When is the last time you thought about selenium? What’s selenium? Oh we might have our work cut out for us.

Selenium is a micronutrient that we all need to keep our metabolism working in a normal fashion. Now how selenium works in the body is complicated but what selenium does is pretty amazing. Selenium helps create proteins in the body that reduce the stress that comes to the body as a result of an infection. To make a long story short selenium can help the body tackle such life-threatening viruses as the HIV virus. In fact, selenium appears to slow down the HIV virus, perhaps delaying the onset of AIDS.

This is pretty amazing for something that you can find in any health food or nutrition store. Now that we have established how fantastic selenium is for you let’s see what foods are selenium rich. I always prefer the healthy benefits of food to relying on a supplement whenever possible. With this in mind there are definitely some good ways to get selenium. A great source of selenium is Brazil nuts.

Just a couple of Brazil nuts a day can provide you with most of the selenium that you need to keep your body stocked. Now, you may not be that familiar with brazil nuts, but not too worry that are much like any other nuts that you’ve had. It is important to note that Brazil nuts are really the super stars as far as natural sources of selenium. If you are a vegetarian or vegan this is doubly true. Beyond Brazil nuts most other natural forms of selenium are found in meat, chicken and fish. Tuna, beef, cod, chicken breast, salmon, shrimp, turkey and eggs are distant competitors to the often-overlooked Brazil nuts. Other sources include cheese, crimini mushrooms and barley all of which will be of help for vegetarians and vegans. Many types of bread and some cereals have selenium added and can often contain a decent amount.

Overall, your best bet in any quest for selenium is to get a few Brazil nuts from time to time and make sure your multi-vitamin has selenium listed as an ingredient. If your multi-vitamin is lacking in selenium and you are too in love with it or bought a two-year supply then definitely invest in a selenium supplement. How much is too much? Wikipedia states that anything over 400 micrograms per day can be toxic. Keep this in mind when consuming Brazil nuts, a few will do and you don’t have to eat them every day to get the job done. Any micronutrient that can take on the HIV virus is probably a good addition to your immune system. As always I like easy ways to improve ones health and it seems as though selenium, while rarely thought of, is a great addition.