by Julie Webb Kelley
Worried about getting enough zinc in your diet? Maybe you should be. Without zinc humans would be unable to perform over 300 metabolic functions within the body. Zinc is a trace mineral that is essential to all forms of life; it is found in every tissue and organ in the human body. As far back as 1991, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported the link between severe zinc deficiencies and impaired immune function.1
Now, the Institute of Immunology in Germany claims that “even marginal zinc deprivation can affect immune function.”2 Recent studies indicate that zinc is required for cell-mediated immunity. In addition, a zinc deficiency can impair multiple aspects of immune function including specific immune components such as lymphyocytes, monocytes, macrophages, neutrophils, and natural killer cells – the body’s front-line of defense against disease and sickness.
Symptoms of zinc deficiency include loss of appetite, poor growth, weight loss, lack of taste or smell, poor wound healing, skin problems, hair loss, night blindness, white spots on the fingernails, lack of menstrual period, and depression. But since even a minor zinc deficit can disrupt the ability of the immune system to protect the body before symptoms surface, it can be hard to discover the lack. Blood tests are used to measure zinc levels, however, according to Penn State Live, only severe zinc deficiencies will show up in blood tests.3
Zinc is an essential mineral, provided to the body through the foods we eat. But it can be supplemented; it is recommended that adults take 8 to 11 mg. of zinc daily. However, to increase the amount of zinc in your diet you can soak beans, grains or seeds in water for several hours prior to cooking them. Sprouting allows for increased bioavailability of zinc.
Empowering your immune system with this unlikely antioxidant is really nothing to worry about after all.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1989405
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19523191
- http://live.psu.edu/story/43888
