Abstract
In this paper, we reviewed the role of dairy products in dietary zinc absorption. Dairy products can have a reasonable contribution for dietary zinc intake in Western diets, where dairy consumption is high. However, the co-ingestion of dairy products can also improve zinc absorption from other food products. Such improvements have been observed when dairy products (e.g., milk or yoghurt) were ingested together with food such as rice, tortillas or bread products, all of which are considered to be high-phytate foods with low inherent zinc absorption. For foods low in phytate, the co-ingestion of dairy products did not improve zinc absorption. Improved zinc absorption of zinc from high-phytate foods following co-ingestion with dairy products may be related to the beneficial effects of the citrate and phosphopeptides present in dairy products. Considering that the main dietary zinc sources in areas in the world where zinc deficiency is most prevalent are typically high in phytate, the inclusion of dairy products in meals may be a viable dietary strategy to improve zinc absorption.
Highlights
We review the impact of dairy products on zinc absorption from other food products
This hypothesis based on the importance of the casein:whey protein ratio was later substantiated by findings that proved that adjusting the ratio of casein to whey protein from 80:20 to 40:60 significantly (p < 0.001) increased zinc absorption from bovine milk, i.e., from 21% to 32% [51]
From the results explored above, it is clear that dairy products play a dual role with regard to the absorption of dietary zinc
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. While the nutrient content of food products is typically determined on an individual product basis, the nutritional value is, in many, cases difficult to assess on a product basis. There are, instances where the combination of two food sources impairs the digestibility of proteins This has, for instance, been observed in the case of egg protein, which, when combined with black tea, was shown to have lower digestibility than without black tea [7]. This effect was related to the interaction of polyphenols from the tea with the protein, resulting in impaired digestibility [7,8]. Dietary zinc supplements are not within the scope of this review
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