Harvard School of Public Health (Massachusetts, USA) researchers investigated the intake of zinc in relation to risk of type-2 diabetes in American women. The team assessed data collected on participants in the Nurses’ Health Study, comprised of 82,297 women, ages 33 to 60 years at the study’s start. The researchers found that those women with the highest average daily intake of zinc were 10% less likely to develop type-2 diabetes. Further, those women with the highest average total intakes slashed their risk by 8%.  Perhaps most importantly, the researchers showed that an increased intake of zinc was associated with a 28% reduction in type-2 diabetes. 

Zinc is a plentiful trace element in the body, and it mediates many physiological functions. The US guidelines recommend that women ages 19-50 years consume 8 mg of zinc daily; men ages 19-50 years, 11 mg.  Shiitake and crimini mushrooms, spinach, and pumpkin seeds are foods rich in zinc.