A Popular Meat Known For Being High In Iron Is Also Full Of Zinc

There are people who swear by zinc as a cure-all for every sniffle, sneeze, or sore throat. And though zinc can't magically make colds or the flu disappear, it remains an all-around beneficial mineral with plenty of impressive capabilities.

Zinc helps maintain cellular health, as well as provides other advantages at the DNA level. That's why it's a good idea to keep your zinc intake within the daily recommended doses of 8 milligrams for women and 11 milligrams for men to help prevent skin problems, sexual health issues, and other symptoms that might happen to you if you have a zinc deficiency.

But you don't have to resort to taking zinc supplements. It's possible to consume all the zinc your body needs from food alone. In fact, eating 3 ounces of most kinds of beef can get you most of the way there. For instance, a three-ounce T-bone steak delivers nearly 4 milligrams of zinc. The same amount of beef roast contains about 6 milligrams. Plus, you'll get 2.85 milligrams and 2.34 milligrams (respectively) of iron from each cut as a bonus.

What effects could the zinc from red meat have on your future health? First, you might be able to avoid using up your sick leaves, because zinc can help you reduce the time you're under the weather.

A 2017 review in JRSM Open found that taking lozenges that contained zinc could shorten the duration of common cold symptoms by 28% to 40%. A hundred milligrams per day of zinc lozenge products was the maximum dosage needed to produce this positive effect. That said, you can't expect zinc to stop sickness in its tracks because taking zinc appears to be more of an intervention than a preventative measure. As a 2024 review in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews showed, previous studies simply didn't support the idea of zinc as a common cold cure. But the authors did find that zinc could lessen the time it takes to recover from a cold. That's definitely a bonus, since you never know how long a cold could really last.

Another benefit you could see from increasing your zinc intake could be a lowered risk of developing certain cancers. For instance, a 2022 review in Frontiers in Nutrition noted that consuming 5 grams of zinc each day (delivered incrementally) could reduce the chances of being diagnosed with colorectal or esophageal cancer by 14% and 15%, respectively. This means that eating zinc-rich foods like red meat can be one of those helpful ways to lower your likelihood of a cancer diagnosis.

Zinc has also been connected with improvement for those with short bowel syndrome, another medical problem related to the gastrointestinal system. Though the disorder isn't common, it's an affliction that can be life-threatening because it frequently leads to nutritional deficiencies. While zinc hasn't been approved as a treatment for short bowel syndrome yet, a 2024 study in Nature performed on mice showed promising evidence for zinc supplementation as a way to promote intestinal healing and encourage improved nutrient absorption. Maame Sampah, a research fellow who co-authored the experiment, noted that "boosting zinc intake helped the mice recover better and increased their chances of survival" (via Johns Hopkins Medicine).