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Bioavailability of selenium from fish, yeast and selenate: a comparative study in humans using stable isotopes

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 58, pages 343–349 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective: To measure the bioavailability of selenium from cooked and raw fish in humans by estimating and comparing apparent absorption and retention of selenium in biosynthetically labelled fish with labelled selenate and biosynthetically labelled selenium in brewers yeast.

Design: The intervention study was a parallel, randomised, reference substance controlled design carried out at two different centres in Europe.

Setting: The human study was carried out at the Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK and at TNO Nutrition and Food Research, Zeist, The Netherlands.

Subjects: In all, 35 male volunteers aged 18–50 y were recruited; 17 subjects were studied in Norwich (UK) and 18 in Zeist (Netherlands). All of the recruited subjects completed the study.

Interventions: Biosynthetically labelled trout fish (processed by two different methods), biosynthetically labelled brewers yeast and isotopically labelled selenate were used to estimate selenium apparent absorption and retention by quantitative analysis of stable isotope labels recovered in faeces and urine. Subjects consumed the labelled foods in four meals over two consecutive days and absorption was measured by the luminal disappearance method over 10 days. Urinary clearance of isotopic labels was measured over 7 days to enable retention to be calculated.

Results: Apparent absorption of selenium from fish was similar to selenate and there was no difference between the two processing methods used. However, retention of fish selenium was significantly higher than selenate (P<0.001). Apparent absorption and retention of yeast selenium was significantly different (P<0.001) from both fish selenium and selenate.

Conclusions: Fish selenium is a highly bioavailable source of dietary selenium. Cooking did not affect selenium apparent absorption or retention from fish. Selenium from yeast is less bioavailable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Food Research, Norwich, UK

    T E Fox, C A Atherton, J R Dainty & S J Fairweather-Tait

  2. TNO Nutrition and Food Research, Zeist, The Netherlands

    E G H M Van den Heuvel, F W Sieling & P van Aken-Schneyder

  3. Central Science Laboratory, York, UK

    D J Lewis, N J Langford & H M Crews

  4. RIVO Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research, Ijmuiden, The Netherlands

    J B Luten, M Hoek & M J J Kotterman

  5. Institute of Nutrition, Directorate of Fisheries, Bergen, Norway

    M Lorentzen

  6. Nestec Ltd, Lausanne, Switzerland

    P van Dael

Authors
  1. T E Fox
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  2. E G H M Van den Heuvel
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  3. C A Atherton
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  4. J R Dainty
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  5. D J Lewis
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  6. N J Langford
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  7. H M Crews
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  8. J B Luten
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  9. M Lorentzen
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  10. F W Sieling
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  11. P van Aken-Schneyder
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  12. M Hoek
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  13. M J J Kotterman
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  14. P van Dael
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  15. S J Fairweather-Tait
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Contributions

Guarantor: SJ Fairweather-Tait.

Contributors: TEF was jointly responsible for study design, stable isotope preparation and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. EVdH contributed to the study design and was responsible for the TNO part of the study. CAA was responsible for UK volunteer recruitment and running of IFR study. JRD did all the mathematical analysis. JL and NJL did the CSL analysis of the urine and faecal samples. HMC was jointly responsible for study design and devising analytical methods. JBL coordinated the project and was jointly responsible for study design. ML labelled the fish that was fed to the volunteers. FWS and PvA-S did the TNO analysis of the urine and faeces. MH and MJJK did the RIVO analysis of the urine and faeces. PvD was jointly responsible for study design and the Nestec analysis of urine and faeces. SJF-T was jointly responsible for study design. All authors contributed to the interpretation of data and contents of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S J Fairweather-Tait.

Appendix A

Appendix A

See Table 4.

Table 4 Test Meal Diets
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Fox, T., Van den Heuvel, E., Atherton, C. et al. Bioavailability of selenium from fish, yeast and selenate: a comparative study in humans using stable isotopes. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 343–349 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601787

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601787

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