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Zinc deficiency looks remarkably like anorexia—and many anorexic patients are deficient in zinc.

Zinc is involved in hundreds of biological processes, including appetite regulation.

Decades of studies support the use of zinc for anorexia nervosa.

Detecting and correcting zinc deficiency is possible.

Over more than three decades of treating children, adolescents, and adults with eating disorders—including anorexia nervosa—I’ve seen the same pattern again and again. A patient arrives with severe anorexia, and they turn out to be severely deficient in one essential mineral: zinc.

So, while anorexia is a complicated disease, one part of treatment is very simple: If you, your child, or your patient has anorexia, the first and best step toward recovery may be correcting a zinc deficiency.

Three Crucial Links Between Zinc and Anorexia

1: Zinc deficiency looks remarkably like anorexia. Imagine I described someone with a poor appetite, weight loss, slowed growth, changes in taste and smell, depression, anxiety, problems concentrating, low energy, social withdrawal, and digestive complaints. Would you think I was describing anorexia nervosa? You’d be right.

But I’d also be describing the symptoms of…zinc deficiency. Yes, many of the hallmark symptoms of anorexia are also classic symptoms of zinc deficiency. That doesn’t prove zinc deficiency causes anorexia. But it raises an obvious question: Could at least some of what we’ve traditionally thought of as the symptoms of anorexia actually be driven—or made worse—by a deficiency of this one nutrient?

2: Zinc deficiency is extremely common in people with anorexia. When researchers measure zinc levels in people with anorexia, they consistently find that a substantial percentage are deficient. Depending on the study and the methods used, at least half—and in some studies many more—show evidence of inadequate zinc status.

3: Remove zinc from an animal’s diet—and it begins to resemble someone with anorexia. In several studies, when scientists fed laboratory animals a diet lacking zinc, the animals ate less and lost weight. Growth slowed. They became less active socially.........

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