Copper is one of essential minerals for human health that has important role in formation of bones, tissues, enzymes and melanin as well as elimination of free radicals from the body.
When your body lacks copper you are increasing the risk for medical conditions as osteoporosis, joint pain, anemia, immunity problems.
Copper deficiency can be solved simply with adding food rich in this mineral because it is the healthier way to supply the body with needed amount of copper and remove the deficiency.
FOOD RICH IN COPPER
Copper deficiency is very rare condition because average person needs up to 0,9 mg copper per day and with the average 2000 calorie meal plan we can get up to 2 mg of copper.
This means that you can easily overdose on this mineral and it is necessary to be careful because overdose can also cause serious disorders.
We have listed below food groups and richest sources of copper so that it can be easier for you to combine well and supply your body with recommended amounts of this mineral.
Seafood and meat
Richest source of copper is beef liver, heart and kidneys. Beef liver contains 4000 micro grams of copper in just 30 grams. Very rich source of copper is see food because medium size oyster contains 670 micro grams of copper while 100 grams of clams are around 590 micro grams of this essential mineral and 100 grams of crab beat is 654 micro grams.
Eggs
Eggs are rich source of copper, especially egg yolk. If you don’t like meat or seafood, then eggs can be good replacement to supply your body with recommended daily needs of this mineral.
Fruits and vegetables
Fruits and vegetables are not that high in copper but there are some of them are decent source as avocado, banana, grapes, sweet potato, tomato, mushrooms, and olives. A cup of sun dried tomato is around 770 while bugger size baked potato is 320 micro grams of copper.
Nuts and seeds
There are some kinds of nuts and seeds that are rich in copper. Just 30 grams of sunflower seeds contain 519, around 630 micro grams in cashews, 330 in almonds, 490 micrograms in hazelnuts. Have in mind that this numbers may vary if they are raw, baked, salted but no matter what nuts and seeds are considered as decent source of copper.
Cereal
A cup of any kind of cereal is around 100 micro grams of copper. It may not be very rich source of copper but it should not be underestimated and therefore is recommended to have them on the menu regularly.
Herbs and spices
Some herbs and spices contain decent amounts of copper and should be a part of your menu every day. Some of the herbs that contain copper are marjoram, reed, thyme, tarragon while among spices rich in this mineral can be listed chili, cumin, clove, curry, coriander, celery seeds, dill, mustard plant etc.
Chocolate
About 30 grams of dark chocolate that contains over 85 percent of cocoa contains around 500 micro grams of copper. Dark chocolate does have health benefits for human health and one of them is for sure it is increasing the level of copper in the blood.
Drinks
There are some drinks as black tea, coffee, wine and beer that contain high amount of copper. However you need to know that overdosing with tea and coffee can have side effects as well as drinking too much wine and beer. Therefore it is not that recommended to try increasing the amounts of copper overdosing with caffeine, especially not with alcohol.