Dietary chromium intake. Freely chosen diets, institutional diet, and individual foods.

Chromium content of 22 daily diets, designed by nutritionists to be well-balanced, ranged from 8.4 to 23.7 micrograms/1000 cal with a mean +/- SEM chromium content of 13.4 +/- 1.1 micrograms/1000 cal. Most diary products are low in chromium and provide less than 0.6 micrograms/serving. Meats, poultry, and fish are also low in chromium, providing 2 micrograms of chromium or less per serving. Chromium contents of grain products, fruits, and vegetables vary widely, with some foods providing greater than 20 micrograms/serving. In summary, chromium content of individual foods varies, and is dependent upon chromium introduced in the growing, transport, processing, and fortification of the food. Even well-balanced diets may contain suboptimal levels of dietary chromium.