Dietary zinc and first-time calcium kidney stones in adolescents
What it found
Teens who ate less zinc from food were more likely to develop a first calcium kidney stone.
This was found by comparing 30 teens with stones to 30 without.
What they found
Studies in people
Lower zinc, more stones
Teens with kidney stones ate an average of 8.1 mg of zinc per day, while those without stones ate 10 mg. For every extra 1 mg of daily zinc eaten, the odds of having a stone dropped by 13%.
Zinc below recommended amounts
Boys with stones ate 2 mg less zinc per day than the recommended amount for their age. Girls with stones ate 1.2 mg less than recommended.
Zinc in urine
For every extra 1 mg of zinc eaten per day, urine zinc rose by an estimated 4.5 μg/dL. There was weak evidence that teens with stones had a smaller rise in urine zinc than those without stones.
Other findings
Main food sources
Red meat, breakfast cereals with added zinc, and pizza provided most of the zinc. Both groups got zinc from similar foods, but teens without stones simply ate more of them.
What the authors conclude
- They conclude that eating too little zinc was linked to developing calcium kidney stones in these teenagers.
- They suggest that getting enough zinc from food may matter for preventing stones during childhood growth.
- They call for further research into how zinc affects crystal formation inside the kidneys.
How it was done
Kidney stones are becoming more common in children, but scientists do not yet know which dietary factors play a role. Lab tests suggest zinc might stop calcium crystals from forming, so the authors wanted to check if this holds true in young people.
The authors compared 30 teenagers aged 12 to 18 who had just developed their first calcium kidney stone with 30 healthy teens of the same age, sex and race. Each participant completed three phone interviews about everything they ate in a day and gave a urine sample. All testing happened before any advice was given about changing diets.
What it can’t tell you
- This study looked at teens who already had stones and compared their past diets, so it cannot prove that low zinc caused the stones.
- The researchers did not measure zinc from supplements, only what came from food.
- Controls did not have kidney scans, so a few might have had silent stones without knowing.
Who paid
- Funding
- Funded by NIDDK NIH HHS (from the PubMed record).
- Authors work at
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania; University of California, San Francisco
The paper
- Title
- Dietary Zinc and Incident Calcium Kidney Stones in Adolescence
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Tasian GE, Ross ME, Song L, et al (2017). Dietary Zinc and Incident Calcium Kidney Stones in Adolescence. The Journal of urology. doi:10.1016/j.juro.2016.11.096Free full textPubMed 27889417DOI
Summary written 1 Oct 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error