Manganese intakes

In recent studies reported by Rao and Rao (A9), Indian men required 3.72 mg manganese/day to maintain manganese balance. In studies conducted at the University of Nebraska, American adult subjects also failed to be in manganese balance when manganese intake was maintained at 2.5 mg/day (31). 

The manganese balance of ten 6-day old breast-fed infants was measured for a 3-day period by Widdowson in 1969 (20). For a 3.5 kg infant, an intake of 7 (ig/day produced a negative balance of 31 ig. Alexander et al. (8) studied the manganese requirements of children, 3 months to 9 years, fed normal and synthetic diets. From calculation of their data, a manganese intake of 1.15 mg/day in a 20 kg child would produce a positive retention of 0.16 mg. 

In 1941, Kent and McCance (25) measured balance in three subjects eating mixed diets containing 1.72, 2.21, and 6.64 mg Mn/day. In the first 7-day period measured, mean respective balances of-0.05, +0.16, and -0.39 mg Mn were found. In two other subjects, substitution of white for brown flour decreased the manganese intake from 8.67 to 2.45 mg/day and the daily balance from 0.26 to 0.02 mg. 

Table V. Mean Manganese Intakes (mg/day) and Fecal Manganese Excretions (mg/day) of Humans Fed Varying Levels of Manganese...

Ascorbic acid supplementation of diets significantly enhanced the apparent retention of manganese (p<0.05) at low levels of manganese intake. When ascorbic acid was added to the diets, fecal manganese losses were significantly increased in comparison to values when the diet was fed alone (p<0.05) as shown on Table VI. At least at two levels of manganese intake, ascorbic acid apparently enhances manganese utilization. 

Table VII. Manganese Utilization as Affected by Iron Intake at Two Levels of Manganese Intake...

Stastny, D., Vngei, R. S-, and Picciano, M, K (1984). Manganese intake and serum manganese concentration of human milk-fed and formula-fed infants. Aw. /. Clin. Duir 39, 872-878,... 

Fok TF, Chui KK, Cheung R, Ng PC, Cheung KL, Hjelm M. Manganese intake and cholestatic jaundice in neonates receiving parenteral nutrition a randomized controlled study. Acta Paediatr 2001 90(9) 1009-15. 

Keen CL, Zidenbery-Cherr S, Lonnerdal B. Nutritional and toxicological aspects of manganese intake An overview. In Mertz W, Abernathy CO, Olin SS, eds. Risk Assessment of Essential Elements. Washington, ILSI Press, 1994 221-235. 

One study showed that, in full-term infants, manganese is absorbed from breast milk and cow s milk formulas that were either unsupplemented or supplemented with iron, copper, zinc, and iodine (Domer et al. 1989). Manganese intake was greater in the formula-fed infants than in the breast-fed infants due to the higher manganese content of the formula. However, breast-fed infants retained more of their daily intake of... 

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