Volunteers sought for study on zinc deficiency

Published on Monday 27 July 2009 22:03

SCOTTISH nutrition experts are seeking 100 recruits to take part in a groundbreaking study aiming to discover how zinc in the diet can affect metabolism.

The 100 healthy male volunteers are being sought by scientists at Aberdeen University's Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health to take part in a 1 million research project being funded by the government's Food Standards Agency.

According to figures from the World Health Organisation, a third of the world's population suffers from zinc deficiency – a condition which can result in reduced growth, delayed puberty, taste abnormalities, poor mental function and poor appetite.

Eating zinc-rich food, such as lean red meat, shellfish and beans, is known to boost the immune system.

The Aberdeen-based study will use pioneering technology to measure chemical changes taking place within the body as a result of eating different amounts of zinc in food, with the goal of devising a new test that can be used to identify zinc deficiency.

Dr John Beattie, an expert in zinc nutrition who is leading the study, said a reliable test to measure zinc levels in the body has yet to be developed.

The new study will employ breakthrough technology, called metabolic fingerprinting, to analyse the changes in the human body caused by varying zinc levels.

"Like a fingerprint, the pattern of chemicals – known as metabolites – found in the human body and measured in body fluids, is unique in each person," he said.

Healthy men, aged between 18 and 45, from the Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire areas, are being sought to take part in the research.