Fancy Fritz’s Fabulous Selenium-Packed Snack

Fancy Fritz’s Fabulous Selenium-Packed Snack
Written by Fritz Nugent

Selenium is a heavy metal (rock on, bruh). Like copper and other metals, selenium is essential, meaning that the body cannot manufacture it (it’d be a lot cooler if we could manufacture metals) and must be obtained through your food. Sources of selenium:

• Meats (pork, beef, turkey, chicken, fish, shellfish, and eggs)
• Dairy products (milk, yogurt)
• Vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, mushrooms, onions)
• Brazil Nuts (I gave them their own category! ha)

Let’s take a step back. Did you know that you need selenium in your diet? Selenium is a trace mineral that is an integral part of many human body system functions. Check the list:

• Sex Organs. Can improve your libido (got your attention, yet?)
• Immune System. Can boost your immune system
• Endocrine (hormones). Important for the health of your thyroid
• Psychological. May protect against depression
• Cognitive. May help prevent mental decline
• Sleep. Deficiencies may cause problems with falling asleep

Anything jump out at you? Sex. Sleep. How about everything?! If you are like most Americans, perhaps your diet is heavily processed and devoid of meaningful nutrients. Perhaps selenium is just a small and important part of that deficit. You can address this problem by eating one brazil nut a day. Not 10. Not even 5. ONE. Let me math it for ya.

The Math

If you consume too much selenium, you may bring about heavy metal toxicity issues, hence being very careful about how much selenium you intake. Symptoms of Selenium toxicity:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Nail discoloration, brittleness, nails falling off
• Hair loss
• Fatigue
• Irritability
• And my favorite, garlic breath. Not kidding. So if you don’t eat garlic and your significant other says they smell garlic, lay off the brazil nuts for a few days/weeks/months

So here’s where the math is important:

If one ounce of brazil nuts weighs 28.35 grams and yields 774% of your daily intake needs, then you only need about 3.66 grams A DAY to reach 100% of your selenium requirement. And that’s assuming you don’t obtain much of that micronutrient from other sources (which you most definitely do, if you eat some or many of the foods listed at the top of this article). One brazil nut weighs about 3 grams. I weighed all of mine today and averaged them. Mathed it.

Fancy Fritz’s Fabulous Selenium-Packed Snack

Ingredients
1 small square, Dark Chocolate (72% or greater)
1 Brazil Nut
1 squirt, Orange Flavored Fish Oil

Directions
My favorite way to consume brazil nuts is to bite a small square of 72% or greater dark chocolate and then toss one brazil nut into my mouth, chewing and mixing them together into a tasty paste. Then, I squirt some orange flavored fish oil on top and enjoy it. A tasty, healthy treat! You get the benefits of selenium from the brazil nut, the host of benefits from strong-ish dark chocolate, and then omega-3’s. This might be the healthiest snack in the world. Who would have thought?