Abstract
Soil-to-crop mineral transmission was first investigated in the 1960s and 1970s, and a large body of evidence now documents transmission of minerals from soil to crops. A smaller group of papers illustrates that soil concentrations of zinc, selenium, and iodine impact human intake of these important minerals, and even human mineral status. Despite this fact, estimates of human mineral intake or human mineral deficiency rates often rely on nutrient composition tables that assume a single mineral concentration for every crop or food worldwide. Public health policy-makers rarely discuss the role of soils in driving human mineral deficiencies, and scientists who study soil degradation tend to focus on the yield and production consequences of macronutrient depletion, ignoring the health consequences of micronutrient depletion. By reviewing and re-considering four decades of literature on soil-to-human mineral transmission, we may realize new points of intervention within the food system for addressing mineral deficiency in human populations.
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Notes
In soil science, the term “micronutrient” refers to elements essential for plant growth, but needed in only trace amounts. (“Macronutrients” are elements needed in larger quantities for plant growth.) In nutrition, the term “micronutrient” refers to minerals (chemical elements) and vitamins (organic compounds) needed in trace amounts within the human body. Since minerals, rather than vitamins, are the subjects of this review, the term “micronutrient” is generally avoided. However, when used, it is meant to reflect the nutritionists’ definition.
Animals may also contain nutrients through byproducts included in their diet. In industrialized nations, animal feed may include nutrient supplements that improve not only the nutrient status of the animal but also the nutrient status of the humans who consume that animal. In low input systems, even feeding dried fish waste or other food residues may increase the nutrient intake (iodine or selenium, in the case of fish remains) of animals.
A number of studies have found low selenium status to be positively associated with incidence of preeclampsia [93, 92, 88, 113], others have found no association [113], and some have found the reverse association [58, 84, 85]. In the studies by Maleki et al. [86] and Mistry et al. [93], the average serum selenium status in pregnant women who suffered preeclampsia was 51.8 μg/l Maleki et al. [86], and 39.7 μg/l by Mistry et al. [93]. This first figure is just slightly under the average expected for pregnant women, but the second is extremely low even given the generally low selenium status of pregnant women.
Animal organs are particularly rich in selenocysteines, as both humans and animals store selenium primarily in organs, with a lesser proportion going to muscle [98].
Such selenium-accumulating plants tend to contain predominantly γ-glutamyl methylselenocysteine, a form of selenium that may be less utilized by the body than selenocysteine or selenomethionine [45].
For instance, Drutel et al. [41] note that the bioavailability of sodium selenite, found in drinking water, is excellent.
They additionally suggest that selenium-deficient soils may contribute to low zinc status in those same Mongolian children. This would follow research by Gibson et al. [53], who showed that low selenium status seems to cause low zinc status.
McGlashan references an article by Levander [81] illustrating that breast milk averages at around 18 μg/l in the United States, generally ranging from 15 to 20 μg/l according to the mother’s diet. Infant formula, at the time, had no required minimum selenium content—selenium content was determined by chance, according to the components. Thus, many formulas contained little or no selenium, and certainly not enough to meet the 10 μg/day required for children less than 6 months old [81].
Graham et al. [56] explain the mechanism by which zinc deficiency seems to block iron uptake, and they also support their argument geographically; much of the world’s iron deficient populations live on the acidic soils of the wet, Asian and Africa tropics, where iron deficiency in crops is rare but soils are quite likely to be zinc deficient [56].
While a number of authors have found that soil iron concentration is not significantly associated with crop iron content (and thus not indicative of human iron status), Merrill et al. [91] did find that the iron content of groundwater was significantly associated with the iron status (plasma ferritin) of 207 women in rural Bangladesh.
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Acknowledgments
I thank the NSF-funded Food Systems and Poverty Reduction IGERT for financial support, and workshop audiences at Cornell University, IFPRI Uganda, and IFPRI Washington DC for helpful comments and questions. Special thanks goes to Ross Welch, Christopher Barrett, Beth Medvecky, Christine Hotz, Anna-Marie Ball, Rachel Hestrin, Matthew Stasiewicz, Raymond Glahn and Michael Rutzke for valuable conversations and for thoughts and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. Thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful, detailed comments on an earlier draft of this paper.
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Endorsed by Christopher B. Barrett.
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Bevis, L.E.M. Soil-to-Human Mineral Transmission with an Emphasis on Zinc, Selenium, and Iodine. Springer Science Reviews 3, 77–96 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40362-014-0026-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40362-014-0026-y