American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 25, 582-588, Copyright © 1972 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

Dietary zinc intake in man

¹ From the Metabolic Section, Veterans Administration Hospital, Hines, Illinois 60141

1) The daily dietary zinc intake, as well as the amounts of zinc contained in individual meals, was determined in constant metabolic diets and in hospital diets.

2) The total zinc content in nine hospital diets was found to vary by more than a factor of 2, ranging from 7.0 to 16.3 mg zinc/day and averaging 11.3 mg zinc. The variability of the zinc content of these diets was due to differences in their composition, depending on the protein and carbohydrate content of the meals.

3) A total of 138 constant metabolic diets was analyzed for zinc over a 4-year period. The zinc content of these diets varied little, ranging from 11.6 to 12.7 mg/day in each of the 4 years and averaging 12.2 mg.

4) The analysis of diets of low and high protein content, as well as the analysis of single food items, indicated that the foods and diets high in protein were also high in zinc, whereas those foods and diets containing mostly carbohydrate, were found to be much lower in zinc and nitrogen content.