Dietary chromium and manganese intakes of a selected sample of Canadian elderly women.

Energy, manganese and chromium intakes of a selected sample of 90 free-living Canadian women (mean age 66.2 +/- 6.2 years) living in a university community and consuming self-selected diets were assessed by chemical analyses of 24-h duplicate diets and via three-day dietary records, collected by the subjects. Mean gross energy intake (determined via bomb calorimetry) was 6.0 +/- 2.4 MJ (1435 +/- 580 kcal) and mean intake of manganese (determined via atomic absorption spectrophotometry) was 3.8 +/- 2.1 mg/day, respectively. Mean and median chromium intakes, analysed via instrumental neutron activation analysis were 96.4 and 77.4 micrograms/day, respectively. The manganese and chromium densities of these diets were higher compared to diets for pre-menopausal women studied earlier, attributed in part to the higher (P less than 0.0003) median intake of tea (360 g) vs 180 g for the pre-menopausal women. No significant differences between the pre and post-menopausal groups in mean intakes (in g) of any other food groups investigated, were found. Silver-plated cutlery may also be a source of adventitious chromium in the diets of these post-menopausal subjects. Nevertheless 22 per cent of the subjects had chromium intakes based on one day duplicate diets, below the US suggested safe limit, which if representative of their habitual chromium intakes, may result in chromium depletion.