Prospector

Zinc supplementation improved mental performance of 7th-grade boys and girls

This article in Eurekalert describes a paper presented to American Society of Nutritional Sciences that showed a significant improvement in performance on tests for seventh graders to added zinc in their diet.
They found that the the young test subjects who recieved the Recommended Daily Allowance of 10 mg per day did not show any benefits while the 20 mg per day subjects showed improvements.

Quote:
If further studies confirm that the mental function, and in particular memory, of adolescents benefit from increasing zinc intakes, says Dr. Penland, then this and other similar studies would provide information that could be used when revising dietary guidelines for zinc in this age group.

The report suggests that zinc deficiency may be more of a problem in adolescents because of their rapid growth rates and sometimes bad eating habits. It concludes that knowledge of this zinc deficiency could lead to changes in school menus and diet recommedations for teens.

I see a marketing opportunity here. There are plenty of foods that are marketed to kids and to old people but there are few that are targeted to teens to improve their health.
Teens are known to use steroids and muscle-building supplements and many will try anything for acne relief. It seems that it would not be too difficult to tap into teen angst to sell nutraceuticals to them.


Charles Atlas


Zinc supplementation improved mental performance of 7th-grade boys and girls

posted by Prospector @ 7:39 PM