SELENIUM IN THE FOOD CHAIN
The recommended minimum daily requirement for selenium is 60mcg per day – 60 micrograms, 60 millionths of a gram. That is a tiny amount but critical for health. People do not suffer direct selenium deficiency until they consume less than 20mcg of selenium per day. However higher levels of selenium are needed to maintain good health, especially in the face of chronic disease or infection by disease causing viruses and bacteria that drain selenium from the system.
Soils in various parts of the world vary greatly in their selenium content. That directly affects the amount of selenium in the food grown and consumed in those areas. Thus the amount of selenium in the diet in different countries varies widely.
Statistics show that due to intensive agriculture with fertilisers that can leach selenium from the soil, selenium levels in Europe have fallen approximately 50% over the last seventy years. As a areas of China, the soil is selenium rich.
Selenium is concentrated as it moves up the food chain. Fruits and vegetables, with some exceptions, are generally poor sources of dietary selenium. Grains are much better. Meat concentrates selenium. Deep-sea foods, shell fish and organ meats like liver and kidney are the highest, best sources of dietary selenium.
The absolute most concentrated source of selenium in natural food is the Brazil nut. One Brazil nut contains 160-180 mcg of selenium. Most people get most of their selenium requirements from grains: oats, barley, wheat, rice and corn.
However, oats, barley and wheat contain twice as much selenium as rice and rice contains twice as much of this vital nutrient as corn. Thus a low-meat, corn- based diet may tend towards selenium deficiency. Some fruits and vegetables are higher in selenium than It is found in the soil worldwide. In a few others. Garlic, mushrooms, broccoli, places like some areas of the Congo and cauliflower and oranges are fairly good China, selenium is very scarce in the soil. sources. In other areas such as Senegal and other When coronavirus robs you of your sense of smell
This mystery has now neurobiology who led the been solved. team of scientists, the sensory
According to a new medical neurons that detect and study by neuroscientists transmit the sense of smell at the Harvard Medical to the brain are not among School, loss of smell in the cell types vulnerable to Covid-19 patients is caused the coronavirus. by olfactory cell types that According to the study, are located in the upper nasal whos e f i ndings were cavity. These are the most published in the journal vulnerable to infection by Science Advances, loss of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that smell or anosmia predicts the causes Covid-19. presence of Covid-19 better
According to Dr Sandeep than any other symptom
Datta , a professor of including fever and coughs.
Every cell in the human body needs and contains selenium. Without the essential trace element selenium, animal cells could not exist. Bacteria and most viruses also need selenium. When they infect you they steal it from your selenium supply. That is one way germs make you sick. Just as every cell in your body needs selenium, every food you eat also contains tiny amounts of this essential mineral.
That is because selenium is an essential and practically a universally required ingredient for life – in all animal cells and almost all plant cells as well. Selenium is essential to cellular health. It is also the key activating element for the immune system – fuel for the immune system. But where is the best place to find selenium in your diet?
Selenium is universal.
As the world races to find a vaccine for Covid-19, new symptoms and changing dynamics of the deadly disease have kept on emerging.
In April, one of the signs acknowledged as a leading symptom of the coronavirus was the loss of smell. Since then, infectious disease researchers have been battling to find out why.