Dietary habits and selenium intake of residents in mountain and coastal communities in Japan

We used a Simple Food Frequency Questionnaire (SFFQ) in combination with other dietary approaches to estimate the selenium intake from different food groups based on the average long-term diet, in two rural communities in Japan, one in a mountain area and the other in a coastal area. The intake frequencies of rice and wheat products were significantly different in the two districts. The intake frequencies of fish, meat, and eggs, which are rich in selenium, were not significantly different. The mean dietary selenium intake, estimated from the SFFQ and the 24-h recall method, was 82.7 Microg/d (n=234) (range 19.2-180.1 Microg/d) in the mountain community. The mean dietary selenium intake estimated from the SFFQ and average value of the normal portion size was 118.0 Microg/d (n=123) (range 22.6-255.3 Microg/d) in the coastal community. These estimated mean values exceeded the Japanese RDA, although the range of daily selenium intake was large. In the mountain community, fish made the largest contribution to dietary selenium intake (48.2% of daily total), followed by eggs (24.3%). and meat (17.0%). In the coastal community, fish accounted for 57.7% of daily total selenium intake, followed by meat (17.5%). and eggs (16.1%). In both districts, the total contribution of rice and wheat products was around 10%. It was found that the contribution of fish to dietary selenium intake was high and the contribution of cereals was low among Japanese.