Zinc is an essential trace element for the human body. But the human body cannot produce zinc and can only rely on external supply. Zinc deficiency is a common phenomenon in the world today. This article will introduce a relatively new, not well-known, but very good zinc supplement-zinc glycinate.
About Zinc：
Zinc is one of the 14 essential trace elements known to the human body. Because of its extensive physiological and biochemical effects on the human body, zinc is called the “life element”. It exists in the human body in the form of protein and metalloenzymes. Liver and muscle tissue are the main places for zinc storage. The total amount of zinc in a normal human body is 2-2.5g. It involves almost all cell metabolism and is the most abundant trace element in the cell.
Zinc has the functions of accelerating growth, improving taste, regulating body immunity, preventing infection, and promoting wound healing. Zinc also assists the transport of glucose in cells.
Zinc can only be supplied outside the body. It is generally believed that the daily supply of zinc for adults is 7.2 mg or more. However, since the human body’s absorption rate of zinc in food is only about 10%, the normal human body will lose a lot of zinc during metabolism. Therefore, zinc deficiency is a very common phenomenon in people. Although absolute zinc deficiency in humans is relatively rare, there are still many relatively zinc-deficient people, especially in special populations such as infants, young children, women, and the elderly. The survey shows that the zinc deficiency rate among Chinese children is around 60%. Nearly 100 million children nationwide are deficient in zinc, and marginal zinc deficiency is common.
Zinc Glycinate
Because of the widespread phenomenon of zinc deficiency, zinc supplementation has become a matter of great concern. Zinc supplement products are also replaced from generation to generation. The first-generation zinc supplement products are inorganic zinc salts, such as zinc sulfate, zinc chloride, and zinc acetate. This type of compound has a stimulating effect on the human intestines and has a low absorption rate. The second generation is simple organic acid zinc salts, such as zinc gluconate, zinc licorice, and zinc lactate. The absorption efficiency of organic acid zinc is better than that of inorganic zinc, but its synthesis is complex, the yield is low, and the absorption rate is not improved much. The third generation is the amino acid chelating zinc, such as zinc glycinate. The synthesis of chelated zinc is simple, has good chemical and thermal stability, has anti-interference, and relieves the antagonism between minerals. It also has significant advantages such as fast blood entry and high bioavailability.
The amino acid trace element chelate conforms to the mechanism and characteristics of human body trace element absorption. It organically combines essential amino acids and trace elements to become a new type of high-efficiency trace element nutrition enhancer with good physical and chemical properties and biological activity. Glycine is the amino acid with the smallest molecular weight. The chelate formed by its reaction with trace elements is also the amino acid trace element chelate with the smallest molecular weight, which can be better absorbed and utilized by the body.
The bioavailability of zinc glycinate is high. The reason may be that after the metal element zinc forms a chelate with amino acids, the charge in the molecule tends to be neutral. In this way, it can maintain good stability in the digestive tract, is less affected by other inorganic ions or antagonists, and is not easy to combine with other substances to form insoluble compounds or be adsorbed on insoluble colloids. The two hypotheses of amino acid chelate absorption also explain the possible reasons why amino acid zinc has a higher bioavailability than inorganic zinc. It can better promote animal production performance, immunity, and antioxidant capacity.
Zinc glycine is recognized by nutrition experts at home and abroad as the most effective food fortifier. Zinc glycinate overcomes the shortcomings of the low bioavailability of second-generation food nutrient fortifiers，such as zinc lactate and zinc gluconate. With its unique molecular structure, it organically combines the essential amino acids and trace elements of the human body, which conforms to the absorption mechanism and characteristics of the human body. It enters the intestinal mucosa within 15 minutes of taking the human body and is quickly absorbed; at the same time, it does not have an antagonistic effect with calcium, iron, and other trace elements in the body, thereby increasing the body’s absorption rate of zinc. It is incomparable to all other zinc supplement products at home and abroad, and it is an ideal zinc supplement.
