Author: Alexander Bruni
Time for reading: ~1
minutes
Last Updated:
August 08, 2022
We can get the mineral zinc, which is useful against viruses, easily with food. How much zinc do we usually need per day?
Why is zinc a mineral that is recommended for and against viral infections?
Zinc activates T-lymphocytes (T-cells), which helps the body regulate the immune defense against infected cells. Zinc is also a good oxidant that stabilizes free radicals. This prevents the cells from weakening and makes them less vulnerable to pathogens.
The best source of zinc is seafood and oysters in particular . Only 85 g of oysters provide 673% of the body's daily needs for zinc. It is true that now is not the oyster season and not everyone touches the beach, where we understandably think of this food and we can find it fresh, but we can pamper ourselves with this delicacy and canned oysters. An ideal option is to add a new flavor to the salad at least from time to time.
The food that is more accessible to us and can provide us with zinc is red meat, especially beef . A beef meatball contains almost half of the daily dose of zinc we need. In the case of pork steak it is only a quarter, in the case of chicken leg - one fifth. (This is 85 g of meat)
A quarter of the daily dose of zinc can be provided only with a ladle of cooked beans (130 g).
Another good source of zinc are pumpkin seeds - with 30 grams we take one-fifth of our daily required dose. For this purpose, we can add cashews, but its benefit is equal to 15% of the daily dose at 30 g. Other nuts are poorer in zinc, although it is contained in them in small quantities.
For children, cereals enriched with mineral minerals can be a good option .