Recommended zinc intake
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for zinc is 8 milligrams per day for adult females and 11 milligrams per day for adult males.
Adequate zinc intake is especially important for children because even mild zinc deficiency can impede growth, increase risk of infection and increase risk of diarrhea and respiratory disease.
The recommended intake for children 1-8 years old ranges from 3-5 milligrams, increasing as the child gets older.
Males 9-13 years old require 8 milligrams of zinc per day. After the age of 14, the requirement increases to the 11 milligrams per day that is required for all adult males.
For females over the age of 8, the requirement stays stable at 8 milligrams per day, except for ages 14-18, where the recommendation increases to 9 milligrams per day.
Pregnant and lactating women have an increased need for zinc at 11-13 milligrams per day, depending on age.
Along with growth retardation, zinc deficiency can cause delayed wound healing, decreased taste perception, skin lesions, night blindness and hair loss. Zinc deficiency has also been linked with neuronal plasticity defects and impact behavior in children with ADHD.10
Zinc supplements are available, but it is best to obtain any vitamin or mineral through food. It is not the individual vitamin or mineral alone that make certain foods an important part of our diet, but the synergy of nutrients in that food working together.
It has been proven time and again that isolating certain nutrients in supplement form will not provide the same health benefits as consuming the nutrient from a whole food. First focus on obtaining your daily zinc requirement from foods, then use supplements as a backup if necessary.