Mineral profile of weight loss related foods marketed in Spain.

Low calorie foods are products designed to replace complete meals or to control snacking in many hypocaloric diets. These products provide many nutrients to the human diet, but little is known about their mineral elements composition. Here we study the mineral profile of weight loss related products, including the analysis of 22 elements (As, Ba, Be, Bi, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, K, Mn, Mo, Na, Ni, P, Pb, Th, Tl, Sb, U, V, Y and Zn) in 73 commercial products marketed in Spain. In general a portion of these products provide up to 20-30% of the daily dietary reference intake of essential trace minerals like Cr or Mo. On the contrary, some of these foods have large concentrations of toxic minerals like As, Cd or Pb. In fact, the intake of those products with higher concentrations of toxic elements during a weight loss program could pose a risk to human health.