Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Improvement of Serum Zinc Levels in Young Japanese Women by Provision of Food Information

  • Published:
Biological Trace Element Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We investigated whether or not an intervention of providing food information improves serum Zn levels in ninety-two 18–20-year-old Japanese women. The mean serum Zn level of the participants was 73.09 ± 10.56 (mean ± SD) μg/dL, where 79 % of the participants had lower than the reference Zn level (80 μg/dL) proposed by the Japan Society for Biomedical Research on Trace Elements. Participants were divided into food information (INF) group, supplement (SPL) group, and control (C) group, and their serum Zn levels were measured before and after 2 weeks of intervention. The results showed that changes in serum Zn levels were (expressed in μg/dL): 71.23 ± 8.42 to 76.83 ± 12.22 in INF group (NS; not significant), 72.72 ± 10.77 to 84.07 ± 12.03 in SPL group (P < 0.01), and 72.69 ± 9.46 to 74.52 ± 11.44 in C group (NS). Percentage of normal subjects in serum Zn level (>79 mg/dL) were significantly increased in INF group (16.7 to 40 %, P < 0.05) and SPL group (17.2 to 69 %, P < 0.001) by each intervention. Food information only entailed a table of food items with high Zn content (card-type) and Zn intake menu (recipes). The results suggested that providing food information is effective in improving latent low Zn in young Japanese women.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Marmot MG, Smith GD (1989) Why are the Japanese living longer? BMJ 299:1547–1551

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Nakamura Y, Ueshima H, Okamura T et al (2009) A Japanese diet and 19-year mortality: national integrated project for prospective observation of non-communicable diseases and its trends in the Aged, 1980. Brit J Nutr 101:1696–1705

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. The National Health and Nutrition Survey in Japan (2012) (in Japanese) Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan. An English version is available only for 2007 from the following site, Outline for the Results of the National Health and Nutrition Survey Japan, 2007. http://www0.nih.go.jp/eiken/english/research/pdf/nhns2007.pdf

  4. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (2012). A basic direction for comprehensive implementation of national health promotion.

  5. Kasai H, Svoboda P, Yamasaki S, Kawai K (2005) Simultaneous determination of 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine, a marker of oxidative stress, and creatinine, a standardization compound, in urine. Ind Health 43:333–336

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Song Y, Leonard SW, Traber MG, Hosong E (2009) Zinc deficiency affects DNA damage, oxidative stress, antioxidant defenses, and DNA repair in rats. J Nutr 139:1626–1631

    Article  PubMed Central  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Kogirima M, Kurasawa R, Kubori S et al (2007) Ratio of low serum zinc levels in elderly Japanese people living in the central part of Japan. Eur J Clin Nutr 61:375–381

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Komai M (2010) Workshop report, proposition for a lower limit of serum zinc concentration in healthy humans. Biomed Res Trace Elem 21:43–48

    Google Scholar 

  9. Arakawa Y (2012) The matters pertaining to the establishment of Japanese standard reference values of zinc level in the serum. Biomed Res Trace Elem 23:217–220

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Aliani M, Udenigwe CC, Girgih AT et al (2013) Zinc deficiency and taste perception in the elderly. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 53:245–250

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. von Arnim CA, Dismar S, Ott-Renzer CS et al (2013) Micronutrients supplementation and nutritional status in cognitively impaired elderly persons: a two-month open label pilot study. Nutr J 12:148. doi:10.1186/1475-2891-12-148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Ishida H (1993) Marginal zinc deficiency and gustatory function for salt in a group of healthy young adult women. J Jpn Soc Nutr Food Sci 46:299–307

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Engle-Stone R, Ndjebayi AO, Nankap M et al (2014) Stunting prevalence, plasma zinc concentrations, and dietary zinc intakes in a nationally representative sample suggest a high risk of zinc deficiency among women and young children in Cameroon. J Nutr 144:382–391

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Angeles-Agdeppa I, Magsadia CR, Capanzana MV (2011) Fortified juice drink improved iron and zinc status of schoolchildren. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 20:535–543

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Sato Y, Nakanishi T, Chiba T, Umegaki K (2014) Attitudes of pregnant Japanese women and folic acid intake for the prevention of neural tube defects: a nationwide Internet survey. Nihon Koshu Eisei Zasshi 61:321–332

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. OECD (2013) Health at a glance 2013 (OECD Indicators) p.39, OECD publishing, http://www.oecd.org/health/health-systems/health-at-a-glance.htm

  17. Das JK, Kumar R, Salam RA, Bhutta ZA (2013) Systematic review of zinc fortification trials. Ann Nutr Metab 62(suppl 1):44–56

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Brown KH, López de Romaña D, Arsenault JE et al (2007) Comparison of the effects of zinc delivered in a fortified food or a liquid supplement on the growth, morbidity, and plasma zinc concentrations of young Peruvian children. Am J Clin Nutr 85:538–547

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Suzuki K, Kanzakii K, Okai O, Matuo Y (2008) Development and characteristics of zinc-enriched bakers’ yeast. J Anal Bio-Sci 31:139–146

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Evans GE, Johnson EC (1981) Effect of iron, vitamin B6 and picolinic acid on zinc absorption in the rat. J Nutr 111:68–75

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Iyengar V, Pullakhandam R, Nair KM (2012) Coordinate expression and localization of iron and zinc transporters explain iron-zinc interactions during uptake in Caco-2 cells: implications for iron uptake at the enterocyte. J Nutr Biochem 23:1146–1154

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Solomons NW, Pineda O, Viteri F, Sandstead HH (1983) Studies on the bioavailability of zinc in humans: mechanism of the intestinal interaction of nonheme iron and zinc. J Nutr 113:337–349

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Adachi S, Takemoto K, Hirosue T, Hosogai Y (1993) Spontaneous and 2-nitropropane induced levels of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine in liver DNA of rats fed iron-deficient or manganese- and copper-deficient diets. Carcinogenesis 14:265–268

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Yoshida M, Kikunaga S, Yamauchi J et al (2013) Dietary reference intakes for Japanese 2010: microminerals. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 59:S91–S102

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Shoji Ohtomo S, Yukio Hirose Y, Midden CJH, CJH (2011) Cultural differences of a dual-motivation model on health risk behavior. J Risk Res. doi:10.1080/13669877.2010.503936

    Google Scholar 

  26. Murakami K, Sasaki S, Takahashi Y, Uenishi K (2010) No meaningful association of neighborhood food store availability with dietary intake, body mass index, or waist circumference in young Japanese women. Nutr Res 30:565–573

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Murakami K, Sasaki S, Takahashi Y, Uenishi K (2011) Neighborhood restaurant availability and frequency of eating out in relation to dietary intake in young Japanese women. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol 57:87–94

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Graduate School of Nutritional Sciences, Sagami Women’s University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan

    Soonja Han, Miho Mizoi, Emi Nakatani & Shuichi Adachi

  2. Department of Public Health and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, The Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Yuichi Miyakoshi & Hiroyuki Yanagisawa

Authors
  1. Soonja Han
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Miho Mizoi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emi Nakatani
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Shuichi Adachi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Yuichi Miyakoshi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Hiroyuki Yanagisawa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuichi Adachi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Han, S., Mizoi, M., Nakatani, E. et al. Improvement of Serum Zinc Levels in Young Japanese Women by Provision of Food Information. Biol Trace Elem Res 164, 169–177 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-0211-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-0211-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation