Abstract
This study was conducted for two purposes ; (1) to develop a database for zinc levels in commonly usef Korean food items ; and (2) to calculated the zinc intake fo Korean adults living in a rural area. The currently used Korean food compositinotable was supplemented in term sof zinc content using several methods ; (1) analyzing 98 Korean Food items frequently consumed by Korean adults living in rural area. ; (2) adapting values from U.S Minnesota for 71 items ; and (3) imputing values from similar food for 282 items. A new zinc nutrient databse was constructed including zinc contentrs of 1,195 food items. Zinc intake of rural Korean adults was estimated by a 240hours recall method from 2 ,037 adults over 30 over 30years of age in Yeonchon -gun , Kyunggi province of Korea. Mean daily zinc intake of all subjects was 61mg an dmean intake level of males (7.0mg/day, 46.85 of RDA) was significantly thigher than females(5.2mg/day, 43.0% of RDA). Subjects in their 40's had the highest zinc intak ewhile those over 70 years of age consumed the least amount of zinc. The food group that contributed most to the dietary ainc intake of subjects was cereals and grain products supplying 38% of total zinc intake. The next most important group for zinc intak ewas the meat, poultry , and product group supplying 26% ot total intake. This group was followed by fishes and shellfishes, legumes and their products, and vegetales . For individual food items , reicecontribued most, supplying 27% of total zinc intake follwoed by beef(10%) and prok(9%) . Altogether, plant foods supplied 68% of zinc intake suggesting that the bioabailability of dietary ainc is low. In conclusion, these results show ethat the zinc intake of rural Korean adults is low and that sources of dietary zinc are mainly plant foods, suggesting low bioavailability . Further studies are needed to determine zinc intake and status of Korean population. The zinc database developed in this study will be very valuable for such studies.