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Hello. My name is Susan
Fairweather-Tait.
I'm a professor of
human nutrition
in the Norwich Medical school at
the University of East Anglia in
the UK and I'm going to
be talking about copper.
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Copper is a component
of several enzymes,
cofactors, and
proteins in the body.
It exists either
as cuprus that's
the reduced form or
cupric the oxidized form
and this ability to gain or
lose an electron underpins
its role in energy
transfer processes
in biological systems.
It also acts as a cofactor in
several copper-containing
metalloenzymes and it's
required for many
functions in the body,
including the immune, nervous
and cardiovascular systems,
bone health, iron
metabolism and formation of
red blood cells, and the
regulation of gene expression.
It has a wide range of
functions within the body.
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If you look at the
concentration of copper
in foods both
plants and animals,
is influenced very much
by the environment.
So, the season, the soil
quality, the geography,
the source of water,
and also the use
of fertilisers, fungicides,
and insecticides.
Many of which do contain copper.
This will affect the amount of
copper that you find in food.
Rich dietary sources include
offal and organ meats
that's liver and
kidney for example,
shellfish, nuts and seeds,
legumes, beans and so on,
wholegrain cereals
and chocolate.
You can also get copper from
soft water if it's run
through copper pipes.
Soft water has a low pH
and it gradually
dissolves the surface of
the copper pipes, and you
can get very high levels
of copper in soft water that's
come through copper pipes.
Average intakes for men
and women are about
1.5 or 1.2 milligrams per day.
So, it's not very much.
Again, copper is considered
a trace element.
Copper absorption takes place
