 The health benefits of Brazil nuts. All right, if you're on a weight loss journey, but love to snack, I have the perfect food that is both energy dense and highly nutritious. It's Brazil nuts, a tree nut native to the Amazon rainforest. So Brazil nuts contain high concentrations of potassium, magnesium, copper and zinc, which are all vital for a long, healthy life. But they are the richest source of selenium. They're loaded with selenium. Now what the heck is selenium? Well, selenium is actually a trace element that's vital for the proper functioning of your body. It's essential for your thyroid and also influences your immune system and cell growth. One little nut contains about 100 micrograms of selenium. You can actually get your daily average of selenium, which is 55 micrograms by eating half of Brazil nut. But most of us for proper functioning of our thyroid recommend 300 micrograms of selenium. So that means three Brazil nuts. Now, the important thing to realize is even though selenium is essential, you actually can get selenium toxicity from too much selenium. Be cautious and don't get carried away with Brazil nuts. Buy yourself some Brazil nuts, they're easy to find and just have yourself three Brazil nuts a day. It's easy to do. You'll get all the selenium you want and all the selenium you need, but don't overdo it. Interestingly enough, most nuts have only about one microgram of selenium. So Brazil nuts are really unique. Now, why worry about your thyroid health and selenium? First of all, most of you know the thyroid is that cute little butterfly-shaped organ in your neck and it secretes thyroid hormones. And it turns out that this gland has the highest selenium content of any organ in our body. So by consuming Brazil nuts, you're actually gonna make sure that your thyroid has enough selenium. But there's other reasons to consume Brazil nuts. Brazil nuts are actually rich in antioxidants. They contain vitamin E, they contain phenols like gallic acid and egalic acid. Egalic acid, you may have heard of before, it's the fatty acid that's present in raspberries and blackberries, raspberries in particular. It's also present somewhat in strawberries, but believe it or not, you can get the same really important polyphenol, egalic acid, in a Brazil nut. Now, the high antioxidant content of these nuts can actually protect the body from oxidative stress. Now, what's oxidative stress? Most of you have heard of it, but oxidative stress is when free radicals and antioxidants that control them are out of balance. And sadly, the oxidative stress theory of aging has a lot of credence in that most of us have far more oxidative stress from unfortunately our Western lifestyles than we have in antioxidants to quell that oxidative stress. So adding a three Brazil nuts to your diet every day will compensate for all the oxidative stress that you're going through. Brazil nuts may actually aid weight loss. How so? What turns out, selenium is also very important for potentiating the effects of insulin being able to sell sugar to your cells. And a little bit of selenium goes a long way to help insulin sell the things you eat. It's also quite a good fat. 36% of the fats in Brazil nuts are polyunsaturated fats that may actually aid in weight loss. They actually keep you full after eating them because they're loaded in fiber. In fact, Brazil nuts have some of the highest fiber content of any of the nuts. That fiber not only gives you a feeling of fullness but as you know that fiber is essential to feed good bacteria. And good bacteria being fed the fiber that they want those good bacteria in turn send a message to your brain that their needs are taken care of and you don't have to go looking for any other things to eat. That study was done in China where they took volunteers and put them on either a seven day or a 14 day water fast. Half the group were given 100 calories a day of non-absorbable prebiotic fiber. In other words, they didn't get 100 calories to eat. The bacteria were given what they wanted to eat. The other group wasn't given the fiber. Lo and behold, the group 14 day water fast who were given 100 calories of prebiotic fiber had absolutely no hunger for 14 days. Why? Well, there's a theory called the gut-centric theory of hunger and that is giving our bacteria what they want to eat is actually what causes or prevents hunger pains. And if you don't give them what they want to eat you will be hungry regardless of how much of the crap you eat. And many of us realize that's actually the case. You can keep eating and keep eating and never seem satisfied because you've never given your bacteria what they want to eat. They want to eat some Brazil nuts. Three a day, you'll be okay. I think you're going to love this next one. First of all, marbles. If you're passing marbles instead of big giant snakes, you have a problem.