Brandy
Freddled gruntbuggly
I went hunting some science on this topic and finally found: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/65/6/1803.abstract
As far as I can tell from actual academic papers, calcium decreases zinc absorption anywhere from 10-50% (depending on how measured and how much calcium and a bunch of other factors). The 50% case was extreme testing methodology and not seen in real life. Worst case eating nothing but dairy with a zinc supplement cuts its effectiveness probably somewhere like 10-20% decrease if you take zinc with a meal that has a non-trivial amount of dairy.
So, if you want to take zinc and calcium together then I would add a 25% buffer over your daily goal. So, the minimum is probably something like (22 * 1.25) = 27.5.
In general, I don't think the medical professionals are extremely careful about this. It seems like everybody warns about calcium and iron but very, very few warn about zinc and calcium. Any zinc warnings are a reminder to make sure that this mineral be monitored and supplements adjusted as needed.
Me? I got some weird acne on my face right now so I'm erring on the high side (50mg / day) but I'm having enough trouble with my vitamins that I'm not going to even try to get the zinc in separately from the calcium. Zinc toxicity is possible, but normal people are safe at 40 mg a day, so I doubt 50 mg is close to dangerous for us.
Good news! One less thing to worry about.
As far as I can tell from actual academic papers, calcium decreases zinc absorption anywhere from 10-50% (depending on how measured and how much calcium and a bunch of other factors). The 50% case was extreme testing methodology and not seen in real life. Worst case eating nothing but dairy with a zinc supplement cuts its effectiveness probably somewhere like 10-20% decrease if you take zinc with a meal that has a non-trivial amount of dairy.
- Normal people require: 11 mg or less. (http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/)
- Centrum has 11 mg, many other dailies have 15 mg.
- VitaLady says 100 mg daily and schedules taking zinc and calcium together
- MBC says 50 mg every three days.
- ASMBS says 22 mg for Ds patients. (2 times normal.)
So, if you want to take zinc and calcium together then I would add a 25% buffer over your daily goal. So, the minimum is probably something like (22 * 1.25) = 27.5.
In general, I don't think the medical professionals are extremely careful about this. It seems like everybody warns about calcium and iron but very, very few warn about zinc and calcium. Any zinc warnings are a reminder to make sure that this mineral be monitored and supplements adjusted as needed.
Me? I got some weird acne on my face right now so I'm erring on the high side (50mg / day) but I'm having enough trouble with my vitamins that I'm not going to even try to get the zinc in separately from the calcium. Zinc toxicity is possible, but normal people are safe at 40 mg a day, so I doubt 50 mg is close to dangerous for us.
Good news! One less thing to worry about.