Dietary trace element intakes of a selected sample of Canadian elderly women

Energy, and selected trace intakes of a sample of 90 noninstitutionalized Canadian women (mean age 66.2 +/- 6.2 years) living in a University community and consuming self-selected diets were assessed by chemical analysis of one-day duplicate diets and via 1-day dietary records collected by the subjects. Mean gross energy intake (determined via bomb calorimetry was 6.0 +/- 2.4 MJ (1435 +/- 580 kcal) and mean intakes of Cu and Mn (determined via atomic absorption spectrophotometry) were 1.2 +/- 0.6 mg and 3.8 +/- 2.1 mg/day, respectively. Instrumental neutron activation analysis was used for Cr - median = 77.4 μg/day; Se - median = 69.6 μg/day; Zn - mean + SD = 7.7 +/- 3.6 mg/day; Ag - median = 26.9 μg/day; Cs - median = 4.8 μg/day; Rb - median = 1.6 mg/day; Sb - median = 1.8 μg/day; Sc - median = 0.3 μg/day. Dietary intakes of Cr, Mn and Se for the majority of the subjects fell within the US safe and adequate range. In contrast, a high proportion of subjects had apparently low intakes of dietary Cu and Zn in relation to current US dietary recommendations