Do you like canned foods such as corn, tuna, asparagus or chicken? If yes, then think twice before consuming it. A team of researchers have warned that the canned foods may contain zinc oxide that can damage your digestive system.
New York: Do you like canned foods such as corn, tuna, asparagus or chicken? If yes, then think twice before consuming it. A team of researchers have warned that the canned foods may contain zinc oxide that can damage your digestive system.
The study showed that nanoparticles of zinc oxide present in the lining of certain canned goods, usually considered good for its antimicrobial properties and preventing staining of sulfur-producing foods, may negatively affect the way in which human digestive tract operates.
Gretchen Mahler, Associate Professor at the Binghamton University in the New York said,"We found that zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles at doses that are relevant to what you might normally eat in a meal or a day can change the way that your intestine absorbs nutrients or your intestinal cell gene and protein expression."
Researchers found that canned food contained 100 times the daily dietary allowance of zinc.
Mahler added,"They tend to settle onto the cells representing the gastrointestinal tract and cause remodelling or loss of the microvilli, which are tiny projections on the surface of the intestinal absorptive cells that help to increase the surface area available for absorption."