Trying to have a baby? Get a Brazilian. No, not that type of Brazilianalthough it could certainly help spice up the processbut, instead, a Brazil nut. Brazil nuts are chock-full of selenium, a trace mineral that was recently revealed to play a vital role in womens fertility. (Its been long-established that selenium matters for male fertility, but this is the first time its been linked to the ladies.)
For the study, which was published in Metallomics in October, researchers at the University of Adelaide used X-ray fluorescent imaging to study female cows and the way selenium was distributed throughout their ovaries. They discovered that levels of the GPX-1 protein found in selenium were much higher in healthy follicles bigger than 10 millimeterspinpointing selenium as a key component of follicle development. To see if those results would translate to humans, the researchers then studied 30 women undergoing IVF/ICSI with a single embryo transfer, and found that levels of GPX-1 were significantly higher (and sometimes double) in those who got pregnant.
