Go (Brazil) Nuts For Selenium

New research from New Zealand finds that eating two Brazil nuts a day can raise your body's stores of selenium by about 65 per cent. The research found that eating these tasty treats was more beneficial than taking selenomethionine, the most common chemical form of this antioxidant element you can find in supplements and fortified foods.

Why should you care whether you're getting your selenium? As a key component of the human body's antioxidant mechanisms, it plays a role in prevention and supporting recovery from allergies, asthma, cardiovascular disease, cataracts, cervical dysplasia, epilepsy, glaucoma, heavy metal toxicity, HIV, hypothyroidism, degenerative diseases of the liver, chronic pain, pancreatic cancer, and prostate diseases. This trace mineral is not a cure for any of these conditions, but it helps the body work better through all of them.

Selenium is found in seeds, and the most commonly eaten "seed" in Europe, North America, Australia, and New Zealand is wheat. Soils in North America are particularly rich in the element, so the wheat grown in North America is rich in it, too (although not as rich as in the nut). When the UK banned imports of wheat from the US a few years ago, selenium intake in the British diet began to drop, from an average of 60 micrograms a day to an average of 34 micrograms a day.

Two Brazil nuts only provide (on average) 53 micrograms of selenium. The 53 micrograms in them, however, is more completely absorbed than 100 micrograms supplement. Over the twelve weeks of the study, the New Zealand scientists found that the all-important antioxidant glutathione had become 8.4 per cent more abundant in the bloodstreams of test participants eating the nuts, 3.4 per cent more abundant in those taking a supplement, and declined slightly in participants taking a placebo.

So, if you're not allergic, turn to Brazil nuts for your selenium. It's even better than nutritional supplementation.

Click here for an in-depth review article (no product links in the article) on how selenium supports health. Robert Rister is the author or co-author of nine books on natural health and the writer for Savvy Natural Healer, a daily news blog on new healing methods and new healing tools.