Zinc Deficiency & Male Emissions | Dr Michael Greger of Nutritionfacts.org

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.