Selenium requirements: How can selenium requirements be met through food?

The shelves in pharmacies, drugstores and recently also in supermarkets and discounters are full of food supplements. Selenium preparations can also be found here. Here it is suggested that selenium cannot be absorbed through food alone. But there are plenty of tasty sources of selenium on the supermarket shelves: Nuts, lentils, meat, etc. With a few exceptions, healthy people can cover their selenium deficiency with food.

In this article you will learn:

- Between selenium deficiency and selenium overdose: What is it about?
- Preliminary remark: For which people can it be problematic to cover their selenium needs from food?
- Which foods contain particularly high amounts of selenium?
- Limitation: Selenium content in foods can vary greatly
- Conclusion: Why is a balanced diet more important than a selenium-only diet?

On the packaging of food supplements - or on their pages on the internet - you can find advertisements that selenium preparations are good for the thyroid gland and against cancer. These promises should be taken with extreme caution. After all, too much selenium is at least as harmful as a selenium deficiency. Moreover, the preparations are often expensive and do not taste so good.

It is true: a selenium deficiency has serious effects on the body and psyche. Selenium is involved in numerous processes in the body and contributes, among other things, to the normal functioning of the immune system and the thyroid gland, as well as cell protection against oxidative stress and normal sperm formation. Since the body cannot produce selenium itself, the substance must be supplied externally.

However, just like a selenium deficiency, an overdose of selenium can have serious consequences: Unlike vitamin C, for example, excess selenium is not simply excreted from the body but stored. This leads to poisoning, so-called selenosis. An overdose through the diet is almost impossible. However, if selenium supplements are taken in high doses over a longer period of time, an overdose can certainly occur.

Even if some media communicate something different: In Germany, there is no general selenium deficiency in the population. If you eat a balanced diet, you can cover your selenium requirements through food. Possible reasons why the selenium requirement cannot be met through the diet are:

- Low-protein diet
- Vegetarian or vegan diet
- Alcohol abuse
- Weakened immune system
- Cancer
- Chronic gastrointestinal disease
- Nicotine consumption
- Age over 90

There is a wide range of selenium-containing foods, both plant and animal foods. Animal products are considered the better source of selenium in Europe. This is partly because it is permitted in the EU to fortify animal feed with selenium. Meat, dairy products and eggs therefore also contribute to a good selenium supply.

Selection of selenium-containing animal foods:

- Emmental: 70 micrograms per 60 grams (2 slices).
- Hen's egg: 70 micrograms per piece
- Mackerel: 70 micrograms per 150 grams
- Poultry meat: 70 micrograms per 150 grams
- Gouda: 60 micrograms per 60 grams (2 slices)
- Bismarck herring: 60 micrograms per 150 grams
- Yoghurt: 60 micrograms per 150 grams

And there is also a wide choice of plant foods: Furthermore, you can help your blood selenium levels by frequently eating cabbage vegetables such as broccoli, white cabbage or kale. The same applies to onion vegetables, mushrooms, asparagus, legumes and lentils. Other good sources of selenium are cereals, various types of fruit and generally all nuts, including Brazil nuts, coconuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and peanuts.

Here is an overview of the most important plant sources of selenium:

- Coconuts: 400 √ 800 micrograms per 100 grams
- Porcini mushrooms: 190 micrograms per 100 grams
- Pistachios: 130 micrograms per 100 grams
- Wheat bran: 100 micrograms per 100 grams
- Soybeans: 45 micrograms per 100 grams
- Wholemeal rye bread: 70 micrograms per 100 grams
- Rice: 70 micrograms per 250 grams
- Mushrooms: 70 micrograms per 250 grams
- Lentils: 70 micrograms per 100 grams
- Potatoes: 60 micrograms per 250 grams
- Banana: 60 micrograms per 100 grams (1 banana)
- Brazil nuts: 60 micrograms per 25 grams

You normally get selenium from your diet - but there are some factors that influence this. It's not quite as simple as that: although selenium is present in plant foods, it is very much dependent on the selenium content of the soil. Because most soils in Europe are rather poor in selenium, this also applies to the foods that are grown there. Selenium-rich plants cannot grow in selenium-poor soils - this is because they cannot produce the mineral selenium themselves.
Animal foods are a more reliable source. In fact, selenium is often added to animal feed here in the EU.
In food, selenium is mainly present as selenocysteine in animal products and as selenomethionine in plant products.

If the soil is poor in selenium, so is the food grown on it.

Soils are poor in selenium in: Europe, Asia and Africa.

Even with a selenium-optimised diet, the most important rule is that you eat a balanced diet. If you concentrate exclusively on the selenium content of the food, you may be deficient in other substances. Therefore, you should follow the principles of the German Society for Nutrition. These include ten rules:

- Nutrition should be varied.
- You should eat 5 portions of east and vegetables per day.
- Whole-grain products should be preferred.
- A mixture of plant and animal foods is optimal.
- Health-promoting fats belong on the menu.
- Sugar and salt should be used sparingly.
- Water is the best drink, alternatively unsweetened teas.
- Food should be prepared gently.
- It is beneficial to eat and enjoy food mindfully.
- A balanced diet should be combined with exercise so that weight remains within the normal range or is achieved.