The content of copper in human body is 100-200mg, which is widely distributed in all tissues and organs. Copper participates in the process of hematopoiesis and is the right-hand man of iron, which can affect the absorption, transportation and utilization of iron. Copper is also a unique catalyst in biological system, which participates in the synthesis of ascorbic acid oxidase, tyrosinase, uricase and galactosidase, and is the active component of more than 30 enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and monoamine oxidase. In addition, copper can also improve the bactericidal ability of white blood cells and regulate endocrine glands.
Long-term copper deficiency in human body will hinder various physiological activities and easily produce various pathological changes. Obviously, it can increase cholesterol, triglycerides and uric acid in the blood, which can easily lead to coronary atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. It can also cause anemia, copper deficiency syndrome in children and vitiligo. According to a survey data in the United States in recent years, two-thirds of people in the United States generally have heart disease symptoms due to insufficient copper intake. In the past 30 years, the per capita cannibalism copper content in the United States has decreased significantly, and the incidence of heart disease has increased by 44% in the same period. According to the report of the World Health Organization, the number of people who died of heart disease is the highest in the world, while the number of people who died of heart disease in France is the second lowest. The low death rate of heart disease in French people is related to their love to eat the liver and kidney of poultry and livestock (especially geese and ducks), which are the accumulation pools of copper in the diet of livestock and poultry, so the content of copper in French food is relatively high, which shows the importance of copper in protecting the heart.
Copper is different from iron. The human body has no storage mechanism for copper, so it needs to take a certain amount of copper from food every day to make up for the copper discharged from bile. The content of copper in milk is low, only 0.02 mg/ 100 g, which is also the reason why infants and children who drink milk are easy to lack copper. Experts suggest adding pollen to milk as a way to supplement copper for infants and children.
Every 100g of pine pollen contains 0.4 13mg of copper.