The purpose of this study was to estimate daily intake of manganese in Korean adults. Manganese intake was estimated through the use of the database of manganese content in frequently consumed Korean foods after first conducting anthropometric measurement and a survey on dietary intake with 354 Korean adults. Average age, height, weight and body mass index were 54.6 years, 165.7 cm, 67.2 kg and 24.5 kg/m(2) in males and 53.8 years, 153.7 cm, 59.1 kg and 24.9 kg/m(2) in females. The daily energy intakes of subjects were 1740.1 kcal in males and 1432.6 kcal in females. Male and female subjects recorded, respectively, 5.2 mg and 4.1 mg in manganese intake indicating that the male subjects consume more manganese (p<0.001). And they posted, respectively, 3.0 mg and 2.9 mg in manganese intake per 1000 kcal of energy consumption; it turned out that there was no significant difference. Daily manganese intake of both males and females posted, respectively, 148.8% and 135.2% of the adequate intake, and 8 males and 3 females surpassed the tolerable upper intake level. It is suggested that the study for accurate determination of manganese consumption needs to be more diversified based on the database of manganese content in Korean foods.
Keywords: Korean; Manganese; adequate intake; daily intake; tolerable upper intake level.