The World's Healthiest Foods are health-promoting foods that can change your life.

How to Eat Healthier in 2018

Try our exciting new WHFoods Meal Plan.

The George Mateljan Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation with no commercial interests or
advertising. Our mission is to help you eat and cook the healthiest way for optimal health.
chromium
World's Healthiest Foods rich in
chromium
FoodCalsDRI/DV

 Broccoli5553%

 Barley21723%

 Oats15215%

 Green Beans446%

 Tomatoes324%


 Black Pepper153%

For serving size for specific foods see the Nutrient Rating Chart.

Basic Description

You might think by looking at the chart above that chromium is a mineral mostly missing in the food supply. However, it would definitely be wrong to draw this conclusion. Chromium is provided by every food group—including vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts/seeds, seafood, meats and dairy—so it is definitely not a missing mineral in our foods. However, chromium is present in many foods in very small amounts (1-2 micrograms or less). In fact, our rating system only calculated one excellent source of chromium. So we think about this mineral as one that you obtain by eating an overall healthy diet rather than any specific foods. It's also important to note that the chromium content of food has been inadequately measured by food scientists. Research journals typically show less than 10 total measurements for chromium in any particular food, and many of these measurements show little consistency. As a result, we know that many foods contain small amounts of chromium, but we are still not sure about exact amounts or how amounts might vary under different circumstances. Once again, these factors shift the focus onto an overall healthy diet when evaluating intake of chromium.

Foods rich in chromium, specifically brewer's yeast, have been used to help balance blood sugar since the time of the Civil War. In the 1950s, researchers discovered the role of chromium in blood sugar control, a role we describe below in the Role in Health Support section.

Among the foods where the chromium content is noted, we have broccoli listed as an excellent source. We also list six foods as good sources. These foods are barley, oats, green beans, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and black pepper.

While we don't know the exact chromium content of many of the World's Healthiest Foods, it appears that our strategy of eating—based around minimally processed and plant-rich meals with liberal use of spices—would be expected to ensure a consistent supply of this mineral.

Role in Health Support

Blood Sugar Control

A key role for chromium in the body is related to control of blood sugar. There is a signal molecule called low-molecular weight chromium binding substance (LMWCr) involved in blood sugar control. (You may also hear this molecule being referred to as chromodulin.) Although it has a long name, LMWCr it is a tiny molecule, built from just a few amino acids.

This LMWCr binds next to the place where insulin, a key hormone that controls blood sugar, interacts with the outside of a cell. Its role is to increase the strength of the signal that insulin sends, helping to drive blood sugar into cells more quickly after a meal. (It is also worth noting here that LMWCr is a very specifically defined molecule with a specifically defined metabolic role. Prior to discovery of LMWCr, a much less clearly defined molecule called glucose tolerance factor, or GTF, had been the subject of much interest in nutrition and was typically thought to involve a combination of chromium, vitamin B3, and select amino acids. However, unlike LMWCr, GTF remains to be specifically defined or universally accepted by researchers.)

We have seen evidence of chromium deficiency leading to abnormally high blood sugar as well as evidence that restoring chromium supply back toward normal or higher can enhance blood sugar control even in some people with diabetes. Research studies of this kind underscore the importance of LMWCr and chromium for blood sugar balance.

Healthy diets like the World's Healthiest Foods eating plan tend to be associated with low risk for type 2 diabetes. Strong chromium nutrition is one of many reasons this would be true.

Note that some of our chromium-rich World's Healthiest Foods have additional ways that they help balance blood sugar. Cinnamon and sweet potatoes would be a couple examples of these. Here's a tasty recipe—Sweet Potatoes with Ginger and Cinnamon—that combines them.

Summary of Food Sources

Because the amounts of chromium in foods are quite small, researchers have struggled to clearly quantify dietary chromium intake in the same way we can with other nutrients. However, based on our overall understanding of food and nutrients, we are confident that many of the World's Healthiest Foods contain chromium, even if the database we use to determine content is incomplete. Broccoli, which does have a measured value for chromium in our database, contains about half of your daily requirement per serving and ranks as an excellent source of this nutrient. In the vegetable group, tomatoes, green beans, and romaine lettuce rank as good sources.

Several whole grains, including oats and barley, rank as good sources of chromium in our rating system. Other clearly-established food sources of chromium (but not ranked in our system as good, very good, or excellent sources) include fruits like apples and bananas, meats like chicken, grains like brown rice, and dairy products like eggs and cow's milk. Herbs and spices also provide measurable amounts of chromium, with black pepper ranking as a good source in our rating system. As described earlier, we are confident that many foods in addition to the ones listed above contain very small-to-small amounts of chromium.

To summarize your best food options for increasing chromium in your meal plan: while we only show 7 WHFoods as being ranked sources of chromium, and while only 11 additional WHFoods show actual microgram amounts for chromium, we are confident that you will be getting chromium from whole, natural foods in all food groups, as well as in herbs and spices. When trying to increase your chromium intake, it's important to take a broad approach involving an overall healthy diet.

Nutrient Rating Chart

Introduction to Nutrient Rating System Chart

In order to better help you identify foods that feature a high concentration of nutrients for the calories they contain, we created a Food Rating System. This system allows us to highlight the foods that are especially rich in particular nutrients. The following chart shows the World's Healthiest Foods that are either an excellent, very good, or good source of chromium. Next to each food name, you'll find the serving size we used to calculate the food's nutrient composition, the calories contained in the serving, the amount of chromium contained in one serving size of the food, the percent Daily Value (DV%) that this amount represents, the nutrient density that we calculated for this food and nutrient, and the rating we established in our rating system. For most of our nutrient ratings, we adopted the government standards for food labeling that are found in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Reference Values for Nutrition Labeling." Read more background information and details of our rating system.
World's Healthiest Foods ranked as quality sources of
chromium
Food Serving
Size
Cals Amount
(mcg)
DRI/DV
(%)
Nutrient
Density
World's
Healthiest
Foods Rating
Broccoli 1 cup 54.6 18.55 53 17.5 excellent
Barley 0.33 cup 217.1 8.16 23 1.9 good
Oats 0.25 cup 151.7 5.38 15 1.8 good
Green Beans 1 cup 43.8 2.04 6 2.4 good
Tomatoes 1 cup 32.4 1.26 4 2.0 good
Romaine Lettuce 2 cups 16.0 1.25 4 4.0 good
Black Pepper 2 tsp 14.6 0.93 3 3.3 good
World's Healthiest
Foods Rating
Rule
excellent DRI/DV>=75% OR
Density>=7.6 AND DRI/DV>=10%
very good DRI/DV>=50% OR
Density>=3.4 AND DRI/DV>=5%
good DRI/DV>=25% OR
Density>=1.5 AND DRI/DV>=2.5%

Impact of Cooking, Storage and Processing

Researchers have looked at the chromium content of prepared and convenience foods, and the amount of chromium loss varies substantially with the type of food and the type of processing. There do appear to be some patterns, though.

Turning a whole grain into a refined one appears to result in a large percentage reduction in chromium content. For example, a serving of white bread contains about half the chromium of an equivalent amount of whole-wheat bread.

Cooking vegetables, at least lightly boiling or steaming them, does not appear to deplete excessive amounts of chromium. We've seen studies showing loss of approximately 5-30% chromium from vegetables cooked in this way.

Risk of Dietary Deficiency

We don't yet know if there is a true deficiency state of chromium, or if there is at what intake level it would emerge. Also, limitations in the ability to measure chromium in human tissues as well as food make it difficult to study large populations.

We do believe, however, that chromium levels vary with age, with levels going down by up to 40% in older versus younger people. This drop is probably related to dietary intake, as other research groups have concluded that chromium intake in older persons is frequently below recommended amounts.

People who eat highly refined diets, especially ones rich in simple sugars, also may be at risk of deficient chromium intake. In other words, their diet choices might leave them consuming too little chromium. One research group has also suggested that these same sugar-laden diets increase the rate of chromium loss from the body, exacerbating the deficiency risk. Given the central role of chromium in blood sugar control, this two-pronged attack on chromium status is another good reason to avoid routine intake of processed, refined foods that are also high in simple sugars.

The importance of diet quality to chromium levels is also supported by a 2011 study in which a research group taught a group of 169 overweight or prediabetic adults to eat a healthier diet—one that included more fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs than they were used to eating. In response to the healthier meal plan, blood chromium levels went up significantly from where they started.

Other Circumstances that Might Contribute to Deficiency

Once again, we do not have as much information as we would like in this area. But we do have bits and pieces of information from some specialized areas. People on prolonged intravenous nutrition often develop diabetes. There are many reasons this is true, but one potential reason is chromium deficiency. For these people, getting chromium levels back to normal can reverse the issue.

Heavy exercise can increase the rate of chromium loss in the urine. Whether this is detrimental or could exacerbate deficiency of this nutrient has not been determined.

Relationship with Other Nutrients

Vitamin C enhances the absorption of dietary chromium. For instance, women absorbed more chromium from a supplement when they were simultaneously given 100 mg of vitamin C—about the same amount you'd find in a serving of chromium-rich broccoli. While we believe this supplement study was very helpful for understanding the relationship between chromium and vitamin C, getting both nutrients from a whole, natural food is definitely the approach we recommend.

Chromium and iron can be transported on the same protein (transferrin) in the blood stream. It is plausible that too much of either of these minerals could impair metabolism of the other. But this interaction has never been demonstrated to be a problem in humans.

Risk of Dietary Toxicity

Toxicity from dietary chromium has not been reported, and not very likely to occur. Studies where researchers use chromium like a drug—at doses close to 50 times more than seen with average diets—did not lead to significant risk of adverse effects.

In stark contrast to food intake and diets, there are industrial workplace settings where risk of excessive chromium exposure (in the form of hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6) can be significant. At the top of the list for higher-risk chromium exposure are welding, painting, electroplating, steel and iron manufacture, and textile dyeing. Especially in regions where the above manufacturing facilities are located (including numerous urban locations throughout the U.S.), water supplies can at greater risk for accumulation of chromium. Municipal water supplies are currently monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ensure maximum chromium levels in water of 100 parts per billion (ppb) or less. If you are concerned about possible exposure to excess chromium in your drinking water, you may want to consider purchase of a home water filter certified for reduction of hexavalent chromium, or the purchase of bottled drinking water from a manufacturer who provides you with information about chromium content.

Disease Checklist

  • Type 2 diabetes (prevention and treatment)
  • Metabolic syndrome
  • High cholesterol
  • Depression

Public Health Recommendations

In 2001, the National Academy of Sciences published Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for chromium. These DRI recommendations came in the form of Adequate Intake (AI) levels as follows:

  • 0-6 months: 0.2 mcg
  • 6 months-1 year: 5.5 mcg
  • 1-3 years: 11 mcg
  • 4-8 years: 15 mcg
  • 9-13 years, female: 21 mcg
  • 9-13 years, male, 25 mcg
  • 14-18 years, female: 24 mcg
  • 14-18 years, male: 35 mcg
  • 19-50 years, female: 25 mcg
  • 19-50 years, male: 35 mcg
  • 51+ years, female: 20 mcg
  • 51+ years, male: 30 mcg
  • Pregnant women, 14-18 years: 29 mcg
  • Pregnant women, 19+ years: 30 mcg
  • Lactating women, 14-18 years: 44 mcg
  • Lactating women, 19+ years: 45 mcg

The NAS did not set a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for chromium.

The Daily Value (DV) for chromium is 120 micrograms (mcg) per 2000 calories. This DV target is used on food labels.

At WHFoods, we adopted the chromium DRI for 14-50 year-old males, since that level was the highest recommended intake amount for any age-gender group (except women who are breastfeeding). This DRI and our WHFoods recommended daily intake level is 35 micrograms.

References

  • Bo S, Milanesio N, Schiavone C, et al. Magnesium and trace element intake after a lifestyle intervention. Nutrition 2011;27:108-10.
  • Cabrera-Vique C, Bouzas PR. Chromium and manganese levels in convenience and fast foods: in vitro study of the dialyzable fraction. Food Chem 2009;117:757-63.
  • Cefalu WT, Hu FB. Role of chromium in human health and in diabetes. Diabetes Care 2004;27:2741-51.
  • Davies S, McLaren-Howard J, Hunnisett A, et al. Age-related decreases in chromium levels in 51,665 hair, sweat, and serum samples from 40,872 patients — implications for the prevention of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes mellitus. Metabolism 1997;46:469-73.
  • Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine. Dietary reference intakes for vitamin A, vitamin K, boron, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, vanadium, and zinc. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; 2001;394-419.
  • Hua Y, Clark S, Ren J, et al. Molecular mechanisms of chromium in alleviating insulin resistance. J Nutr Biochem 2012;23:313-9.
  • Kovacs R, Beni A, Karosi R, et al. Investigation of chromium content in foodstuffs and nutrition supplements by GFAAS and determination of changing Cr(III) to Cr(VI) during baking and toasting bread. Food Chem 2007;105:1209-13.
  • Lisiewska Z, Gebczynski P, Bernas E, et al. Retention of mineral constituents in frozen leafy vegetables prepared for consumption. J Food Comp Anal 2009;22:218-23.
  • Rubin MA, Miller JP, Ryan AS, et al. Acute and chronic resistive exercise increase urinary chromium excretion in men as measured with an enriched chromium stable isotope. J Nutr 1998;128:73-8.
  • Thor MY, Harnack L, King D, et al. Evaluation of the comprehensiveness and reliability of the chromium composition of foods in the literature. J Food Comp Anal 2011;24:1147-52.
  • Tinggi U, Reilly C, Patterson C. Determination of manganese and chromium in foods by atomic absorption spectrometry after wet digestion. Food Chem 1997;60:123-8.
  • Vaquero MP. Magnesium and trace elements in the elderly: intake, status and recommendations. J Nutr Health Aging 2002;6:147-53.

Printer friendly version

Send this page to a friend...

rss


Newsletter SignUp

Your Email:

Find Out What Foods You Should Eat This Week

Also find out about the recipe, nutrient and hot topic of the week on our home page.

 

Everything you want to know about healthy eating and cooking from our new book.
2nd Edition
Order this Incredible 2nd Edition at the same low price of $39.95 and also get 2 FREE gifts valued at $51.95. Read more


Healthy Eating
Healthy Cooking
Nutrients from Food
Website Articles
Community
Privacy Policy and Visitor Agreement
References
For education only, consult a healthcare practitioner for any health problems.

We're Number 1
in the World!

35 million visitors per year.
The World's Healthiest Foods website is a leading source of information and expertise on the Healthiest Way of Eating and Cooking. It's one of the most visited websites on the internet when it comes to "Healthiest Foods" and "Healthiest Recipes" and comes up #1 on a Google search for these phrases.

Over 100 Quick &
Easy Recipes

Our Recipe Assistant will help you find the recipe that suits your personal needs. The majority of recipes we offer can be both prepared and cooked in 20 minutes or less from start to finish; a whole meal can be prepared in 30 minutes. A number of them can also be prepared ahead of time and enjoyed later.

World's Healthiest
Foods
is expanded

What's in our new book:
  • 180 more pages
  • Smart Menu
  • Nutrient-Rich Cooking
  • 300 New Recipes
  • New Nutrient Articles and Profiles
  • New Photos and Design
privacy policy and visitor agreement | who we are | site map | what's new
For education only, consult a healthcare practitioner for any health problems.
© 2001-2018 The George Mateljan Foundation, All Rights Reserved