Hydrothermal treatment and malting of barley improved zinc absorption but not calcium absorption in humans.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Zinc and Calcium, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Supported by Semper AB, Sweden, Oy Lahden Polttimo, Finland, the SL-Foundation, Sweden, Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK), the Nordic Industrial Foundation, Swedish Council for Forestry and Agricultural Research (SJFR, project no 50.0306/97).

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 10 subjects taking part.

The age groups tagged for this paper are teenagers, adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

The study was carried out at the Department of Radiation Physics, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg.

The subjects were recruited among students at the Göteborg University.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized.

The subjects were allocated by chance, so the Zinc group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Whole-body retention of both minerals was measured.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Biological Availability, Calcium, Calcium Radioisotopes, Edible Grain, Food Handling, Hordeum and Hot Temperature.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Zinc and Calcium in 10 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2003 (European journal of clinical nutrition), a journal based in England.

More context: the related Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc library page, all human trials.