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Vitamins and Minerals (Poster Session)

(P30-014-25) The Effects of Increased Urinary Zinc Losses on Dietary Zinc Requirements for Individuals at Risk for Noncommunicable Diseases

Monday, June 2, 2025
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM ET
Location: Poster Board E-10

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Andrew G. Hall, PhD

    Assistant Adjunct Professor
    University of California, Davis
    Davis, California, United States

    • Co-Author(s)

  • JK

    Janet C. King, PhD, RD

    University of California, Berkeley
    Berkeley, California, United States

Disclosure(s):
Andrew G. Hall, PhD: No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.


Objectives: Simple biomarkers or laboratory indices of zinc nutriture that are indicators of dietary zinc requirements remain unknown. Thus, dietary zinc recommendations are derived from a factorial model of zinc metabolic homeostasis. This approach estimates the physiological requirement for absorbed zinc by determining the balance between the amount of dietary zinc absorbed and the sum of intestinal and non-intestinal zinc losses. While intestinal zinc absorption and losses are dependent on dietary zinc intake, non-intestinal losses via the urine are independent of zinc intakes over a broad range of 4 to 25 mg/d. Urinary zinc losses have therefore been assumed to be constant. However, increased urinary zinc losses have recently been observed in apparently healthy adults, associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Our objective was to determine the effects of increased urinary zinc losses on dietary zinc requirements in adult males and nonpregnant females.

Methods: Factorial modeling of the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for dietary zinc was performed, varying the urinary loss component of non-intestinal losses and using the absorption model of Miller, et al. 2013. Usual dietary intakes of phytate, protein, and calcium were based on NHANES data.

Results: Increases in urinary zinc excretion led to rapid increases in the EAR that were greater for males than for females. A 15% increase in urinary zinc excretion, required an increase of 5.0% (female) and 6.1% (male) in absorbed zinc to maintain zinc balance. This corresponded with 12.1% (female) and 21.4% (male) increases in the zinc EAR, to 12.1 and 16.4 mg/d, respectively.

Conclusions: These data demonstrate that zinc requirements for populations at risk of developing NCDs are higher and may be estimated by accounting for the increases in urinary zinc excretion. Future studies of zinc loss are needed to improve the precision of zinc recommendations.

Funding Sources: Zinpro Corporation