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Most vegans don’t know about selenium (Se) being an issue, but it is. Insufficient intake is ~2-4X higher in ovolactos and vegans.
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Here’s why: Fish + animals are rich sources because A) they require it to live, so their regulation is ~constant, i.e., reliable, and B) Se, the blasé fucker, just ends up draining with laze from the soil, slipping into the frothy beckoning seas where it’s taken up sensually by various lifeforms, accumulating along the food chain, ultimately with significance in fish*. Farmed animals get supplemented to avoid deficiencies, spur growth+fertility, make their dead-bits nicer.
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Plants don’t really depend on Se. They live relatively independent from amounts in soil. Still, among them, we got “non-accumulators”, “Se-accumulators”, and “Se-indicators”; species capable of growing Se-independently or in really seleniferous soils.
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Lemme Bob Ross it for you: Brazil nuts, considered rich in Se, vary greatly in their concentrations; from 0.03 micrograms/g to 512 micrograms/g. So someone can meet their entire daily requirement for Se by eating a fraction of one single nut (0.1 g) or, they could eat 30 of em and not gain a pube’s-worth.
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Dietary Se depends** on where it came from+what type of soil it danced with
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Ex: wheat from different spots: Scandinavian; a few ng/g
Canadian; almost 1 mcg/g (1 microgram = 1000 nanograms)
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SELENIUM IN FOOD
Meat: selenocysteine (SeCys)
Plant: selenomethionine (SeMet)
Both end up in the same pool, they just take different cars.
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Deficiency alone=no disease; just alters everything >> vague/terrible shit (heightened sensitivity to stress+getting long-lasting infections). “CYP450” = drug-metabolizing system we NEED. If Se stores are shit, some CYP actions increase, others decrease – fuckabouts of function having broad-spanning, possibly miserable effects
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TEST: selenoprotein P
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If low, be safe***, try a well-defined supplement (specified amount of Se; either SeMet, selenite, or Se-rich yeast preparations.~50 mcg ✔)
