nutrition-information.net

If a little is good, more must be better, right?

Unfortunately too many people believe this when it comes to taking dietary supplements. Some vitamins & minerals are actually harmful when taken at high dosages.

Take selenium for example. Selenium functions as an antioxidant in the body, working with vitamin E & thyroid hormone. The daily requirement for adults is 55ug per day, howevertoxicity can develop with intakes over 400ug per day. Toxicity symptoms include loss & brittleness of nails & hair, irritability, fatigue, nervous system disorders & garlic breath odor.

You can also add increasing the likelihood of developing Type 2 diabetes to the list if results of a recently published study prove to be accurate. I will spare you all the details of the study (however if you are interested, click here), but essentially what these researchers found was that long term doses of 200ug per day of selenium raised a person’s chances of developing Type 2 diabetes.

As in any research, care must be taken at interpreting results. One study alone does not prove the relationship, howeverit is safe to say these results are interesting & will no doubt spur further research.

So what’s the significance of all this for you? You may be thinking this does not even apply to you because you do not regularly take selenium supplements. I suggest you take a look at any multi-vitamins you take routinely, some contain selenium so you actually may be getting more than you think you are.

Do you really need supplemental selenium? In my opinion, no.

Selenium is found in soil, & thus vegetables & other plants grown in most areas of the country provide adequate sources of dietary selenium. Even in areas that have low soil selenium levels, a large variety of foods from other areas of the country are available that provide selenium. Seafood & organ meats are also good sources of selenium. Deficiencies are relatively rare in the US.

Sue Roberts, MPH MS RD/CN is a certified nutritionist & registered ® dietitian.

Get a copy of her FREE ebook, “The Secrets about Weight Loss Supplements: What You Need to Know” at http://www.YourOnlineNutritionist.com