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Zinc Utilization in Pregnant and Nonpregnant Women Fed Controlled Diets Providing the Zinc RDA¹

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720

Eight pregnant (P) women in their third trimester and 10 nonpregnant (NP) women participated in a 21-day confined metabolic study. The participants were fed semipurified liquid diets providing 20 mg zinc/day. Apparent zinc balance was calculated and parameters of zinc status assessed. Even though an adequate amount of a readily available form of zinc was fed, the P women consistently maintained lower mean serum zinc concentrations than the NP controls (69 µg/dl vs. 97 µg/dl). Although the dietry zinc intake was constant throughout the study, most subjects' salivary zinc levels varied greatly. In this study, salivary zinc concentration was not a sensitive indicator of zinc intake. There were no differences in the concentration of zinc in hair between the P and NP groups; mean values ranged from 180–220 ppm. In both groups, approximately 95% of the measured zince output was lost in the feces and only 5% excreted in the urine. The P women tended to excrete more zinc in their urine than the NP women (900 µg/day vs. 650 µg/day), but they excreted less zinc in their feces. The P women demonstrated a greater apparent zinc retention than the NP women (1.9 ± 0.6 vs. 0.9 ± 0.5 mg/day). This difference, however, was not statistically significant (P > 0.05).

KEY WORDS: • zinc • zinc status • zinc excretion • zinc absorption • human balance study • pregnancy

¹ Research supported by National Institutes of Health, NIH AM 10202.

² Present address: USDA, Vitamin and Mineral Nutrition Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20770.

³ To whom requests for reprints should be sent.

Manuscript received 21 September 1981.

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