Those brazil nuts aren't high selenium!
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Nearly all shelled brazil nuts exported for sale are from Bolivia and Peru, not Brazil. (source)
Data wasn't available on Bolivian/Peruvian nuts' selenium content, but right across the border in Brazil, in the states of Acre and Matto Grosso, brazil nuts only have about 8 mcg per nut and 10 mcg per nut respectively. The brazil nuts in the grocery store are probably from this general region, so they probably only have this much selenium.
It's only in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, probably around Manaus, that brazil nuts have the very high selenium content they're known for, due to differences in the soil. (202 mcg per nut) This is further to the north, a different region than the places our brazil nuts are most likely coming from.
(Source for all the Brazil data)
However, unshelled Brazil nuts are mostly exported from Brazil, and Manaus, Amazonas is the main brazil nut producing region of Brazil, so unshelled Brazil nuts probably do contain high selenium!
So for these many years, my daily (shelled) brazil nut didn't have 175% of the selenium RDA... All along it was probably a mere ~9 mcg selenium, 16% of the RDA!
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Seems believable. If I had to guess, most nuts are probably grown/modified for size/weight.
Milk, dairy, beef, and other meats, seafood and shellfish seem to be a safe bet for selenium.
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That’s just nuts isn’t it?
Thanks for sharing, I’ll stick with liver and shell fish.