Dr. Westin Childs Podcast: Thyroid | Weight Loss | Hormones

Yes, you’ve been lied to: brazil nuts are not the source of selenium that you’ve been led to believe! Yes, they are definitely the single best food source of selenium out there, but they have a few dirty little secrets that you should know about BEFORE you start eating them. These secrets are so impactful on their overall benefit that I think it often makes more sense to supplement with selenium as opposed to getting it from brazil nuts. Here’s why: The selenium content in brazil nuts varies dramatically from nut to nut. Some studies suggest that it’s as high as 6 mcg per nut all the way as high as 154 mcg per nut. The second reason has to do with selenium toxicity. It’s easier than you might think to accidentally take too much and when you couple this with the variability in dosing, you’re very likely to get much more or much less than you think. The third has to do with the potential increased risk that taking too much selenium can have on diabetes risk. The bottom line? Think twice about using