Serum Zinc Level and Eating Behaviors in Children Receiving Zinc Supplements without Physician Prescription

Abstract

Background:The aim of the study was to compare the serum zinc level and eating behaviors in 2–8-year-old children with and without arbitrarily zinc supplementation.Materials and Methods:This case–control study was conducted from December 2015 to December 2017 in Isfahan, Iran. The case group consisted of seventy children, aged 2–8 years, who have received zinc supplement without physician prescription; the controls were an equal number of age-matched children who did not receive any supplement. The serum zinc level was measured, and eating behaviors were identified using Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ).Results:There was no significant difference in serum zinc level between two groups (P = 0.18). Some differences in CEBQ subscales were identified between the groups studied. In the control group, the subscale of enjoyment of food was higher than the case group (P < 0.001). In the case group, the subscales of food fussiness and satiety responsiveness were higher than controls (P < 0.001).Conclusion:In this study, serum zinc levels were not significantly different between the two groups, and arbitrarily zinc supplementation does not play an important role in improving anorexia subscales.

Nanoencapsulation of thyme essential oil: a new avenue to enhance its protective role against oxidative stress and cytotoxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles in rats

“…ZnO-NPs are used excessively in biomedical applications such as a tool for the imaging of biological systems, cosmetics, and anticancer drugs (Jiang et al 2018 ). Moreover, Zn is used as a food supplement particularly for children (Pourmirzaiee et al 2018 ; Prasad 2008 ) and currently during the COVID-19 pandemic (Wessels et al 2020 ) besides the wide use of ZnO-NPs for longer preservations and extend shelf life of several foods (Wu et al 2010 ; Espitia et al 2012 ). Despite these beneficial effects of ZnO-NPs, several studies reported that ZnO-NPs produce cytotoxicity in different cell types such as osteoblast cancer cells, kidney cells, hepatocytes, human bronchial epithelial cells, and alveolar adenocarcinoma cells and the toxicity of such nanoparticles may be correlated to the dosage and the size of nanoparticles (Singh 2019 ; Wang et al 2018 ).…”

Nanoencapsulation of thyme essential oil: a new avenue to enhance its protective role against oxidative stress and cytotoxicity of zinc oxide nanoparticles in rats

“…ZnO-NPs are used excessively in biomedical applications such as a tool for the imaging of biological systems, cosmetics, and anticancer drugs. Moreover, Zn is used as a food supplement particularly for children (Pourmirzaiee et al, 2018;Prasad, 2008) and currently during COVID-19 pandemic (Wessels et al, 2020) besides the wide use of ZnO-NPs for longer preservations and extend shelf life of several foods (Wu et al, 2010;Espitia et al, 2012). Despite these bene cial effects of ZnO-NPs, several studies reported that ZnO-NPs produce cytotoxicity in different cell types such as osteoblast cancer cells, kidney cells, hepatocytes, human bronchial epithelial cells, and alveolar adenocarcinoma cells and the toxicity of such nanoparticles may be correlated to the dosage and the size of nanoparticles (Singh, 2019;Wang et al, 2018).…”