Zinc: Essential for a robust immune system

Here are the recommendations for daily zinc intake:

• The recommended zinc intake is 8 milligrams per day for women and 14 milligrams per day for men.
• Pregnant women should consume 9 milligrams of zinc per day, and 11 milligrams per day from the fourth month onwards.
• Breastfeeding mothers need 13 milligrams per day (this can also be easily covered with normal food).

Beware of a zinc overdose!

As a rule, the optimum zinc intake is achieved through a balanced diet that also includes meat and other animal products. The advantage of this is that an overdose of zinc, which could have a harmful effect, is not possible through diet alone. However, you should be careful with zinc supplements: You can easily exceed the maximum dose of zinc supplements if you take them in excess. For adults, for example, it is 40 milligrams per day. Excessive amounts of zinc can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach cramps and impairment of the immune system, among other things.

Zinc in food: Where is it found?

In general, zinc absorption from animal sources is more efficient for the body than from plant foods. This is because plants contain substances that can impair zinc absorption in the intestine. Nevertheless, many plants are also good sources of zinc.

These animal products are excellent sources of zinc:

• Oysters (they have the highest amounts of zinc)
• Meat (beef, poultry, pork)
• Sea fish and sea creatures
• Cheese, yoghurt and milk

These plant-based foods are rich in zinc:

• Beans Cereal products
• Nuts (such as cashew nuts or pecan nuts) and almonds
• Oatmeal
• Peas
• Pumpkin seeds

Factors that can impair zinc absorption

Wholemeal grains, cereals and vegetables are examples of plant foods that contain phytates. They can bind zinc and thus prevent the absorption of zinc from food, making the zinc in food less available to the body.

A high phytate intake is present if you consume a lot of non-sprouted or unfermented wholemeal products, such as fresh grain porridge, as well as many pulses, but little or no animal protein. In this case, zinc absorption in the intestine can be reduced by up to 45 per cent compared to a mixed diet. People on a vegetarian or vegan diet should therefore soak, acidify, ferment or sprout zinc-rich whole grains and pulses. It is also advisable to include oilseeds and nuts (such as cashew and pecan nuts) as well as eggs and dairy products in your diet if you follow an ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet.

It is good to know: The zinc content in wholemeal products is high enough to make a good contribution to meeting requirements. Wholemeal bread (100 grams) contains 1.5 milligrams of zinc, whereas the same amount of white bread only contains 0.7 milligrams.

Digression: How people who fall for the promises of the advertising industry ruin their health with pseudo wholemeal bread!

Many customers may already be aware that the dark colour in many wholemeal breads only comes from baking malt and not from wholemeal. Especially those who already prefer wholemeal bread from the health food shop.
What is less well known is that not only poor ingredients, but also the time-saving dough preparation methods used by many bakers today are bad for health.
If the wholemeal bread is also baked with sourdough, a large proportion of the phytate has already been broken down.
However, this only applies to really good sourdough bread, e.g. from so-called slow food bakeries or organic bakers. There, the bread is naturally leavened for several hours, which is enough time to break down naturally harmful substances in the rye.
"Normally", i.e. in supermarket bakeries or unfortunately also very often in chain bakeries or supposedly artisan bakers, baking mixes are used where the sourdough is simply acidified by adding acids - but no harmful substances such as phytates are broken down in the process!
If the customer then has to go to the toilet more often, he thinks it's because of the healthy fibre in the supposedly healthy wholemeal bread - but in reality it's the result of the harmful effects of this "industrial bread".
In this respect, the surcharge at the organic or slow food bakery is not really expensive, it is more likely that the bread from the supermarket or bakery chain is too cheap - in the most negative sense of the word!

What happens with a zinc deficiency?

Signs of a zinc deficiency are Skin eczema, hair loss, diarrhoea, wound healing disorders and an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases.

People with chronic inflammatory bowel disease and alcoholics are particularly at risk of zinc deficiency because alcohol can impair zinc absorption. A vegetarian or vegan diet can lead to a higher intake of phytate and therefore a higher risk of zinc deficiency.
Zinc supplements can help to compensate for a deficiency if zinc absorption is demonstrably inhibited, for example due to a hereditary disorder, chronic inflammatory bowel disease or alcoholism.