| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
BOOK REVIEW |
Division of Gastroenterology
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
1030C Medical Research Building IV
2215B Garland Avenue
Nashville, TN 37232-0252
E-mail: raymond.burk{at}vanderbilt.edu
Over the past 20 y, spectacular advances in the molecular biology of selenium have far outstripped growth in knowledge of its role in nutrition and health. Although many novel details of selenoprotein synthesis have been discovered and selenoproteomes of a number of species have been characterized, most hypotheses on physiologic and health-related selenium activities still lack experimental support and remain speculative in nature. Enter this book by Peter Surai, which has the stated goal of providing up-to-date information about the role of selenium in the nutrition and health of humans and farm animals.
This is a very long book; it contains 14 chapters that range in length from 32 to 168 pages. Topics covered clearly reflect the author's interests in antioxidant protection and animal science, although the longest chapter of the book is on human health. Surai writes in an earnest style with frequent declarations in the form of, "Did you know that...." These stand-alone statements are clearly intended to impart important facts and sometimes achieve their goal. References are numerous and contain titles, which makes them useful.
The opening chapter addresses antioxidant systems, and it introduces the theme of oxidative stress that runs through the book. The discussion of these systems, however, is confined to the level of reactive molecular species and enzymes that interact with them. Important current topics in the area of oxidative stress, such as oxidant- and antioxidant-related signaling systems and transcription factors, are not covered. Thus, this chapter has the feel of having been written a decade or more ago and represents one author's synthesis of how organisms use antioxidant enzymes.
Some of the length of the chapter on selenium and human health is due to its discussion of nonselenium aspects of the diet. Moreover, although the chapter makes some important points, not enough effort is made to assess the significance of most of the works presented. This leads to a listing of articles that support the involvement of selenium in various health conditions and to statements such as, "Clearly, Se appears as the key micronutrient in prevention of cancer, cardiovascular, inflammatory and infectious diseases." Such a statement does not reflect a useful assessment of the available data.
A particularly troubling feature of this book is its touting of a specific commercial product, a yeast form of selenium that is sold to provide selenium to animals. The book notes that selenomethionine is the major form of selenium in plants (and yeast) and that feeding selenomethionine raises the tissue selenium concentrations in animals more than does feeding inorganic forms of selenium. Surai devotes a chapter to selenium-enriched eggs, milk, and meat produced in this way. He argues that enriching the food chain in this way will provide selenium to people who presumably need it. Unfortunately, adoption of this approach might increase intake of animal products when a comparable increase in selenium intake could be achieved by other means. Moreover, a need for selenium supplementation should be established before such procedures are adopted.
In conclusion, this book does not succeed in providing a concise, critical update on selenium in nutrition and human health. It is overly long, contains a great deal of extraneous material, and does not adopt a critical stance. Finally, the book's promotion of a commercial product casts doubt on its objectivity.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author had no conflict of interest to disclose.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
