RT Journal Article
T1 Associations between food group intake and serum levels of selenium and other essential and toxic trace elements in adults
A1 Rivas, Inés
A1 Miranda Castañón, Marta Inés
A1 Herrero Latorre, Carlos
A1 Monte Secades, Rafael
A1 López Alonso, María Marta
K1 Essential elements
K1 Food-intake
K1 Selenium
K1 Serum
K1 Toxic elements
AB Purpose: To examine how the habitual consumption of major food groups is related to serum concentrations of essential and toxic trace elements in adults and to identify key dietary predictors of adequate status.Methods: In this cross-sectional analysis, 465 healthy adults (Galicia, Spain; 2020–2022) completed a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire; foods were categorised in 13 groups. Fasting serum concentrations of 14 trace elements were measured by ICP-MS. Group differences across element tertiles (clinical categories for selenium) were compared using the Kruskal–Wallis test. Random Forest (RF) models were constructed to evaluate multivariate dietary predictors for each element. Age- and sex-adjusted logistic regression were used to identify food group predictors of adequate (> 90 µg/L) vs. non-adequate selenium.Results: Seafood intake was positively associated with serum selenium concentrations and strongly tracked serum arsenic and mercury concentrations. Dairy, fruit and meat were also included in the RF models. Seafood ranked among the top three RF predictors for 13/14 elements; dairy ranked in all models. Logistic regression indicated higher odds of adequate selenium with greater seafood intake (OR 1.009; 95% CI 1.003–1.015; p = 0.007) and inverse associations with oil (OR 0.947; p = 0.018) and grains (OR 0.992; p = 0.036); positive trends in legume and nut consumption were identified. Individuals with adequate selenium reported consumption of ~ 4 fish servings/week.Conclusion: Integrating dietary and biomarker data revealed selenium to be the most vulnerable micronutrient. Promoting regular consumption of fish (and possibly nuts) while moderating high-oil/high-grain intake may enhance selenium without exceeding toxic metal reference limits.
PB Springer
YR 2026
FD 2026-02-28
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46821
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46821
LA eng
NO Rivas, I., Miranda, M., Herrero-Latorre, C., Monte-Secades, R., & López-Alonso, M. (2026). Associations between food group intake and serum levels of selenium and other essential and toxic trace elements in adults. European journal of nutrition, 65(2), 72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-026-03922-y
NO Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This research was carried out within the crowfounding precipita project PR295_Minerales contra el cancer-FECYT (2022-CP064), specific collaboration agreement between the municipalities of the province of Lugo (2022- CP172) and the Social Council of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) projects 2022 (2022-PU001). Marta Miranda and Marta López-Alonso belong to the “Grupo de Potencial Crecimiento” funded by GAIN (Axencia Galega de Innovación; grant number ED431B 2023/008).
DS Minerva
RD 22 may 2026