The Emerging Roles of Zinc in Infant Nutrition, Development, and Infectious Diseases: Part 1
2001
Black, Robert E. | Miguel, Stanley G.
This article discusses the emerging roles of zinc in health and disease during infancy and throughout early childhood. To highlight the physiologic consequences of dietary zinc deficiency and the positive effects of zinc supplementation on growth, cognitive development, diarrhea, and other infectious diseases, we focus on published reports from intervention and descriptive studies of infants and children in both industrialized and developing countries. Other information we present will help clinicians to identify risk factors for pediatric zinc deficiency. Throughout, we have provided suggestions for practitioners to help increase awareness of the possibility of low zinc status and its consequences in at-risk patients. Finally, we present several food-based strategies to improve zinc status during infancy and childhood. Although direct zinc supplementation can be accomplished, food-based interventions for increasing zinc intake are preferred because they can affect larger numbers of people at reasonable costs. They also avoid many of the patient compliance issues that frequently accompany direct supplementation regimens. Substantial research in many different population groups indicates that improved zinc nutriture should be an important public health priority for both industrialized and developing countries.
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