The nutrients in food all have unique roles in keeping you healthy. Zinc helps to repair tissue, heal wounds and ensures normal growth and development, while iron facilitates the delivery of oxygen to all your tissues. These are all important tasks, and deficiencies in your diet may compromise your health in numerous ways. If you have concerns about getting enough of these nutrients in your diet, consider working with a registered dietitian who can assist in formulating a meal plan. Do not use any nutritional supplements without talking to your doctor first.
Recommended Daily Allowance
The recommended daily allowance, or RDA, indicates the amount of a specific nutrient you should aim to include in your daily diet to meet your body’s basic needs. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, children need between 2 and 9 milligrams daily, while men age 19 and over need 11 milligrams and women of this same age group require 8 milligrams. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, however, need 11 milligrams and 12 milligrams, respectively. As for iron, the ODS reports an RDA of 11 to 15 milligrams for children up to 18 years old, while any man over this age needs 8 milligrams. Women age 19 to 50 require 18 milligrams daily while any woman older than this needs 8 milligrams.
Iron in the Diet
Dietary iron comes in two forms: heme and non-heme iron. Registered dietitian Reed Mangels, Ph.D., of the Vegetarian Resource Group, explains that animal foods contain 40 percent heme iron and 60 percent non-heme iron, while plant foods contain only non-heme. Your body absorbs heme iron more efficiently. Animal foods particularly rich in iron include chicken liver, oysters, beef, clams, tuna, dark meat chicken and turkey, halibut, crab and pork loin. Iron-fortified cereals, oatmeal and the like are the best sources of plant-based iron; other good sources include soybeans, lentils, kidney beans, lima beans, tofu, spinach, raisins and whole wheat.
Tips for Maximizing Iron Stores
Unless you completely eliminate meat and fish from your diet or eat it infrequently, you probably get enough iron every day. If most or all of your iron comes from vegetarian sources, eat these foods along with foods high in vitamin C to optimize absorption. Vegetarians may need to double the RDA for iron to compensate for the reduced availability of non-heme iron in the body, according to the Office of Dietary Supplements.
Zinc in the Diet
Like iron, the richest sources of zinc are primarily animal foods such as oysters, beef, crab and chicken, and you likely get enough if you regularly eat these foods. To meet your needs for zinc in the diet if you are a vegetarian, U.S. Department of Agriculture nutritionist Janet Hunt advises to eat legumes such as beans and peas regularly as well as whole grains.
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