title: Use and misuse of balance studies.
abstract: Balance studies are inadequate tools to determine human requirements for minerals and trace elements. At best, they estimate the amount of an element in a specified diet that maintains the existing pool size of the test subject. The relevance of pool size to health remains to be established by different and independent means.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center, MD 20705.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Mertz
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001682:Biological Availability; D006801:Humans; D008903:Minerals / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009751:Nutritional Requirements; D014131:Trace Elements / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D008903:Minerals; D014131:Trace Elements