You’re vegan?
Yeah.
Where do you get your....Amino acids?
Plants
Ascorbic Acid?
Plants
Biotin?
Plants
Selenium?
Plants
Thiamine?
Plants
Vitamin A?
Plants
B1?
Plants
2?
Plants
3?
Plants
5?
Plants
6?
Plants
9?
Plants
12?
Bacteria
Oh! I’ve got it…Wait, do you eat Oysters?
No
Ha!...Zinc
Hi it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. I’m excited to
kick off the final three nutrients in the “Where Do You Get Your _? Vegan Nutrition Concerns”
series with the fantastic Dr. Michael Greger of Nutritionfacts.org.
Now when you go vegan, you, or more so the people who know you, will most likely have
nutrient- related concerns prior to zinc. But, it usually does arise after the fears
of protein, b12, omega 3s and the like have been addressed.
Zinc is found in the highest concentration in oysters, followed by beef. However, just
because something has the highest concentration of a nutrient doesn’t mean it’s the best
source given all that comes along with the zinc- plus, an iron pipe certainly contains
a lot of iron, but I wouldn’t recommend ingesting it to stave off anemia- nor does
it mean it’s the only source. I mean, the oysters and cows had to get the zinc from
somewhere and it wasn’t from eating oysters and cows.
So, let’s hear from Dr. Greger about the role of zinc in our body, how to get it from
plants, and why you men out there may need to keep a zinc-rich snack next to your tissues.
So, another one of the nutrients that people kinda struggle with a vegan diet, or think
they might not be able to get is zinc. So, could you speak a little bit to that?
What it does for us and where we can get it?
Sure, we can get zinc from beans, greens, nuts and seeds, and whole grains as well.
If you don’t get enough zinc it can affect your taste acuity and though, look I’ve
kissed a few, and I think Vegans taste fine but umm...and there’s no evidence to suggest
that people eating plant-based diets have more problems with zinc but you could imagine
someone who was not eating whole foods living off french fries, beer and cotton candy
and you just would not be getting your zinc. I mean, so we need to eat whole grains, nuts,
seeds, beans, and greens. But look, if you are eating beans everyday, it should not be a problem.
It's um...maybe a little more challenging for men than for women. It’s interesting like um...
...so for example, iron, the requirements for iron for child-bearing age women is higher than men
because they, women are losing iron every month. And so that the differential is set up to
account for about a quarter cup of blood loss every month but women may need more or less
depending on how heavy their flow is.
For zinc, it's actually the reverse interestingly, so men actually require more zinc. So, the RDA for zinc
is higher for men than women and that’s because zinc is lost in every seminal emission.
So zinc is found in semen and we lose semen...we lose zinc when we lose semen. And so it’s interesting
though, so we say, okay well how big is that differential? How much does the...how many times does the Institute of Medicine think
men are ejaculating every day? And it turns out, they put the differential at about
3mg, so they are assuming men are ejaculating about once a day. If however, you need more or less
you'd have to adjust accordingly. And so, you might need a bowl of pumpkin seeds by your
bed or something. So, that’s about an extra quarter cup of pumpkin seeds or peanuts, something like that
for every extra loss a day for men.
Is it sometimes, with the zinc and copper ratios, is it more of getting enough zinc
or is it keeping those two in balance that is primary, or is it just the both basically?
You don’t have to worry whatsoever, just eat your whole foods
and you’re fine. The only time you get into some of these nutrient interactions is when you're
taking high dose supplements. So you take high dose supplements...if you take a whopping dose of you know 600 mg of calcium
in one pill then you want to worry about it interfering with something else, but when
we get whole foods, we get everything the way our bodies were designed to take it.
I hope you enjoyed hearing from Dr. Greger on this. I particularly love my facial reaction
when he says institute of medicine estimated that men are ejaculating once a day.
"About once a day".
So professional of me.
Just eating a whole foods, plant-based diet based on fruits and greens, here is my zinc
intake from yesterday. If you want to track your own intake of Zinc, check out Cronometer
to track your nutrition. Sorry guys, I’m not sure if they have a tracker for your…um….emissions.
Maybe something to consider, Cronometer?...No?
[whispers] I understand.
But it's totally free and pretty freakin’ awesome- so awesome that they’re sponsoring this video to help get
this vital information out to you. Be sure to click the link in the description to make
your free profile so they know that Bite Size Vegan sent you. I don’t get any money when you
click, but it does make Cronometer happy in a way that is vaguely associated with me.
Which is just how you want to make someone happy.
Well I’d love to hear from you on this- is zinc something you even worry about in
your diet? If your vegan was it a concern when making the switch? If you’re considering
veganism, is zinc on your radar? Let me know in the comments!
If you enjoyed this nugget full-o-zinc, give the video a big thumbs up and share it around
to spread the nutritional truth. If you’re new here be sure to hit that big red subscribe
button down there for more awesome vegan content every Monday, Wednesday, and some Fridays,
and to not miss out on the rest of the videos with Dr. Greger. You can find the playlist
with all the videos so far in the infocard sidebar and the video description below.
If you want to help Bite Size Vegan keep educating, check out either of the support links in the
video description below and for perks and rewards for your support, just click the Nugget
Army icon there or the link in the description for more info. You can also
find it in the info card sidebar. And hey, check out some of the related videos while you're here.
Now go live vegan, get your zinc in, and I’ll see you soon.
You know how they say the size of a man's hand or the size of his foot can tell you
something about the size of another organ? Well now people everywhere are going to be
looking at the size of the bowl of pumpkin seeds on the side of his bed.
Thank you Dr. Greger.
God, the more you say plants, if you say a word, any word that you say a million times in a row,
it doesn't sound like real word anymore.
Plants...Plants [laughs]
Oh, I have to find these small things to amuse myself.