Why your beans might steal your zinc
A stable isotope study of zinc absorption in young men: effects of phytate and alpha-cellulose.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Eating lots of phytate (found in whole grains and beans) stops your body from absorbing zinc, but fiber like alpha-cellulose doesn't.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
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Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Eating lots of phytate (found in whole grains and beans) stops your body from absorbing zinc, but fiber like alpha-cellulose doesn't.
Systematic Reviews & Meta-Analyses
Max 100Randomized Controlled Trials
Max 90Cohort Studies
Max 72Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional Studies
Max 44Case Reports & Case Series
Max 30Expert Opinion & Narrative Reviews
Max 544 / 90
Evidence Score
Participants are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups, minimizing bias. Considered the gold standard for testing whether an intervention causes an effect.
Publication
Authors
Turnlund JR, King JC, Keyes WR, Gong B, Michel MC
Related Content
Claims (6)
When the ratio of phytate to zinc in food is 15 to 1, the amount of zinc the body absorbs from that food decreases by 48.5% compared to lower ratios.
When the ratio of phytate to zinc in food is high (15:1), the body absorbs less zinc than when the ratio is low (near 1:1). This suggests that the relative amounts of phytate and zinc in the diet directly affect how much zinc the body can take up.
Consuming high amounts of phytate, a compound found in plant foods, is linked to more zinc being eliminated in feces and less in urine, suggesting that phytate limits how much zinc the body absorbs from the diet.
Consuming 2.34 grams of phytate daily in a controlled diet lowers the amount of zinc the body absorbs from about 34% to 17.5%, which is a 48% reduction in zinc uptake.
Eating large amounts of phytate, a compound found in some plant foods, might reduce how much zinc the body absorbs in the short term under controlled lab conditions, but this does not necessarily mean it causes zinc deficiency in people eating normal diets.