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. -
Part of Times brazil nuts dont have much taste, sometimes they taste X10 more intense, as tasty as cashew if not more, have anyone else noticed that, and any Idea what might it be related to?
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@Truth said in Those brazil nuts aren't high selenium!:
any Idea what might it be related to?
When it doesn't taste, it's probably because your brain doesn't need it. One exception: whenever you're under control of your microbiota or when you saturate the tongue papilla's with fat and salt.
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@LucH said in Those brazil nuts aren't high selenium!:
@Truth said in Those brazil nuts aren't high selenium!:
any Idea what might it be related to?
When it doesn't taste, it's probably because your brain doesn't need it. One exception: whenever you're under control of your microbiota or when you saturate the tongue papilla's with fat and salt.
.I eat unsalted brazil nuts. Yes its possible a factory, but sometimes it feel like there is more to it, Can eat 15 that are untasty, and one much more tasty, same with macadamia nuts
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The amount of selenium in a brazil nut varies from tree to tree. The amount of selenium in a brazil nut depends (in part?) on the amount of selenium in the soil.
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Haidut mentions the HED for selenium in this interesting post from 2022.
http://haidut.me/?p=1755 -
I was hoping industry would develop a low pufa version like they did for the peanut. Now there's no reason to give these things a single thought which is good to know.
a pointless trash food
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@herenow most nuts suck. for peanut I like PB2 powder (defatted peanut butter powder) and then mix with coconut oil. or just mix as is in milk for peanut flavour without the peanut fat.
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Liver and shellfish, but cronometer usually tracks selenium from ground beef and milk. Does anyone think those amounts are accurate? My guess is it's lower just because feed / industry isn't so natural or high quality. Still, it seems like most cuts of beef have a good amount.
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PB2 is decent if you get a craving for pb / banana / honey sandwich. Regular peanut butter gives me awful stomach pain and indigestion.
If you want to read more about peanuts and peanut butter (largely an American food) read this book:
Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food by Jon Krampner
It's very interesting and goes into some of the economic and nutrition aspects of peanuts/pb industry.
One thing that stuck is the idea of aflatoxin from bird poop leeching into peanut butter when it rained because peanut butter factories wouldn't fix their leaking roofs. Terrible!
From AI:
Aflatoxins were first identified in commercial turkeys in the 1960s, and they are known to cause acute toxicity, known as "Turkey-X disease".
Research has shown that aflatoxins can cause reduced weight gain, impaired immune function, and liver damage in birds.
In contrast, avian influenza, particularly the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strains, can cause severe disease and high mortality rates in poultry and some wild birds.Gotta wonder if something similar is going on with "bird flu" and the chicken / egg insanity.