Nutritive content of college meals. III. Mineral elements.

Two samples, each consisting of two breakfasts, two lunches, and two dinners as offered to college students, were collected for seven consecutive days from each fifty colleges. The composited meals for each college were analyzed for five major mineral elements--calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, and potassium--and five trace mineral elements--iron, chromium, copper, manganese, and zinc. On a per-person-per-day basis, the meals met or exceeded the recommended dietary allowances for nineteen-to-twenty-two-year-old men and women for calcium and phosphorus. Meals from most of the colleges were below the allowance for magnesium, over nine-tenths were short in zinc, and about three-fifths were below the allowance for iron for females but in only one college for males. Average ratios for mineral element to mineral element are reported.