Re: Selenium deficiency appears to affect zinc metabolism!

On Sat, 27 May 2006 14:24:12 +0300, "Juhana Harju"
<shantigiriorama@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Alf Christophersen wrote:
: On Sat, 27 May 2006 07:20:44 +0300, "Juhana Harju"
: <shantigiriorama@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
:
::
::: I say just eat some Brazil nuts.
::
:: 1 to 2 Brazil nuts daily is enough.
:
: Depends highly on where produced.
:
: There are brazil nuts around totally devoid of it, and brazil nuts
: toxic at levels of 20 a time.

My suggestion was based to the average content of selenium in brazil nuts. I
have read about variation in them but not as large as you claim. Have you
got any refences?

The study

Chang JC, Gutenmann WH, Reid CM, Lisk DJ.
Selenium content of Brazil nuts from two geographic locations in
Brazil.
Chemosphere. 1995 Feb;30(4):801-2.
PMID: 7889353 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=7889353>

reports 12 times difference in the _average_ selenium content between
Brazil nuts from two different regions in Brazil. When you look at the
standard deviations, it seems that much larger than 20 times
difference is possible between individual nuts. And this was just from
two regions of Brazil. If all growing areas of Brazil nuts were
investigated, even larger differences may be detected.

There may also be up to 8 times difference in selenium content between
shelled and unshelled brazil nuts:

Selenium, Brazil Nuts and Prostate Cancer
Cancer Decisions - Free Newsletter - December 10, 2001
https://webssl.cancerdecisions.com/121001.html

"... Here is an important tip: one unshelled Brazil nut (the kind
you must crack yourself) averages 100 mcg of selenium, according
to Cornell Professor Donald J. Lisk. On the other hand, an already
shelled Brazil nut averages 12 to 25 mcg. So, while you can reach
your daily requirement with two freshly hulled Brazil nuts, it
would take between 8 and 16 already-shelled nuts to reach that
level. ..."

The above mentioned Cornell Professor Donald J. Lisk has also found in
animal tests that too much of selenium dependent enzyme glutathione
peroxidase could promote type 2 diabetes:

Selenium-containing enzyme and diabetes
<http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/04/6.17.04/selenium_diabetes.html>
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040611074649.htm>

McClung JP, Roneker CA, Mu W, Lisk DJ, Langlais P, Liu F, Lei XG.
Development of insulin resistance and obesity in mice overexpressing
cellular glutathione peroxidase.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Jun 15;101(24):8852-7. Epub 2004 Jun 7.
PMID: 15184668 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
<http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/101/24/8852>


--
Matti Narkia
.

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