Fixing Nutrient Deficiencies

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Hi folks:

I spent a fair amount of time yesterday trying to determine how best

to fix my deficiencies of calcium and zinc. Probably none of the

below will be new to the veterans here. But for anyone who still

finds they have these deficiencies the following may be helpful.

CALCIUM

First I discovered a study which showed that calcium supplements -

either calcium carbonate or the more expensive calcium citrate - ARE

very well absorbed by the body. So taking calcium carbonate will fix

such a problem without the 'amino acid issue' of dairy products or

the 'oxalic acid' problem of some green vegetables. [Does anyone

have data for the oxalic acid content of bok choy? (Alias pak choi)]

It looks as if I will need to be taking about 500 mg a day of calcium

carbonate. I don't need Caltrate because I am not deficient in

vitamin D.

ZINC

As for the zinc issue, I checked various places to locate

supposedly " good " sources of zinc. If Fitday's data are correct many

of the " good " sources listed are in reality " very crummy " sources.

Perhaps the following may be news to those who disdain 'analyzing'

things! (If you don't 'analyze' it how would you ever find this kind

of stuff out?)

For example, herring was listed as a good source of zinc at one

place. Since I eat herring I wondered how, if that was the case, I

could be deficient in it. So I checked the Fitday data. One hundred

calories of " finfish, herring, pacific, cooked, dry heat " provides

1.81% of the RDA for zinc.

Now think about what this means. It means that even if you are

consuming 2000 calories a day (appreciably more than most people

here) and if in addition you eat HERRING ONLY, NOTHING ELSE!!!! you

will still only get 37.4% of the RDA!!!! This is supposed to be a

good source?

So I searched for atlantic herring. I could only find it

raw: " finfish, herring, atlantic, raw " provides more zinc. One

hundred calories contains 4.18% of the RDA. So if you ate nothing

but raw atlantic herring, you would get 84% of the RDA! (And how

much of the difference between the cooked pacific and the raw

atlantic is accounted for by what drips out of it while you are

cooking it? Possibly the atlantic is no better than the pacific).

But in either case they are truly CRUMMY sources of zinc.

So what are the genuinely good sources of zinc? On the basis that

anything 100 calories of which supplies less than 10% of the RDA are

useless, here are the things I found that contain more than 10%.

There may be others. 18.1% eye of round, beef // 18.4% chicken

liver // 21.5% '100% bran' // 23.4% chuck arm, beef // 26.2% round

tip, beef // 29.1% wheat germ // 31.6% 'Allbran' // 34.8% shank,

beef // 100% 'oatmeal with oat bran, fortified, regular flavor' //

878.7% oysters!!!!

Yes. Just one-quarter of an ounce of canned oysters a day would

bring my zinc consumption up to 100% of the RDA.

I wasn't able to find information on degree of zinc absorption from

various food sources. It is also worth noting that the better cuts

of beef had relatively minimal amounts of zinc. So if you choose

beef, you have to eat the tough stuff.

Rodney.