Is Zinc Water-Soluble or Fat-Soluble?

What is Zinc?

Zinc is a chemical element and dietary mineral essential for our body’s proper development and functioning. We need a daily supply to achieve the right balance and avoid disease.

Zinc helps with the creation of DNA, the growth of cells, the building of proteins and the healing of damaged tissue. Its antioxidant activity helps us to maintain a healthy immune system and it is crucial to chemical reactions in our body involving up to 100 enzymes ^[1].

How Much Zinc Should I Take Daily?

Ensuring that we get enough zinc, given its crucial role, is paramount. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) varies according to age, sex, and life stage. Generally speaking, however, for an adult male it’s 11 mg, and for an adult female, 8 mg ^[2].

What Foods Are Rich in Zinc?

It’s always best to meet your body’s zinc needs through a varied and balanced diet that includes foods like the following, that are rich in zinc:

• oysters
• beans
• nuts
• meat
• fish
• oats
• pumpkin seeds
• fortified cereals

Studies ^[3] have indicated that 15% of Americans, however, are unable to satisfy their zinc needs with food alone, which points to the importance, for some people, of taking a daily supplement.

How long does zinc stay in your system? Although zinc is absorbed into the blood and bones and can stay in our bones for many days after exposure ^[4], our body has no mechanism ^[5] for storing excess zinc, expelling what isn’t used. This is why we need a constant and steady supply.

More About Minerals

Major minerals are required by your body in larger amounts and include:

• Calcium
• Phosphorous
• Magnesium
• Sodium
• Potassium
• Chloride
• Sulfur

Trace minerals are required by your body in smaller amounts and include:

• Iron
• Manganese
• Copper
• Iodine
• Cobalt
• Fluoride
• Selenium
• Zinc

Zinc is the second most abundant trace mineral in the body, next to iron ^[6].

Vitamins vs Minerals

Vitamins and minerals, also known as micronutrients, differ in fundamental ways. Whereas vitamins are organic and derived from plants and animals, minerals are inorganic and originate from the soil and water. This means that vitamins can be broken down by heat, air, or acid, unlike minerals, which tend to hold their chemical structure ^[7].

Because it’s harder to break down minerals than vitamins, only vitamins are water-soluble or fat-soluble.

Water-Soluble vs Fat-Soluble Vitamins

Water-soluble vitamins are found in the watery portions of the foods we eat and are absorbed easily into the bloodstream. They include:

• vitamin C
• B-group vitamins (including Vitamin B1, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B3, Vitamin B5, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B7, Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid), and Vitamin B12)

Because water-soluble vitamins aren’t stored in the body, being quickly excreted, we need to take them every day.

Fat-soluble vitamins, however, gain entry through the intestinal wall and are often accompanied by proteins. This is why it’s necessary to take them with some dietary fat (like the oil or butter you add to your food, or the fats naturally found in them) for best absorption. They include:

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin E
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin K

Although essential for good health, fat-soluble vitamins are stored in the body for longer than water-soluble vitamins and don’t need to be absorbed every day.

Is Zinc Water-Soluble or Fat-Soluble?

So, the question remains, is zinc water-soluble or fat-soluble? Being a mineral, and not a vitamin, zinc isn’t water-soluble or fat-soluble. When combined with other chemicals to make zinc compounds such as zinc gluconate, zinc citrate, zinc sulfate and zinc picolinate, however, its properties change.

There is evidence from one study ^[8] that zinc can be made into a fat-soluble compound, but it’s not one of the more common compound forms of the mineral and is difficult to produce. Generally speaking, therefore, zinc compounds are water-soluble, not fat-soluble.

Is zinc picolinate water-soluble? Yes. Zinc picolinate is among the more easily absorbed, water-soluble, zinc compounds. It’s used as a dietary supplement to prevent zinc deficiency, although it does tend to be more expensive than the other varieties available.

Is zinc gluconate water-soluble? Yes, the zinc salts gluconate, sulfate, and acetate are water-soluble and commonly used to treat zinc deficiency and other zinc-related health problems. They are among the most popular ways of delivering zinc.

What About Other Essential Minerals?

If zinc is only soluble as a compound, what about other essential minerals in the body, like magnesium?

Is Magnesium water soluble?

Magnesium is necessary for healthy muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure regulation ^[9].

Naturally present in many foods like seeds, nuts, beans, legumes and green leafy vegetables, it is also available as a supplement.

Like zinc, magnesium is water-soluble in its compound forms, but not on its own. Most commonly known magnesium compounds include magnesium citrate, magnesium gluconate and magnesium lactate, among others.

Factors Affecting Zinc Absorption

The gastrointestinal system plays an important role in the absorption of zinc. The small intestine, liver, and pancreas ^[10] in particular, are key to this process.

In order to do its job, however, so that we can feel zinc benefits, that has to make it through the walls of our digestive system ^[11]. How effectively it does that depends on multiple factors, such as:

• The amount of zinc in the intestines.
• The presence of proteins and minerals in the body that increase zinc.
• The presence of proteins and minerals in the body that decrease zinc.
• A person’s general physical condition.
• A person’s age and life stage (babies, young children, pregnant and lactating women).
• Environmental factors, e.g. Cadmium ^[12] (a chemical found in zinc ores that prevents the absorption of zinc).