side effects than sulfate, and it is also well tolerated with food.
Better absorption and fewer side effects are what our notes and the studies we cite report. They are not authorised claims, so you will not read them on a label. There is also an open point we would rather write down: our own files mark bisglycinate as sensitive to oxygen and not stable in liquid, and VION doses are liquid.Better absorption and fewer side effects are not authorised claims. And our own files mark bisglycinate as not stable in liquid, while VION doses are liquid.
WHERE IT APPEARS
One of the twenty-nine carries iron.
ADAPT-03 is a blood-test formula for low iron, and it is still in development: ferritin, the marker it depends on, is not in our current blood panel yet. Iron stays out of anything given to everyone, because extra iron builds up, especially in men and after menopause.
THE CEILING
45 mg a day, and your diet counts.
EFSA has not formally set an upper limit for iron; its review was still open when our file was written. The figure we work to is the US one, 45 mg a day for adults and 40 mg under 18, and it covers food as well as supplements. An average Spanish diet already brings 10 to 14 mg, which is why the engine adds up iron across your formulas and leaves a margin for your diet, instead of checking each formula on its own.EFSA has not formally set an upper limit for iron. We work to the US one, 45 mg a day, food included, and an average Spanish diet already brings 10 to 14 mg.
If iron ever sat in two active formulas, our engine notes set a cap of 30 mg a day on the total from formulas, to leave room for what you eat. Separately, the engine adds up iron across your formulas and blocks one that would push that total past the upper limit before it is recommended.
ADAPT-03 runs 12 weeks at 28 mg. Ferritin and haemoglobin are rechecked at the end, and if they are back in range it stops. A second course needs a 90-day pause first, and there are no more than two a year. Germany's BfR suggests 6 mg a day for everyday supplements; ADAPT-03 is above that on purpose, so it is kept short and checked.
Contraindicated with hereditary haemochromatosis (HFE), thalassaemia and other iron-loading anaemias, sideroblastic anaemia, porphyria cutanea tarda, active chronic hepatitis without a confirmed deficiency, and an active bacterial infection. ADAPT-03, the only formula that carries iron, is not given if you have liver disease (hepatitis C, fatty liver, cirrhosis), or if you take a vitamin K antagonist anticoagulant such as warfarin or acenocoumarol (because of the vitamin C in it). Stop and ask a doctor if you notice yellowing skin or eyes, unusual tiredness, abdominal pain or dark urine. With cancer or kidney disease, only with a confirmed deficiency and under medical control; in pregnancy or breastfeeding, only if a deficiency is confirmed or your obstetrician recommends it. Keep it out of the reach of children: an accidental iron overdose can be fatal.
WHAT IT REACTS WITH
Documented pairs, not hunches.
Iron is one of the 140 ingredients in our library, so it has 139 possible partners. We have documented 15 of them, out of the 443 pairs on file, plus two medicines. More than half say the same thing: whatever binds iron in your gut has to be kept away from it.
Vitamin C turns iron into a form your gut takes up more easily; in our notes, 50 mg of it doubles the absorption of non-haem iron. The engine rule is 50–250 mg of vitamin C in the same dose as iron, and ADAPT-03 carries 80 mg. B12 and folate are documented as partners in the same blend.
Polyphenols in coffee and tea can cut iron absorption by a large share taken at the same time (30–90%, depending on the source). With ADAPT-03, coffee, tea and dairy stay at least 2 hours away (the general engine rule for caffeine is at least 1 hour). Turmeric stays 2–3 hours away, milk thistle 2 hours and menthol an hour. Activated charcoal never shares a dose and stays 3 hours apart; white clay, konjac glucomannan and psyllium are kept 2 hours away, and plantain in a separate dose. Calcium is kept to the evening, iron to the morning.
Iron binds levothyroxine and quinolone antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin in the gut, and both are rated high severity: keep iron at least 4 hours from levothyroxine and 2 to 6 hours from quinolones. Our files also list tetracyclines, bisphosphonates, levodopa, methyldopa, captopril, penicillamine, allopurinol, chloramphenicol, antacids and acid-reducing medication such as omeprazole. If you take any of them, ask your doctor before starting.
443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not "safe", they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.443 of the 9,730 possible pairs in our library are documented, which is 4.55%. The rest are not safe, they are simply unchecked, and we would rather write that down than let the number look like a badge.
SOURCES
Everything on this page, with its reference.
Reviewed by VION nutrition team · last reviewed 16 September 2026Read the introduction to Iron & Lipofer® →
140 INGREDIENTS · 64 IN USE TODAY
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What it is, what we are allowed to say about it, which formulas carry it, what it reacts with and where each of those statements comes from. No proprietary blends, no hidden amounts.