Do vegans get enough zinc and selenium?

The objection

“Meat, fish and eggs are where most people get their zinc and selenium, and the zinc in grains and beans is locked up by phytates. Study after study finds vegans with lower levels of both. A diet that can’t supply two essential minerals without Brazil nuts or a pill isn’t adequate.”

The answer

Vegans do tend to have lower zinc and selenium than meat-eaters, and the gap is clearest for selenium. Germany’s NuEva study (2023), which compared blood levels in 172 healthy adults on four diets at a single centre, found 40% of vegans with serum selenium below 50 micrograms per litre (µg/L), the bottom of the laboratory’s normal range, against 2.5% of omnivores who ate meat every day [1]. Both can be put right, though not always by food alone. For zinc, a 2013 meta-analysis suggests eating in ways that make more of it absorbable, zinc-fortified foods or a low-dose supplement [3], and in NuEva a year of planned menus did not close the gap in blood zinc for vegan women [1]. Selenium is put right most predictably with a modest supplement [2]. In much of Europe meat-eaters rely on supplementation too, at one remove: most of their selenium comes from animal foods, and animal feed in the EU is usually fortified with it [2].

Do vegans get enough zinc?

Vegans tend to eat less zinc than meat-eaters, and phytates in grains and beans bind part of what they do eat so that less of it is absorbed, which is why zinc needs some planning [1]. A 2013 meta-analysis of 26 studies comparing vegetarians with non-vegetarians found that vegetarians ate on average 0.88 mg less zinc a day and had lower blood zinc, and the effect was greater in women and in vegans [3]. A 2021 systematic review of 141 studies published from 2000 to January 2020, written by two Unilever employees whose company, the paper states, markets fortified foods and supplements, likewise found zinc intake and status generally lower on plant-based diets [14]. In NuEva (2023) the median vegan ate 7.12 mg a day against 11.99 mg for omnivores, and blood zinc was significantly lower in vegan women than in women who ate meat daily, while the difference among men was not significant [1].

Blood zinc is a blunt measure, which NuEva’s authors note picks up outright deficiency but misses a merely suboptimal status [1]. The body partly makes up for a lower intake, and they suggest that absorbing a larger share or excreting less may be why blood levels differ less than intakes do [1]. US reference values (2001), which set 8 mg a day for women and 11 mg for men, allow that the requirement may be as much as 50% greater for vegetarians, particularly strict vegetarians whose staple foods are grains and legumes [4]. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) sets its zinc targets by how much phytate a diet contains, from 7.5 to 12.7 mg a day for women and from 9.4 to 16.3 mg for men across the range of phytate intakes seen in Europe (EFSA, 2014) [5].

How food is prepared makes a difference. The British Dietetic Association advises soaking dried beans and rinsing them before cooking, sprouting grains and seeds, and eating fermented soya such as tempeh and miso, and lists beans, nuts, seeds, wheatgerm, mushrooms and some fortified breakfast cereals as good plant sources [6]. Leavened bread helps as well: in a 1985 study, two hours of leavening cut the phytate in bran bread to about 40% of its starting level, and in single-meal tests on 42 students, the longer the dough had fermented, the more zinc they absorbed [7].

Planning meals may not close the gap on its own. NuEva’s participants followed menu plans for 12 months that supplied zinc in line with German reference values, yet vegan women’s blood zinc was still below that of the women who ate meat daily after 6 and 12 months, which the authors read as a sign that the plans could not bring the zinc and selenium intake of plant-based eaters up to omnivores’ level [1]. That fits the 2013 meta-analysis, which suggests fortified foods or a low-dose supplement for vegetarians whose zinc intake or blood zinc is low [3].

Why is selenium harder to get on a vegan diet?

Plants take up selenium from the soil, so how much they carry depends on where they were grown, and crops grown in Germany carry little [2]. The authors of a 2025 trial note that US wheat holds about 29 µg per 100 g against about 9 µg in European wheat [2]. Where you live therefore matters, and the case for a supplement is strongest where plant foods carry little selenium, as in Germany [2]. In NuEva (2023) the median vegan’s serum selenium was 52.84 µg/L against 62.85 µg/L for omnivores, and 40% of vegans fell below the 50 µg/L line [1].

The study left out three vegans whose selenium was exceptionally high, which makes the vegan figures a little lower than they would otherwise be, and results vary between studies. In another German study, the SelVeg trial (2025), only 7% of the young vegans were below that line, a figure that includes the eight of 44 already taking a selenium supplement. Their average was still lower than the omnivores’ (64 against 76 µg/L), and 84% of them were estimated to eat less than the recommended amount, against 63% of the omnivores [2]. NuEva’s authors put the inconsistency down to where plant foods are grown and how much imported food people eat [1].

The averages in these studies are well above severe deficiency, which is defined by serum selenium below 20 µg/L, but SelVeg’s authors note that levels around 50 µg/L have been associated with weaker immune function and with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and some cancers [2]. For those diseases, trials of selenium supplements have not borne the link out. A Cochrane review (2018), which included 10 randomised trials with 27,232 people, found high-certainty evidence that selenium supplements do not reduce the risk of cancer, and some of the trials raised concerns by reporting more type 2 diabetes among people taking selenium and, in the largest, more high-grade prostate cancer in men whose selenium was already highest [12]. A 2022 meta-analysis of supplement trials found no effect of selenium on cardiovascular disease or type 2 diabetes [13]. The aim is a normal level, which is why a dose near the recommended intake makes more sense than a high-dose tablet.

Are Brazil nuts a good source of selenium?

Brazil nuts are the one rich plant source, but their selenium varies about twentyfold from nut to nut, so they suit an occasional top-up better than a daily habit. Eight nuts tested for the SelVeg trial (2025) held between 0.25 and 5.06 µg of selenium per gram, and EFSA reports single nuts with up to 400 µg [2][10]. In that randomised, placebo-controlled trial, 44 vegans and 42 omnivores aged 18 to 35 took an extra 55 µg of selenium a day for two weeks, either as 15 g of Brazil nut butter or as a supplement, or took a placebo. The butter and the supplement worked about equally well, raising the vegans’ serum selenium by 18 and 18.5 µg/L, while the placebo changed nothing [2]. The researchers concluded that Brazil nuts may not suit regular use over a lifetime, because of that variation and because the nuts carry natural radioactivity. They calculated that 15 g of the butter every day for a year would add 165 microsieverts, small beside the roughly 2,400 a year that people in the northern hemisphere receive from natural sources but more than half the average 300 a year that comes from food [2].

EFSA judges that adults are unlikely to go over its upper limit for selenium, with two exceptions: regular users of high-dose selenium supplements and regular eaters of Brazil nuts [10]. A supplement that gives selenium at around the recommended intake (the trial used 55 µg), alone or in a multivitamin and mineral, is a measured alternative, and it is cheaper: in the trial the supplement cost 0.05 euros a day against 1.12 euros for the nut butter [2]. Check the label, since the selenium tablets that eight vegans and one omnivore in the trial were already taking held anywhere from 15 to 200 µg [2]. A 200 µg tablet on top of the 41 µg a day that the trial’s vegans were estimated to get from food on average comes close to EFSA’s limit of 255 µg, and a single high-selenium nut would take it well past [2][10], so anyone taking a supplement does better to keep Brazil nuts as an occasional food.

For children, ask a doctor or dietitian before using either. EFSA advises that selenium supplements for toddlers and children be used with caution and after consulting a healthcare provider, and its upper limit for children aged 1 to 3 is 70 µg a day, less than a single high-selenium nut can hold [10]. The same care applies to zinc, since the EU’s upper limit for children aged 1 to 3 is 7 mg a day from all sources [11], while the zinc tablets taken by participants in the SelVeg trial held from 2 to 25 mg each [2]. Whole nuts of any kind should not be given to children under 5, who can choke on them [15].

How much zinc and selenium do you need, and how much is too much?

The NHS puts adult needs at 9.5 mg of zinc and 75 µg of selenium a day for men and 7 mg and 60 µg for women, and advises taking no more than 25 mg of zinc or 350 µg of selenium a day from supplements [8]. European and US bodies set somewhat different figures.

Measure	Zinc a day	Selenium a day
NHS (UK), adults	9.5 mg men, 7 mg women [8]	75 µg men, 60 µg women [8]
EFSA (EU), adults	7.5 to 12.7 mg women, 9.4 to 16.3 mg men, rising with phytate [5]	70 µg, an adequate intake [10]
Upper limit, all sources	25 mg (EU, 2002) [11]; 40 mg (US, 2001) [4]	255 µg (EFSA, 2023); 400 µg (US, 2000) [10]
NHS ceiling for supplements	25 mg [8]	350 µg [8]

More is not better with either mineral. High doses of zinc reduce the copper the body can absorb, which can lead to anaemia and weaker bones, and the NHS says not to take more than 25 mg a day from supplements unless a doctor advises it [8]. That ceiling covers supplements alone, while the EU’s upper limit of 25 mg a day (Scientific Committee on Food, 2002) counts food as well and applies to adults, including in pregnancy and while breastfeeding [11], so a 25 mg tablet on top of an ordinary diet goes over it. A low-dose zinc supplement or a multivitamin and mineral, with the zinc from food counted in the total, is the safer back-up [3]. In its mildest form, too much selenium can lead to loss of hair and nails [8].

On selenium limits the bodies differ: the NHS says 350 µg a day or less from supplements is unlikely to cause harm, on a page last reviewed in 2020 [8], while EFSA in 2023 set 255 µg a day as the upper limit for all sources combined, food included, for adults, among them pregnant and breastfeeding women [10]. EFSA based its figure on hair loss, an early sign of excess, whereas the older 400 µg limits from the US (2000) and the WHO (2004) were based on outright selenium poisoning [10]. Staying under EFSA’s lower and more recent figure satisfies all three.

Needs rise in pregnancy and while breastfeeding. EFSA adds 1.6 mg of zinc a day in pregnancy and 2.9 mg while breastfeeding [5], and raises selenium from 70 to 85 µg a day while breastfeeding, keeping the usual 70 µg in pregnancy [10].

Supplements can also interact with medicines: the NHS lists supplements containing zinc among those that may not mix well with the antibiotic doxycycline [9]. Anyone taking regular medication should check with a GP or pharmacist before adding a supplement, and should never change or stop a medicine without speaking to their GP.