Mineral
Zinc
The body stores almost none of it, which means intake has to be steady rather than occasional. It is also the reason a blunted sense of taste is one of the earliest signs that intake has been low for a while.
What it does
Zinc is structural in a way most minerals are not. Hundreds of proteins fold around a zinc ion in order to hold their shape — the "zinc finger" motifs that let transcription factors grip DNA are the best known. Without zinc those proteins do not merely work slowly; they do not form.
It is also central to immune function and to wound healing, both of which depend on cells dividing quickly. Any tissue with a fast turnover — gut lining, skin, immune cells, the taste buds — feels a shortage first.
There is no meaningful zinc store. Unlike iron, which the body hoards, zinc has to arrive more or less continuously, and status falls within weeks of intake dropping.
How much you need
| Who | Per day | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Infants, 0–6 months | 2 mg | Adequate Intake |
| Infants, 7–12 months | 3 mg | — |
| Children, 1–3 years | 3 mg | — |
| Children, 4–8 years | 5 mg | — |
| Children, 9–13 years | 8 mg | — |
| Men, 14 and over | 11 mg | — |
| Women, 19 and over | 8 mg | — |
| Pregnancy | 11 mg | — |
| Breastfeeding | 12 mg | — |
Vegetarians may need up to 50% more than these figures. That is not a rounding allowance — it reflects the phytate content of a plant-based diet, which binds zinc in the gut and can halve how much of it is available.
From our own data
The foods highest in zinc
Oysters are so far ahead that they distort the scale — a single serving carries several days’ worth. Below them the list is red meat, shellfish, seeds and legumes, in that order of availability rather than of amount.
- 1
Oysters, canned899% · DV - 2
Wheat germ152% · DV - 3
Beef short ribs, lean, braised112% · DV - 4
Veal liver, raw109% · DV - 5
Sesame flour, partly defatted97% · DV - 6
Unsweetened baking chocolate88% · DV - 7
Lamb shank, lean, braised79% · DV - 8
Poppy seeds73% · DV - 9
Pumpkin seeds69% · DV - 10
Alaska king crab, cooked69% · DV - 11
Melon seeds (egusi)65% · DV - 12
Pork jerky61% · DV
Per 100 g, from our copy of USDA FoodData Central, against a Daily Value of 11mg. Ranked by amount, not by how much of it your body actually takes up — read the next section before you act on the order.
The table above is per 100 g. The app weighs the portion you actually ate.
What helps, and what gets in the way
Helps
- Animal protein in the same meal, which improves uptake from everything on the plate
- Soaking, sprouting, fermenting and leavening — all reduce phytate substantially
- Sourdough over unleavened bread, for the same reason
Gets in the way
- Phytate in unprocessed wholegrains and legumes, the single largest inhibitor
- High-dose iron supplements taken on an empty stomach at the same time
- Very high calcium intake, modestly
- Chronic diarrhoea or inflammatory bowel disease, through direct loss
The phytate-to-zinc ratio of a diet predicts absorption better than the zinc content does. This is why the same amount of zinc from beef and from wholemeal bread are not equivalent, and why traditional preparation methods — soaking beans overnight, leavening bread — turn out to have been doing real nutritional work all along.
Who tends to fall short
Groups where intake or absorption is commonly lower than the reference. It is a list of populations, not a list of symptoms — it cannot tell you anything about yourself.
- Vegetarians and vegans, through phytate rather than through intake
- Older adults, through lower intake and reduced absorption together
- People with Crohn’s disease, coeliac disease or chronic diarrhoea
- People with sickle cell disease
- Heavy drinkers, through reduced absorption and increased urinary loss
Cook it
Beef and pumpkin seed sofrito
Two, about twenty-five minutes
Ingredients
- 250 g beef mince
- 3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
Method
- 1Toast the seeds firstDry pan, three minutes, then tip them out. Doing this before the meat means the pan is clean and the seeds do not steam in the fat.
- 2Brown the beef properlyHigh heat, in one layer, and left alone for two minutes before stirring. Crowding the pan turns it grey, and grey mince has none of the flavour the browning makes.
- 3Build the sofritoBeef out, heat down, onion and pepper in for eight minutes until soft and sweet. Garlic and paprika for the last minute only — paprika burns fast and turns acrid.
- 4SimmerTomatoes and the beef back in, fifteen minutes at a low simmer. Scatter the seeds over at the table so they stay crisp.
Beef and seeds together is the point: the animal protein improves how much zinc you take up from the seeds, which on their own are held back by phytate.
Sources
- NIH Office of Dietary Supplements — Zinc
- Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Iron, Zinc and others
- USDA FoodData Central
This page is education, not medical advice. It does not diagnose anything and it is not a substitute for a clinician who knows your history. If you think you are short of zinc, the answer is a blood test and a conversation, not a supplement bought on the strength of an article.
Every food above, and 12,601 more, with the full panel — in the app.