More Zinc Food Didn't Make Toddlers' Zinc Levels Go Up
Red meat and a fortified manufactured toddler milk drink increase dietary zinc intakes without affecting zinc status of New Zealand toddlers.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave toddlers either more meat, special milk with zinc, or regular milk for 20 weeks to see if their zinc levels improved.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
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Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Scientists gave toddlers either more meat, special milk with zinc, or regular milk for 20 weeks to see if their zinc levels improved.
No biological mechanisms were identified in this study. This may be an epidemiological, observational, or survey-based study that reports associations rather than proposing causal biological pathways.
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 559 / 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
Morgan EJ, Heath AL, Szymlek-Gay EA, Gibson RS, Gray AR, Bailey KB, Ferguson EL
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Claims (3)
Giving toddlers in New Zealand more zinc through meat or special milk doesn’t seem to raise the zinc levels in their blood or hair, so just eating more zinc might not fix low zinc levels in their bodies.
Even when toddlers eat enough zinc-rich foods, their blood tests might still show low zinc — which means the usual way doctors check for zinc deficiency might not be working right.
Even though these little kids in New Zealand are eating enough zinc-rich food, almost 4 out of 10 of them still have low zinc levels in their blood — which means what they eat might not be turning into enough zinc in their bodies.