What’s The Difference And Which Is Right For You?
Many people who eat nutrient-dense foods still like to hedge their nutritional bets by supplementing their diets with extra vitamins and minerals, including zinc. And that makes sense, given that getting enough zinc may help treat colds, as well as promote faster wound healing.
But even if you think you’re taking enough zinc in supplement form to get you to 8 to 11 milligrams daily, as recommended by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), you could be incorrect. In its elemental, base form, zinc just isn’t very bioavailable. This means your body could end up eliminating a large percentage of your zinc supplement, leaving you without the health benefits you want.
How little zinc could remain in your system? The NIH suggests that you might not get as much as 95% of the zinc you ingest, depending on other factors. At best, NIH data suggest that you can count on absorbing about half of the zinc you consume. There’s a way you can improve these percentages, though, and that’s by taking a chelated zinc supplement.
How to help the body absorb zinc more efficiently
When zinc is chelated, it’s attached at the molecular level to another chemical or compound. For instance, zinc picolinate is a combination of zinc and picolinic acid. Because of the addition of picolinic acid, zinc picolinate is absorbed at higher rates than zinc alone.
But zinc picolinate is only one of the chelated zinc choices on the market. Other chelated zinc options exist as well, including zinc gluconate, zinc oxide, and zinc acetate. Which type you decide to take is up to you. Just be aware that different studies have produced unique determinations regarding which chelated zinc product wins for highest absorption.
For instance, a 2024 review in Nutrients evaluated several studies involving zinc bioavailability. Of the studies used for the review, results for which zinc supplement offered the best absorption were mixed. That said, zinc glycinate and (to a lesser degree) zinc gluconate seemed to stand out in clinical tests.
Foods that can interfere with zinc bioavailability
You aren’t totally in the clear if you take a chelated zinc supplement to boost your intake of foods that contain more zinc. You might end up making yet another mistake that could affect how much zinc you actually receive from your food and supplement: eating a lot of plant products such as nuts, seeds, and beans.
Ironically, those types of plants contain phytic acid, which turns into phytates during digestion. Phytates block the absorption of zinc in your digestive system, as well as other minerals your body requires to stay healthy (like calcium and magnesium).
This doesn’t mean you should stop eating those foods, of course. Just be aware that if you decide to start going plant-based, you may need to change up your zinc supplement levels. Be sure to get advice first from a healthcare professional like your doctor or a nutritionist to avoid overdoing your daily zinc intake. Otherwise, you may experience stomach pain, vomiting, the inability to properly smell and taste, and other symptoms that can happen when you have too much zinc.
