Zync(Zn)

A huge number of metaloenzymes which part is zync exists in organism. So missing of zync would lead to  multisystem disfunction, and also disorders related to tissue growth and development, especially muscles. This element is the part of insuline, and in new researches its influence in immunity maintenance is significant. The main part of available zync is in blood, and this element is present in relatively big amount in bones and muscles. These are reserves that are not metabolically active.

Training influence on zync condition in organism

It is hard to determine effects of training based on zync level in plasma. Dehydration, created due to hard training increases the level of zync in plasma and vice versa, after training cause of water and natrium retention, zync concentration is dropping. Non- dependant of these effects, it can be assumed that, as a consequence of hard trainings, it comes to huge functional zync movements between tissues.

Zync level in plasma significantly grows during few days of Tour de France cycling race.

It is assumed that zync needs are bigger at athletes, according to primal loss through sweat and urine. It is possible that mechanic damages of soft tissue, made by intensive training, lead to increased zync release, so excretion through urine could be increased. However, till now these assumes were not supported by valid data.

Intake of iron and zync in food
Groceries	Amount	Iron(mg)		Zync(mg)
Animal origin
Liver, chicken	120g, cooked	9		5
Beef meat	120g	3		6
Turkey meat	120g, red	2		5
Pork meat	120g	1		3
Oysters	6 middle, fresh	6		75
Chicken breast	120g	1		1
Cod	120g	1		1
Tuna	90g, white meat	1		1
Egg	1 big	1		0,5
Fruit and juices
Apricot	5 dried halves	3		1
Date	10 dried	1		1
Raisins	1/3 cup	1		0,3
Vegetables and legumes
Spinach	1 cup, cooked	3		1
Peas	1 cup	1		1
Broccoli	1 cup	1		0,3
Milk and products
Milk, skimed	1 cup	0,1		1,0
Cheese, cedar	30g	0,2		1,0
Cereals and products
Cereals	1 cup		18	0,7
Pasta	1 cup, cooked enriched		2	1
Bread	1 piece, enriched		1	0,2
Rice, unglazed	1 cup, cooked		1	1,2
Wheat germs	1 cup		2	3,5
Iron and zync are the best absorbed from the animal origin groceries
Iron and zync are the very weak absorbed from plant origin groceries

Zync intake

Important source are groceries rich with animal proteins, seafood, while processed food, like lemons and non-leafy vegetables, contain very small amount of zync. Zync can be found in milk, cereals and moesli. Diet fibers and fitates from some cereals and vegetables create with zync complexes that cannot be absorbed in intestines.

It is a fact that zync is absorbed better from animal originating groceries, compared to plant origin groceries. Vegetarians may suffer insufficient zync intake.

Zync intake at sedentary people, with typical “western way” of nutrition, is very low. It is thought that huge energy intake that exists in athletes, enables sufficient zync intake, and deficit of this mineral is rarely found.

RDA for zync is 15mg for males, and 12mg for women.     

“Athletes’ nutrition”, Marina Djordjevic Nikic