Better way found to take up selenium in the diet

Selenium is present only in low levels in Australian soils and yet selenium, necessary for the body to make important anti-oxidant proteins, may be a helpful tool in preventing prostate and other cancers.

South Australian researchers working on gastro-intestinal cancer have found that the food in which selenium is present in the diet, may make a difference to its availability and have found a way in which to make this important mineral more available in the diet. Researchers at Adelaide’s Flinders University believe feeding selenium to dairy cows could help prevent cancer.

Researchers at the Flinders Centre for Cancer Prevention and Control found that mice injected with a cancer-causing agent and then fed selenium-enriched milk protein had a 67% reduction in numbers of tumours compared with those fed selenium-enriched yeast.

The milk protein was produced by feeding selenium-enriched yeast to dairy cows. “Whatever the cow does to the selenium to put it into the milk, it turns it into a form that is available to our bodies,” says Flinders gastroenterologist Graeme Young.

His team is now conducting a trial to see whether humans are as good as mice at absorbing the selenium from enriched milk. If selenium-enriched milk proves to be safe and effective in humans, the next challenge will be for the food industry to bring a range of potentially cancer-preventing dairy products to market.

Australian, 28/1/09, p30

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