Brazil Nuts, Selenium, & Diabetes

Type 2 Diabetes Finding

According to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine that tracked 1,202 people for almost eight years, you will increase your risk for developing type-2 diabetes by 50% if you take a supplement of 200 milligrams of selenium every day.*

Brazil Nuts & Selenium

I know on face value this sounds like just anyone could take too much selenium on accident but your typical multivitamin only contains 100-200 mcg (micrograms) of selenium. Meaning you would have to take about 1000 pills a day to reach this level. Considering this I guess this finding really is fairly pointless except for filing it under the interesting yet pointless facts category. Who’s going to ingest ten 100-count bottles of selenium pills every day? Really?

As a side note however, Brazil nuts are quite rich in Selenium, around 500mcg per ounce. Doing the math I guess we could assume there are at least a few people out there with unquenchable cravings for Brazil Nuts. These people would have to eat 400 ounces of Brazil Nuts every day to reach this level… again hardly worth mentioning but still interesting.

Brazil Nuts and T-Cells?
There has however been some studies that have come out that indicate that 200MCG of selenium which can easily be found in a daily serving of Brazil nuts can help with dendritic cell count and possibly with T Cell Activation. So those Brazil nuts might just be good for something other than tasty goodness after all.

If you want to try a good selenium supplement which won't put you at an increased risk for developing diabetes but may help improve your T-cell count then this Nature Made Selenium (200mcg) supplement on Amazon.com may be worth checking out.

Brazil Nuts and Diabetes?
And in case you actually are worried about Brazil nuts and diabetes and have managed to curb your habit of popping too many selenium pills and Brazil nuts you can look into eating more Brussels Sprouts as they help keep insulin levels in check. Or try going for a 15 minute sprint as doing this regularly also helps to lower insulin levels.

Source
The finding was paraphrased from Best Life magazine, February 2008.